CATALAN cuisine is a cauldron full of prawns and monkfish simmering in a rich broth on a butane stove in the galley of a fishing boat off the Costa Brava port of Palamos; it’s a brace of rabbits roasting on an open fire beside a stone farmhouse in the eastern Pyrenees while a silent grandmother with a strong right arm beats olive oil and garlic into a thick, emphatic sauce…
Evocative words. Not mine, alas, but those of Colman Andrews introducing his groundbreaking Catalan Cuisine, penned over a quarter of a century ago when tapas restaurants were still exotic on these shores and only the most hispanophile foodie could differentiate between the various regional Iberian cuisines.
Now we are spoiled for choice. Deansgate will never be the Ramblas but along it or just off it there are more Spanish establishments (or copyists) than you could shake a castanet at. The latest arrival, Lunya, promised to be something special. For the last two years the original on the Costa del Mersey has won the Good Food Guide NW restaurant of the year, voted for by readers.
Pretty impressive for an operation that combines dining space, deli and bar with a culinary separatist devotion to all things Catalan (with large nods to the rest of Spain). You can see how Peter and Kinsellas, who run Lunya, inspire that degree of customer loyalty and I’m told that, only a few weeks in, Manc deli takings have overtaken Liverpool’s.
But the gorgeous Barton Arcade, which wouldn’t feel out of place off Barcelona’s Modernista thoroughfare, the Passeig de Gracia, is still a far cry from fishing boat galleys and silent whisking grannies. So would Lunya’s homage to Catalonia convince?
Well, the ground floor certainly does. The bar and deli/cafe feel like they have been there for ever. Popping in to stock up on extra virgin arbequina or Jamon de Bellota off the bone, you can’t resist a copa of Spanish gin or a swift nip of green walnut vermut negre in the cosy bar.
And the sherry selection is to swoon for. We kicked off our dinner with a flight of Palo Cortados – Leonor, Aposteles and Marques de Rodil, all quite different takes on this maverick sherry created from Finos where the flor (yeast film on top) breaks and the wine oxidises. Gorgeous, situated in flavour somewhere between Amontillado and Oloroso.
So far so good. With a bowl of crunchy Padron peppers at our elbow, followed by a plate of that Bellota ham – acorn-fed, hence its unctuously sweet fat – we took stock of the upstairs dining rooms, where we looked down on the empty Arcade.
The restaurant itself was only sparsely populated and lacked the buzz of downstairs. Service was enthusiastic but a mite distracted, too. Disorienting, too, was the epic schlep to the loo, matched only in recent times by Zinc in the former Triangle.
There is naturally a symbiotic relationship between the magnificent raw materials on the deli shelves and the menu. The Spanish cheese array is as glorious as the gin list and, on an earlier visit I had pigged out, dipping breadsticks into a whole baked, deliquescent Tortadel Cesar cheese; this time we went for deep-fried Mont Ebro goat’s cheese drizzled with Alemany orange blossom honey (£6.95) and it was a perfect fit for our Galician red, made mainly from the Mencia grape an unsung hero in the Spanish wine pantheon. This was a lovely example with deep plummy fruit and tempered oak.
It went harmoniously, too, with a pan-fried duck breast served with an intense raspberry sauce and vanilla-infused pear (£7.95). This was a much more attractive dish than our Secreto Iberico (£8.25), where acorn-fed pig shoulder was seared with a beer and shallot puree and red onion marmalade, neither of which lifted a dull dish. Lunya’s signature dish, Catalan Hotpot (£4.95, above), layered with chorizo and morcilla black pudding, also fails to convince me, even though the cumin-infused Burgos morcilla served with piquillo peppers (£7.25) is a treat. Chargrilled, paprika-sprinkled octopus was a springy fleshy delight but came with too many potatoes and cost a hefty £9.45. Prices throughout are on the high side for the market.
Lunya endured a troubled and truncated soft launch with furniture not arriving. It seems to have rallied well. On the food side I still feel more comfortable with the cheeses, meats and classic appetisers such as amb tomaquet (bread and tomato) and Padron peppers consumed casually to accompany fine sherries or gin. It doesn’t feel a destination restaurant.
Lunya, Barton Arcade, Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2BB. 0161 413 3317.