I previously had a reservation for August 2024, but had to cancel that reservation due to travel/schedule conflicts and rebooked again for November this year (plus my sister said that it would be better to travel after the summer when it was not so crowded with tourists). I also inquired about the Living Table which they couldn’t let me know until their schedule was better defined for 2025. In March they finally reached out to me and offered it for my November reservation which I gladly accepted. A couple weeks before, they reached out again to confirm which menu we wanted. We went with the Classic menu since this was our first time dining there (Trisha opted to have hers vegetarian due to a combination of allergies and personal preferences). We intentionally avoided reading up in any detail about the menu so we could be surprised.e all had seen shows where they featured the Living Table, but we avoided investigating too much about the details of the meal itself since we all wanted to be surprised as much as possible.
We had a 7:30pm reservation (I believe the restaurant opened at 7:15 that evening). It only looked like a couple others were seated this early. As we were welcomed in, we received a description of the Catalan design of the interior and were introduced to the chef. We were taken downstairs and stopped at the display wall of some of the items that we might see during our meal and given a bit of the intro of some the elements from the experience. We then went into the wine cellar for a brief intro there and then through the back door in the cellar and into the private dining area for the Living Table. We briefly spoke to the somm and we all decided to go with the beverage pairing.
At the start of the meal, we were told the meal would be 3+ hours and if we needed a break, just to give them heads up so they could plan it with the kitchen. We were given some alcohol served out of a nautilus shell to clean our hands.
Frozen passion fruit ladyfinger with rum
This was our first course which was their “welcoming cocktail”. The lady finger was made with passion fruit, mango, a bit of rum, and mint. It was set atop the stand with a little layer of edible paper underneath it to make it easier to pick up and it. It was very light and airy.
The Toast
The course was a beverage consisting of a distillate of ingredients made by a local distillery. It was made with 6 different low alcohol distallates. It was served in metal goblets and we were instructed to clang them loudly together, which we of course obliged. The drink did have layers of earthy flavors to it.
“Flavour concentration”: sprouts
This was an array of micro greens set in a tomato geleé. We had to eat this dish with both a spoon for the geleé and tweezers for the delicate sprouts. Each sprout had a very specific flavor as outlined by the accompanying guide. We were instructed to start from the bottom and work our way up. We were blown away how distinct and how concentrated the flavor from each individual sprout was. The flavor listed in the guide was so readily apparent from each and every sprout. It was a revelation and left us wondering how they could possibly pack so much flavor into something so small.
Liquid salad
Tomato “polvorón” and arbequina Caviaroli
The next two courses were served together. We were advised to start with the polvorón. The polvorón was made with dehydrated tomato and was topped with a little bit of caviar pearls made from olive oil. It was a savory version with distinct tomato flavor. The olive oil caviar had a clean flavor of a high quality olive oil. The liquid salad was light and airy and came in two layers with a green one on the bottom and a pink one on top. It had vegetable flavors, like an airy whipped gazpacho.
We were then served their truffle vodka (all pours throughout the meal were fortunately quite small. A few of them covered multiple courses, but if you finished it and you had more courses to go along with it, they poured more for you right away). They said when they make a liter of the truffle vodka, they use 80g of black truffle from Aragón. The truffle is macerated with the vodka for six or more months. The truffle vodka had truffle aromatics and tasted a bit savory and the flavor seemed to soften the vodka (or perhaps it was a bit watered down from the maceration?).
Flourless ‘coca’ bread with autumn truffle and burrata
The truffle vodka was server with this truffle dish, of course. They make a puff pastry out of Japanese potato leaf (?) starch by mixing it with water and baking it in an oven to create a sheet that they cut and layer. This was topped with burrata cheese and black truffle (also from Aragón) and just a touch of caviar. The truffle was quite fresh and fragrant, the puff pastry was so delicate and light.
“Panchino” filled with caviar
This was described as one of their iconic dishes. It was basically a fried bao that was filled with crème fraîche and caviar. The bun is cooked in sunflower oil for only 20 seconds to cook the bun, but keeping the inside cool.
Solid bubbles of smoked butter with caviar
This was made by using an aerator (they said like in a fish tank) to create the bubbled smoked butter and then frozen. This was served alongside some caviar with atop some kind of wafer or cracker. The butter was so incredibly light and airy that is just disappeared in your mouth like eating air, but had a smokey buttery flavor, but without a fatty residue in your mouth at all. This was served with champagne that would also carry over into the next dish.
Amaranth coral with caviar, oyster and codium emulsion
This dish featured a slight bit of interactivity and optical illusion. They placed a black box in front of us and there was a glass partition where you could see the amaranth coral on the other side and we were told to try to grab the coral which we couldn’t because it was just a reflection we saw. We were then told to use our imagination of grabbing the imaginary coral and eating it. They did remove the front panel of the box to reveal the actual coral. The coral was made with amaranth topped with caviar, salmon roe, and codium (seaweed). Not surprisingly, this had a flavor of the ocean.
Gazpacho sandwich with scented vinegar garnish
This dish featured a different kind of illusion. It looked kind of like a cheese or pimento loaf sandwich, but the “bread” was made from gazapacho meringue and the filling was made with gazpacho sorbet. It was a convincing illusion and the flavor was all gazpacho. This was also served with a “garnish” of 25-year aged vinegar sprayed into a wine goblet for us just to smell along with our sandwich.
Disfrutar’s Gilda with marinated mackerel
This was a deconstructed version (not that a gilda pinxto had much assembly (i.e. on a toothpick) to begin with). There was an olive, that not an olive, but a more like the liquid olive made famous by Ferran Adrià, but with yet another twist…the liquid olive was then encased within a cocoa butter shell.
Crunchy mushroom leaf
This dish was served inside of a birdnest. The leaf was very light, made from a rice(?) starch and painted with a porcini mushroom concentrate. This was served with an aged sake, Biden 1999, Mi no Kotobuki, which also paired nicel (the flavor of the sake kind of reminded us of the rice from a sizzling rice soup).
Crispy egg yolk with warm mushrooms gelatin
This was a tempura egg yolk set atop an egg shell cup on a stand (we saw these when they first showed us the wall of the various items before we entered this dining area. The crispy came in the form of a tempura egg yolk (?!). We were instructed to bite the top off of the tempura to expose the egg yolk and to pour that into the egg shell which held the mushroom gelatin inside. I love egg dishes and of course I loved this one.
Marinated mushroom vinegar with oyster
Just before giving us this dish, they showed us the aeration device they use to speed up the marination process. I think the sauce was an airy buttery mushroom sauce/velouté into which was the oyster in the middle surrounded by marinated mushrooms, pine nuts, ice plant leaf, and a fragment of a cooked pine cone (don’t remember the exact preparation of it).
Multispherical pesto with pistachios and eel
The prominent ingredient on the dish was the string of pesto spheres arranged in a slight S-curve that made of us think of a string of peas (or a caterpiller). The little spheres of pesto, despite looking like peas, tasted full on pesto. This was flanked by the eel which had a thin sliver of prosciutto on it. There were drizzles of parmesan sauce and a couple pine nuts and pistachios.
Our macaroni alla carbonara
This dish was also described as one of their iconic dishes, “” which they’ve had since they opened in 2014. You can see the pasta is translucent and is made with jamon iberico soup and gelatin formed into what they called macaroni, but it looked penne shaped to me. The pasta was tapped with a carbonara cream foam, parmesan cheese, black pepper and guanciale. Our host called Trisha’s vegetarian dish Green olive mousse in a mixed salad which was beautifully presented with a striking orange background and many varied colors and shapes. The dish featured tomato in different textures, olive, almond, pistachio, tomato jelly green olive mousse.
This was the halfway point of the meal so we did give them a heads up that we wanted to take a break when convenient with the kitchen.
Hake “Suquet”
Cappuccino “Suquet”
This came with two parts. This hake suquet was made using hake with saffron, olive oil, parsley and potato gnocchi. The foam on top of the hake was made of parsley also. The cappuccino was also a suquet and some potato foam to mimic the milk foam. Trisha’s vegetarian dish was the “Feijoa” with black banana. The dish was made with black beans and a banana that was cooked in a special Korean pressure cooker for 3 hours that ends up turning the banana black. The dish is served with ice cream and yucca creme fraiche.
The goose that laid the golden eggs: fried egg of crustacean
This is a striking dish with a crispy fried egg white topped with a golden yolk and a couple sauces and some pieces of shrimp. They didn’t explain the dish beforehand. The egg yolk tasted like a shrimp bisque to me and they later explained that it was their version of a Singaporean chili prawn sauce. in this case, it was made with Caribineros shrimp, togarashi, ginger, satay sauce. The stripe of powder was made of parsley and shrimp powder.
Multi spherical tatin of corn and foie
In this case the corn spherification was arranged atop the foie gras (set atop a sweet corn crisp) to look like a little segment of corn cob. This was paired with some mead which turned out to be a very interesting pairing. The mead was from Hidromiel Nº4 2021, Moncalvillo Meadery and when paired with this dish gave a kind of corn flavor to it (we also likened the flavor to Corn Pops which my sisters and I ate as kids, lol), but it was so uniquely paired and worked incredibly well. Trisha’s vegetarian dish was the Crispy corn wafer with avocado. We kind of thought it was like chips and guac with a touch of sweetness, lol.
Before the next dish, they started the preparation for the apple cider essence for us. This was done by putting apple juice (their juice was clear) into a french press with dry ice to cool the juice, but to also carbonate it.
Squab with amasake kombu spaghetti, almond and grape
This brought us to the final savory course. The squab was the default option although they also did have options for a beef or porc dish as well as the vegetarian one. My sister is not a fan of squab and opted for the beef sausage. My wife and I went ahead with the squab since we wanted to see how they prepared it (despite the fact that we have not typically enjoyed squab including the squab at William Frachot or Ed.Em although the deep fried preparation at Four Kings was quite good, but I would pass on the squab liver skewer). The squab was set atop a few strands of spaghetti seaweed kombu bundled together with a darker umami sauce and lighter colored sauces adorning the plate. The sauces were made with amazake and almond. It was definitely the best and tastiest traditional (i.e. not deep fried) preparation of squab that we have had. It did not have any of the gaminess despite the fact that it looked like it was fairly rare.
The beef sausage option that my sister received was the Homemade butifarra (Catalán sausage) made from rib eye with peppers and potatoes. They said the meat was Chuletón. The foam in the middle of the dish was made from potato with a dot of black truffle oil. There was also a spherification of piquillo pepper and a little potato pillow. My sister (she said “this is the beefiest beef I’ve ever had in my life”) and I remarked how intense the beef flavor was. She also said the texture was a bit spongy though without more of the snap when you cut into a typical sausage.
Trisha’s vegetarian dish was the Vegetables with amasake kombu spaghetti, almond and grape which was the most beautiful of the three. It had the same spaghetti kombu seaweed and the amazake and almond sauces and was topped with black truffle. Trisha did think it was underseasoned and felt a bit apologetic for having to ask for salt.
Homemade cider smoked at the moment
They came back to the cider essence that they had previously prepared with the dry ice. They torched some oak which they then covered with our drinking glasses to give some smoke flavor. Then then poured the carbonated apple juice that they had previously prepared into the glasses and served it to us. It was very light and refreshing with a touch of smoke (it was like the most refined version of Martinelli’s that you could ever have).
Musings on walnuts
This appeared to be a single walnut for each of us with a nice nutcracker. When we cracked open the walnut, there was the walnut, but there was also a piece of cheese! So they apparently had opened up each walnut extracted the nut and toasted it, cleaned out the shell, and returned the nut and a piece of cheese and glued the walnut halves back together.
Green walnut with Idiazábal cheese
We were asked to think about whether how touch a walnut shell is and do we ever eat the shell, which of course we don’t. We were then served this dish. The walnut in this case was a young green walnut shell that they put in water for 40-50 days, changing out the water every day, and then put it in a jar with sugar and water for another 8 months. What comes out is the walnut shell in the dish. It doesn’t look particularly appealing since it has the dull green-brown-greyish pallor to it. Also on the dish was a soufflé of walnut (made with some of the potato leaf starch ) and a some Idiazábal cheese. The green walnut was a much softter flavor than a typical walnut without any of the bitterness to it (personally I like that, but this was interesting nonetheless) and the cheese was so rich and flavorful.
Dealcoholized wine
We were then ushered back into the wine cellar for a quick tasting. We were served an initial glass of some 20-year old sherry and then a second 20-year old sherry. The difference was that the first one had no alcohol which was an attempt to provide an equally tasty non-alcoholic beverage option. They seemed largely successful which seems more and more important as fewer opt to drink alcohol.
Rose water
This rose water was dispensed to us directly from a rose bud from which they sprinkled into our hands to refresh them.
Engagement rings
They presented as a tray of various chocolate rings that we each got to choose one of them. The ones with white were yuzu and white chocolate, the golden ones were cinnamon and chocolate, the dark ones were dark chocolate.
Hoisin cucumber
There was frozen ginger, cucumber sorbet, chicharron, black sesame, shaved ice, all on top of some hoisin sauce. The ginger was very concentrated in flavor and had a nice kick to it. The chicharron had a nice savory kick and some texture. We were recommended to mix the ingredients to taste. It was such a crazy mix of unlikely ingredients, but it all came together.
Black sesame biscuit
This was a black sesame cone with sesame black ice cream, but further down in the cone was yogurt and strawberry. Sesame is kind of savory already and there was something salty which gave a good savory flavor to contrast with the sweetness.
Black apple with noisette butter ice cream and flourless puff pastry
This was last dessert before the Living Table. They take a golden apple and remove the skin and vacuum seal it and age it for 60 days and turns black. The black apple is served with a salty caramel sauce. Alongside is the chantilly cream noisette butter ice cream which was tasted like browned butter.
The Living Table from Disfrutar & TABLE M#01 by Merche Alcalá
After those 30 dishesood and before we the big finale of the Living Table, they started with a story. We were told about how only 4 years ago after the pandemic, they met the designer/architect Merche Alcalá who had an idea. At the restaurant, they would have their breakfast, lunch, and dinner at a table, but not one that transformed live which became the inspiration for the Living Table. At this point, they removed the tablecloth to reveal the Living Table which was configured with various panels that the narrated and described as the revealed what had been underneath all this time as well as some items that they delivered to the table.
So began the transformation of the table along with the narrative and dramatic music reminiscent at times of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The narration was handle by one of the wait staff (and would go on for more than 15 minutes) and the other two did the reveal and delivery. It started with revealing a panel for our napkins. This was soon followed by a panel with stones and our cutlery which included tweezers and a sort of metal Chinese soup spoon, but with holes in it to allow liquid to drain from it. Then they revealed a panel of walnuts to represent the beginning of time. They dropped in some sprouts of parsley, coriander and ginger into the center line of the table. Then came the tiny clusters of chocolate raspberry balls set atop mini mossy knolls representing the spring and the first fruits. Next came some branches with little balls of violet of raspberry cotton candy representing autumn. Next came raspberry set on a marshmallow round and strawberries all set on rose petals. Next came a matcha rock and a tube of yuzu topping. Then came the water of life which had some water with spheres of various flavors (this is what the soup spoon with the drainage was for). Next was the raspberry rounds and sesame and white chocolate rounds. Then came on ice – raspberries, mango, pineapple, passion fruit balls. Then a panel of flowers was revealed with a little pate de fuit. Then came the reveal of panels one with a hazelnut meringue, another with a pine nut, and another with raspberry macaron. At this point, he mentioned all of the locations we had come from (he had asked at the very start) and then they placed the dry ice into the water which then covered almost the entire table in a fog/mist as the music crescendoed. Lastly came the panel with a trio of chocolates – a matcha white chocolate tile with an imprint of the Flower of Barcelona, pistachio, and dark. The ended the narration with a tribute and thank you to us for joining them for the one weekday night they do the Living Table. It was really quite stunning and moving and like no other experience I’ve ever had dining out (and I certainly have had my share of eating out). There were more than 15 items for just this and at this point in the meal we were full enough that there was no way we were going to finish it all, so we did eat what wouldn’t transported and asked for a box to take what we couldn’t finish.
All in all, it was a evening of such interesting and inventive preparation with great ingredients and flavors along with complementary beverages. But more than that, it was an amazing experience with such technical creations, both in the creation of the elements of the dish as well as visually (and of course from a sense of taste). The meal was made all the more enjoyable since we were able to share this with Trisha and Ginny and we were all able to delight of it all. The meal lasted almost 5 hours (we were the last ones in the restaurant even though we were early in the seating), but it honestly did not feel like that at all and felt perfectly paced (with 30 dishes before the Living Table) they pretty much had to keep things moving along briskly although we never felt rushed. The service was impeccable and the pairings from the somm worked very well.
SPECIAL MENU
Frozen passion fruit ladyfinger with rum
The Toast: Forestfloor distillate
“Flavour concentration”: sprouts
Liquid salad
Tomato “polvorón” and arbequina Caviaroli
Flourless ‘coca’ bread with autumn truffle and burrata
“Panchino” filled with caviar
Solid bubbles of smoked butter with caviar
Amaranth coral with caviar, oyster and codium emulsion
Gazpacho sandwich with scented vinegar garnish
Disfrutar’s Gilda with marinated mackerel
Crunchy mushroom leaf
Crispy egg yolk with warm mushrooms gelatin
Marinated mushroom vinegar with oyster
Multispherical pesto with pistachios and eel
Our macaroni alla carbonara
Hake “Suquet”
Cappuccino “Suquet”
The goose that laid the golden eggs: fried egg of crustacean
Multi spherical tatin of corn and foie
Squab with amasake kombu spaghetti, almond and grape
Homemade cider smoked at the moment
Musings on walnuts
Green walnut with Idiazábal cheese
Dealcoholized wine
Rose water
Engagement rings
Hoisin cucumber
Black sesame biscuit
Black apple with noisette butter ice cream and flourless puff pastry
The Living Table from Disfrutar & TABLE M#01 by Merche Alcalá
SPECIAL MENU (Vegetarian)
Frozen passion fruit ladyfinger with rum
The Toast: Forestfloor distillate
“Flavour concentration”: sprouts
Liquid salad
Tomato “polvorón” and arbequina Caviaroli
Flourless ‘coca’ bread with autumn truffle and burrata
“Panchino” filled with caviar
Solid bubbles of smoked butter with caviar
Amaranth coral with caviar and codium emulsion
Gazpacho sandwich with scented vinegar garnish
Disfrutar olives
Crunchy mushroom leaf
Crispy egg yolk with warm mushrooms gelatin
Marinated mushroom vinegar
Multispherical pesto with pistachios
Green olive mousse in a mixed salad
“Feijoa” with black banana
Beetroot ravioli
Crispy corn wafer with avocado
Vegetables with amasake kombu spaghetti, almond and grape
Homemade cider smoked at the moment
Musings on walnuts
Green walnut with idiazábal cheese
Dealcoholized wine
Rose water
Engagement rings
Hoisin cucumber
Black sesame cornet
Black apple with noisette butter ice cream and flourless puff pastry
The Living Table from Disfrutar & TABLE M#01 by Merche Alcalá
CELLAR
Black truffle vodka
Les Hauts d’Epernay 2018, Philippe Lancelot
A.O.C. Champagne
Fino Selección Especial CXC 2025, Bodegas Tradición
D.O. Jerez
Biden 1999, Mi no Kotobuki
Fukuoka
Buntsandstein Riesling 2020, Frank John
QbA Pfalz
Chablis Les Pargues 2023, Eleni & Edouard Vocoret
A.O.C. Chablis
Barrio de Los Arroyuelos 2023
Viñedos y Vinos Las Pedreras
D.O.P. Cebreros
Château Ormes de Pez 2016
A.O.C. Saint-Estèphe
Hidromiel Nº4 2021, Moncalvillo Meadery
Da Roca De Rioja
Salancues 2002, Mas Doix
D.O.Q. Priorat
Rivesaltes Hors D’Age Ambré Solera 33, Domaine Vaquer
A.O.C. Rivesaltes
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