These atypical Christmases have brought with them mixed feelings, those that blend the Christmas spirit based on celebration and sharing moments and memories with those that curb that impetus due to a sad, strange situation, in which family and friends gatherings so typical of this time of year are discouraged. However, restaurateurs and hoteliers, always at the forefront, have resorted to ingenuity, responsibility, and enthusiasm to offer alternatives to those who wish to celebrate, inside or outside the home, always with the maximum safety and hygiene measures.
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New Year's Eve in hotels, a premium option
"The personalized treatment we offer forces us to plan a tailor-made Christmas for each particular case, which is why our establishments adapt to couples, families, groups of friends, and travelers of all kinds, who are looking for a safe space, with personalized service, gastronomy, comfort, and the highest sanitary rigor," explains Joaquim Clos, director of the Claris Hotel & Spa.
This is a common approach in hotel establishments, seeking options to provide environments that are not only comfortable but also safe, without sacrificing the services and attentions they so well dispense. Like an oasis in which to forget for a few moments the "external" reality, hotels in Barcelona have made the most of their charms to offer unprecedented plans that, who knows, have come to stay.
The Claris Hotel & Spa (5 stars GL) includes in a package the gastronomic experience, accommodation the next day, and breakfast for €399, for 2 people. It can be rounded off with a treatment at the Mayan Secret Spa (known for its temazcal ritual, the Mayan steam bath), which offers a €50 gift on any treatment when booking through the hotel's website or phone. The New Year's Eve dinner is served at La Terraza del Claris, directed by chef Aurelio Morales, with a menu where, without giving up the classics of these holidays, such as galets soup or pularda cannelloni, it offers interesting options such as marinated scallops, carabinero cream and black truffle, or warm white fish tartare in escabeche and mussels.
Also with a signature restaurant, The Serras has created a package that, for €600 per couple, includes accommodation, New Year's Eve dinner, breakfast the next day, and a bottle of cava in the room. This dinner, designed by Marc Gascons and offered in the hotel's restaurant, Informal, includes dishes that revisit tradition, in true Gascons style, seeking to savor high-quality produce in its maximum splendor: wild tuna belly and Beluga caviar coca, sea urchin and black truffle melanosporum French toast; wild turbot, Jabugo, seasonal mushrooms and its emulsified pilpil or its most emblematic dish, creamy potato gnocchi with butter sauce and black truffle melanosporum. A menu with 6 dishes, lucky grapes, and party favors that starts with a glass of Ruinart as a welcome.
Heights are the leitmotiv of two of the hotels that preside over our maritime frontline: Hotel Arts and Hotel W, both 5-star Luxury. The Hotel Arts Barcelona proposes three levels of experience, depending on the room category and also, accordingly, the number of people this high-altitude dinner can accommodate. The hotel's management team assures that "the most magical New Year's Eve will find an oasis of elegance and absolute exclusivity at Hotel Arts Barcelona," adding that their goal is for their clients to "rediscover the meaning of luxury from our luxurious penthouses and suites, with a staging where panoramic views overlooking the sea and city lights are an unbeatable attraction."
The Penthouse, for example, with 300 m2, 2 floors, and 3 bedrooms, is the most premium option accessible to up to 6 people, enjoying spectacular high-altitude views. The dinner, served in the apartment itself by a private culinary team starting at 8:30 PM, is a compendium of hot and cold tapas to share, such as Delta del Ebro oysters, Wagyu tartare with olive oil caviar, crab salad, or prawn skewer with kimchee sauce as appetizers, followed by 2 starters and two main courses, finishing with 3 desserts, lucky grapes, and a toast with Dom Perignon. The price of this package, which includes accommodation and dinner plus breakfast the next day, is €605 per person per night.
Whoever wishes that dinner comes from the Enoteca de Paco Pérez team, can hire the package in which dinner is served in the room and early check-in and late check-out are added, in addition to parking, wifi and breakfast the next day. Its price is €895 per room per night.
The Hotel W, also with the attraction of views to its credit, has devised an unprecedented offer in its modus operandi: to enjoy a gala dinner in the comfort of the room, enjoying the fireworks that will illuminate the sea and the seafront on the last night of the year. This experience includes accommodation, parking, gala dinner and breakfast for €860 per couple. The menu designed for this New Year's Eve focuses on premium products with careful preparations, featuring 5 starters including Red prawn carpaccio with basil chlorophyll and artichoke chips, and Foie mi-cuit with pistachio sponge cake, passion fruit and Pedro Ximénez. The main course is Galician veal with green pepper sauce and smoked potato cream, followed by desserts and typical sweets of these holidays such as neules and turrones.
The Hotel Gallery (4-star Superior) uses the excellent cuisine of Sintonia, directed by its chef Pablo Tomás, to bid farewell to 2020 in a pack format that includes a room (with special details such as party favors, lucky grapes, a bottle of cava and turrones), breakfast and dinner for €339 per couple. To celebrate this night in style, Sintonia proposes doing so with oysters, lobster and truffles. It continues with a Calaf egg with potato gnocchi, parmesan and black truffle sauce, to welcome roasted sea bass and veal shank with smoked eggplant as they deserve. A festival to end the last night of the year with a good taste in the mouth, and with a touch of joy because diners will be able to enjoy the fireworks show at 11 pm from the rooftop bar The Top. The night will extend privately in the rooms, which are offered room service for drinks until 1 am.
And to enjoy the best gastronomy at home…
...Nothing better than the careful selections that haute cuisine chefs have prepared to bring the most delicious dishes from their kitchens to their diners' tables, in their homes. Among the proposals, a bit of everything: well-executed tradition, revised tradition, and creations with their own stamp. What these suggestions have in common is excellence, the brilliance of the most exclusive raw materials, and adjusted prices.
The Xerta restaurant, with a Michelin star and led by chef Fran López, proposes a traditional menu with flavors from southern Catalonia, in the purest line of this unique creator's memory cuisine. This menu, which consists of 5 dishes, desserts, lucky grapes, and party favors is offered for 150€ and includes a bottle of Indià white or red, to choose. It consists of Delta oysters, foie terrine with mandarin from Terres de l'Ebre, the Xerta cocktail (the updated shrimp cocktail), truffled cannelloni, Delta fish and seafood suquet, Quail with foie white food and demiglace. For dessert, their acclaimed chocolate in textures and red fruits. Only available for take away, with prior reservations by calling 937 379 080 or reserving by mail to pick up between the 30th and 31st from 10 am to 1 pm or from 4 pm to 8 pm at the restaurant itself, on Còrsega street, 289.
It's a shame not to be able to enjoy the impeccable service of the Monje family and their team, but the good news is that the delicacies of Via Veneto arrive home in à la carte format. Their classics are not missing such as the escudella amb galets, the potato millefeuille with Perol sausage or the traditional Via Veneto cannelloni, nor such excellent dishes as the Galician lobster with Baix Llobregat vegetables and vegetable consommé or the partridge (roasted and deboned) with potato and cabbage trinxat. As is usual in this temple of good eating led by chef David Andrés, special products are offered on demand and price according to market such as Alba white truffle, elvers, Imperial Golden Iranian caviar or live Galician oysters from Ría Arousa. Pick-up for the 31st is until 7:30 pm, with the option of home delivery if the order is over 100€, with a shipping cost of 15€. Reservations can be made by calling 932 007 244, by whatsapp (619 587 162) or by mail.
Chef Jordi Esteve, at the helm of Nectari, has prepared a whole arsenal of seasonal products and gourmet ingredients that are a feast in themselves, with set menus (the Picoteo for 25€/pax and the Gourmet for 50€ per person), à la carte dishes and among them, suggestions for special dishes with white truffle generously served (specifically 4gr. per dish) as the main ingredient: eggs with potato parmentier and white truffle, pumpkin ravioli with amaretto parmesan and white truffle, three-meat cannelloni with white truffle, mushroom risotto and white truffle, and beef fillet with potato and leek gratin with white truffle. To place an order, it is essential to do so 24 hours in advance via WhatsApp at 633 532 635 or by mail and specify whether you opt for take away or delivery. In the latter case, the cost is 10€ and only covers the metropolitan area.
The ineffable Dos Palillos also does not leave the last night of the year orphaned. Albert Raurich and his team have prepared a careful selection of dishes that will shine and brighten a decorated table: an assortment of appetizers (Indian-style Iberian pork rinds, Cantonese nuts, wild red tuna Yukke, sake oysters and Dashimaki Tamago with mentaiko), cuttlefish with Beluga caviar, fish chirashi-zushi, shrimp tom yam kung and Japanese wagyu tataki. The final touch, chestnut and cassis Kastela maki. It is a limited edition of which only 50 menus will be served, priced at 110€ per person. Available for delivery or take away, with prior reservation required via WhatsApp at 696 211 894. Menu collection must be made on the 31st at calle Elisabets, 9 from 12 to 18h.
The New Year's Eve proposal from Taverna del Clínic subtly revisits traditional recipes, in the purest style of its chef Toni Simôes, with a special menu that displays the great Christmas classics for take away and in which exceptional and seasonal products are not lacking: from the best Galician seafood to premium beef, fresh daily market fish and local vegetables. Orders for their take away or delivery service must be made through the restaurant's phone (934104221) or directly via Whatsapp (696493372).
Also highly recommended is the New Year's Eve take-home menu proposal from Nandu Jubany, priced at 59 euros. It includes five tapas, two main courses, and two desserts. Those who opt for this choice will be able to taste a salad with king crab, truffle butter with cereal bread, brioche of steak tartare, monkfish with Thai curry mussels and potato gnocchi, beef tenderloin with foie and pineapple, and coffee flan with chocolate, among other surprises offered by the restless chef from Osona.
Celebrating at home, or away from it (feeling at home) is almost an obligation. Saying goodbye to the year with a smile, even if it's a bit crooked, is elegantly bidding farewell to a year that will endure in everyone's memory, and will be remembered and recounted. Our tradition involves toasting, wishing the best, and leaving behind what weighs us down. Let's be faithful to it with the options available to us, which, although limited, are equally excellent.