Cinco Jotas Restaurant Barcelona, a Jamón Ibérico paradise

Cinco Jotas Restaurant Barcelona is a Jamón Ibérico paradise on Rambla de Catalunya.  Cinco Jotas (5J) produces some of the finest Iberia ham.   According to their website,  the products are made from pure bred Iberian black pigs. Their pigs are raised free range on estates with trees that produce acorn.  The free roaming lifestyle and the acorn supplements in their diet are what apparently  gives them their unique flavour.  The hams are cured slowly over 5 years, using a process developed over 130 years before they are released for consumption.

Cinco Jotas ham can be bought from supermarkets and other stores in Spain.  They are even sold in vacuum packed packages that can survive refrigeration free travel back home to Singapore. But what better place to consume Cinco Jotas ham than a Cinco Jotas restaurant.   They have restaurants in five cities.  The one in Barcelona is on Rambla de Catalunya.   This is not the more famous La Rambla, but is a nice tree-lined boulevard parallel to Passeig de Gràcia that is the Orchard Road of Barcelona.

As you can expect the Cinco Jotas Iberico products take pride of place on the menu, but the Cinco Jotas Restaurant also serves a wide range of other traditional Catalan food items as well. Here are pictures of a portion of the food menu and wine list.

Some nice juicy olives were served immediately.  They were the biggest we have seen on this trip.

We ordered wines by the glass, which as usual are very reasonably priced – around 3.5 € a glass.

We had a half portion  (17.5 €) of the ham which is apparently the best cut. Other cuts available were shoulder and loin. Iberian ham is best eaten with toasted coca bread with tomato and good olive oil.   The pieces of ham were expertly sliced to have a good mix of fat and lean.  Which was important to produce a balanced taste and an attractive looking platter.  The half portion and accompanying bread was quite adequate for two, leaving some space to try something else on the menu.

We tried a traditional Catalan tapas – patatas bravas (5.5€) – fried potatoes served with a wildly spicy sauce. This is a dish we saw on many menus. This was one of the better specimens we had tried.

Our other dish was egg skillet with foie, potatoes and mushrooms (8.5€).  A fried free range egg on a bed of fries, served with slices of mushroom and duck or goose liver.  A simple dish made up of these tasty components can’t go wrong.   Delicious.

Overall, Iberico ham that we have tried in Spanish restaurants have always been at a high standard. Whether it is psychological or it is in fact the case, the famous Cinco Jotas ham eaten in the Cinco Jotas restaurant just seemed to taste that bit better. The ham seems drier, not so oily and has a slight nutty flavour. Too much ham can get quite heavy and so it was good that they also serve a wide range of other food to provide variety to the meal.

Ratings:

Food: 4

Service: 4

Value: 4

Atmosphere: 4

Overall Rating: 4 TOPs 

Rambla de Catalunya 91-93, 08008 Barcelona