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Cinc Sentits is a new restaurant that opened in May of this year. It’s run by the Artal family along very similar lines to Anthony’s, brother in the kitchen, sister front of house, mother admin/serving. Although they offer an a la carte they are trying to establish themselves as a tasting menu restaurant. It’s one of the hot tickets in town at the moment, and let’s be honest, who amongst us could resist a restaurant with tits in the title
.We chose the Omakase tasting menu with matching wines for €65 with food descriptions as per the menu provided.
Snacks –
Shot of maple syrup, cream, cava sabayon and Maldon rock salt
Foie gras torchon, crushed carquinyoli cookies, violet marmalade
A very sweet start though we later learned the family are half Canadian hence the maple syrup being worked on to the menu. The foie gras was bite sized presented on a ceramic spoon. Little detection of the marmalade but pleasant.
Asparagus veloute with seawater gelee, berberecho, lemon peel marmalade, martini bianco – This was clever. The clam appeared to be suspended in cubes of seawater gelee within the warm veloute. Not sure about the marmalade and martini though.
Langoustine with chilled ajoblanco soup, cubed melon, slivered marcona almonds – A sweet langoustine in a classical almond soup made with bread, ground almonds, garlic and olive oil.
Soft-poached egg with salmon confit, trout caviar, hollandaise sauce – This was the richest hollandaise I’ve ever had, deep yellow in colour, heart attack on a plate. A beautiful combination of flavours and textures.
Monkfish filet with wild rice risotto, langoustine reduction with mascarpone – Nothing more to add, just very tasty.
Pan-seared beef tenderloin, sautéed asparagus, demi-glace – The beef was from Denmark. I was surprised enough to forget to ask the breed. It was good, cooked med-rare. Simple with strong flavours.
Tomato granite, EVOO, Cab-Sav vinegar syrup – This was a little palate cleanser. Fresh, clean flavours.
Mascarpone mousse with cherry compote, crushed carquinyoli cookies, papantla vanilla ice cream – This was layered in a glass with the cherry compote at the bottom followed by the mousse with the cookie crumbs on top. Funnily the ice cream didn’t taste particularly of vanilla. Pleasant being a change from chocolate.
Kalamansi glace with white chocolate espuma, marcona almond brioche, citrus shake – A circle of brioche with the white chocolate cream on top and the shake served on the side. Not particularly memorable.
We followed this with some petit fours and mint tea.
Service and explanations from Amelia were good at all times, the equivalent of Olga at Anthony’s. Jordi, the chef came out to see how we’d enjoyed our meal and was especially keen to see our photos from the previous nights meal at Abac, so keen in fact he took the camera in to the kitchen to show his sous chef.
It was a nice meal, slightly simpler than the others, good in places slightly weaker in others but in a restaurant only a few months old I’m sure there’s improvement to come. I’d like to think we’d return to see what progress they make.
