MAE Barcelona

This restaurant, occupying the premises of the now-defunct Freixa Tradició and today featuring a designer interior, brings together the knowledge and dreams of three friends (hence the name MAE, which can be translated as ‘companion’ in the Costa Rican dialect): Mariella Rodríguez (Costa Rica, in charge of management) and chefs Diego Mondragón (Colombia) and Germán Espinosa (Spain).The whole proposal is built on a concept, Sincretismo, which according to the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy, the official institution responsible for overseeing the Spanish language) is the ‘combination of different theories, attitudes or opinions’. It is surprising to see how they bring together products from very different origins, giving us the opportunity to observe how combinations such as Mediterranean red shrimp with Latin American yellow chili unfold. The à la carte is complemented by two good tasting menus (MAE and Gran MAE), where we have found wonderful dishes such as cuttlefish tartare with jalapeño gazpacho and huitlacoche, or leek with smoked vichyssoise and black garlic.