Dassa Bassa

Description:

• Run by former TV celebrity chef Darío Barrio, who here heads a small family team with his wife Itziar as the maître, this bright new "in" spot inevitably draws media folk, beautiful people, and trendies in general. Understandably so, as it's pretty good -- justifying its high prices -- and in fact rated by some reviewers as being among the city's new top-ten nosh spots. Discreet from the outside -- no sign and modest white shutters, make it look like just another stylish 19th-century Salamanca district house -- it's been beautifully restored by the chef's two architect brothers; once you're inside a staircase takes you down to a secluded dining areas nestled under original brick-lined vaults. Barrio was yet another protégée of the great Catalan chef Ferran Adrià, but individual dishes like his simple sounding but marvelous patatas con trufas (mashed potatoes with truffles) are totally his own. He offers two menus, one the so-called reducido or "reduced" version, comprising 17 exquisitely delicate minidishes of entrees, fish, meat, and postres (desserts), and the other, a full-on gastronomic menu of half a dozen larger platos, including cold and hot starters, seafood and meat courses, and a selection of cheeses, and desserts. The most flamboyant offering is probably his rabo de toro limpio al vino tinto-chocolate con garbanzos guisados (boned chunk of bull's tail with wine, chocolate, and stewed chick peas), said to be a recipe from his clearly resourceful abuela (grandma). The red beet ice cream- and mango-blended dessert is deliciously original. Barrio's "playful personal statements" -- as he calls some of his more out there dishes -- may have a pretentious ring, but they certainly deliver the goods.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010