This Olympic-sized swimming pool was actually used in the Olympics.
I'm a great fan of the Picornell sports centre on Montjüic - I go to the gym there a few times a week, and during the warmer months take advantage of the outside swimming pool and sun-loungers. It's conveniently close to my flat, and the walk there past the MNAC museum is very picturesque. The Picornell also has a restaurant with terrace with some great views - and pretty dreadful food which Mrs HD and I had the misfortune to try a few days ago.
Lovely, sunny terrace...
The menu of the Café Picornell seemed promising enough - tortellini with a pepper sauce, strawberry and raison salad, rustic soup or pan-fried veg to start with, followed by duck thigh in port sauce, salmon in mint sauce, squid rings or cod balls - although in retrospect a little ambitious for a sports centre restaurant. We gave it the benefit of the doubt.
Our initial impression was good. The staff were friendly and helpful, and we secured a table with a great view of the pool and the Colserolla hills beyond. Then the food arrived. The tortellini we'd ordered was obviously not home-made, neither was it particularly nice. The sauce also appeared to be from a packet, and passable, although sprinkled with dried mixed herbs . The best you could say for the dish was that there was a lot of it. Mopping up the excess sauce was made slightly less pleasant by the staleness of some of the bread.
...oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Next came the salmon in mint and cream sauce, which sunk to new depths, if you'll pardon the pun. The fish cutlet itself was tough, full of bones and not particularly tasty. The sauce had no discernable flavour at all, and the salad was distinctly lack-lustre. Throwing in the towel, we decided to forego a dessert - a choice of crême caramel, fruit salad, some kind of tart or a piece of fruit - in favour of a cortado.
All in all it was €9 poorly spent, despite including a beer (or red wine, which we didn't try). I will still recommend the Café Picornell, however - albeit as a nice location to have a leisurely drink, and maybe a sandwich (if after this review you don't even trust them with this, you can always bring your own as there is a part of the terrace reserved for picnics.)
Oh! Oh! Dear Indeed - this seems to be the first "nil point" review you have done - what a shame, and as you say the view looks great.
ReplyDeleteThe plate of salmon, even without sampling the tastes, did look a bit amateurish. Never mine - Mrs H and D looked to be doing very well in the pool, but she didn't seem to have much company.