The terrace of the hotel Do.Reial
The OJ. royal is a personal project of a retired businessman who, after a lifetime kicking around hotels around the world for work, decided to create his own hotel in which to gather everything he had missed or received with joy in different lodgings. This is how this small boutique hotel was born with a pampering treatment, a homely touch and attention to detail in which the involvement of the owner family is noticeable, from the different textures in the chosen decoration to the choice of glassware, attention which is also transmitted to gastronomic spaces.
For a change, we start with the roof. When we say that the terrat (the roof terrace) of the DO is unique, it is not a cliche, but an impenetrable fact: it is literally the only one of the roofs of the buildings in the Plaza Real in which the tables and not the antennas reign. A gift for collectors of unusual urban views , with a perspective of the square that only the residents of the buildings could enjoy and a great pleasure on warm days. A few meters below, at street level, is the terrace, with a wonderful selection of tapas and dishes (watch out for the bravas), to enjoy the life of the square in the shade of the arcades that surround it; they manage to create an unexpectedly intimate and calm atmosphere in a large square that is usually crowded on summer nights.
It is in the Cuina del DO restaurant where things get serious : a dining room set up in the cellar of the building under a splendid Catalan volta, intimate and welcoming and -importantly- with good acoustics, it is the setting for a creative cuisine that follows the parameters of local gastronomy, with local and organic products.
La Cuina del DO: here things get serious
Our favourites? A tuna tartar cornetto with mojito foam, the selection of cheeses from the Reixagó estate (from the same owners of the hotel and that can practically only be tasted here, and the truth is, they are worth it) to combine with home-made breads (great success of the olive and bacon one, although we stayed with the simple one), the hearty rice dishes –always present in the different menus with tempting combinations- and the desserts, prepared by an Italian chef; the caramelized apple and ginger bite and the coffee pannacotta will remain in our memories for a long time although, sigh, they are not on the usual menu, having found them on the weekly proposal is a luck that will have to be tempted in the future. The wide selection of wines and good coffee round out the experience.
Creative and local cuisine
The perfect place to have a drink afterwards is the Ocana , a few meters away, which takes its name from the artist who was a transgressor (the initial and final credits of the film shot in the same Plaza Real) when transgression was prohibited, motivating reflections on gender and avant-garde while the country began to get rid of the smell to naphthalene. Today Ocaña gives its name to a **very modern place (because the chandeliers and art deco nods are, in the end, very modern)**, instagram meat in its beauty and multipurpose that also works as a cafeteria, tapas bar or club, with a highly requested terrace and the purpose of being one of those places where interesting things do not stop happening. New places with a style that is as different as it is complementary to make you want to get closer to the heart of Barcelona.
Ocaña: a very modern cafe