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ABaC Restaurant & Hotel
- Style
- Modern, minimalist and Michelin-starred
- Setting
- Hip heights of Zona Alta
‘Restaurant with rooms’ doesn’t do justice to ABaC – despite the fact that Xavier Pellicer’s two-Michelin-starred restaurant is the hotel’s headline act – there’s also the teched-up rooms, pristine interiors and gorgeous spa to consider…
Need to know
- Rooms
- 15, including five suites.
- Rates
- Low season, €215–€715; high season, €260–€1,605, including tax; excludes breakfast (€30 each).
- Check-out
- Midday, but may be flexible depending on availability. Check-in, 3pm.
- Facilities
- Spa with Jacuzzi, hammam, cold plunge pool, heated sunbeds and juice bar, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: huge B&O flatscreen TV with MS Office and internet, DVD/CD player, remote control lights and blinds, minibar, Jacuzzi bath, Hérmes toiletries.
- Poolside
- The hotel doesn’t have a swimming pool, but in the spa, there’s a relaxation pool with submerged hammocks for watery relaxation.
- Children
- Baby cots area available and sitters can be arranged (€40 an hour, plus seven per cent VAT), but ABaC is not ideal for youngsters.
- Eco-friendly
- Low energy lightbulbs are used throughout the hotel, which is designed to make use of natural light as possible, and everything that can be is recycled. Electricity in rooms operates on a keycard-based power system to conserve energy.
- Also
- There’s an area for smokers next to the lounge bar.
In the know
- Our favourite rooms
- Ask for the Attic; it has two chaise longue-style love seats at the end of the bed and a wrap-around terrace with a Jacuzzi and shower, so you need never leave the room to enjoy the Barcelona sunshine. The bathroom has a limestone island in the centre with double sinks, and a Jacuzzi bath set up for colour therapy sessions. All ABaC’s rooms are dreamily decorated in whites and warm neutrals, with little pops of colour added by velvety purple blankets and throw pillows.
- Packing tips
- Bring your sleekest swimwear to showcase in the spa – a black Missoni cut-away will match the bathrobes you’ll find in your room.
- Also
- The hotel has a fleet of Mercedes Benz at your disposal, and you can arrange to take the wheel of a Ferrari or Lamborghini if you fancy cruising the streets of Barcelona in style or to try them out on a racing circuit. Or, if speed is not of the essence, hire a Segway.
Food & drink
- Hotel restaurant
- This is the hotel’s headline act. Xavier Pellicer’s distinctive fusion cuisine has earned ABaC two Michelin stars – the only restaurant in Barcelona with such gastronomic credentials. It would be a culinary crime to miss the seven-course tasting menu, which features such foodie fireworks as Iberian suckling pig paired with mango tatin and bamboo-steamed foie gras, all served on patterned Versace china.
- Dress code
- Michelin man (ties, not tyres).
- Top table
- Ask for a corner table in the smaller back room, which has a more intimate atmosphere, or, if weather and availability oblige, request a spot outside in the courtyard.
- Last orders
- Lunch, 1.30pm–4pm; dinner, 8.30pm–11pm. The bar opens from Tuesday to Saturday, keeping the G&Ts flowing until 2am.
- Room service
- There’s a 24-hour menu available.
- Hotel bar
- A cavernous underground space riddled with nooks and dotted with leather chesterfields, the hotel’s lounge stone-arched bar has a futuristic edge – the lighting around the perimeter changes colour slowly, steadily and theatrically over the evening. The wine cellar holds more than 800 labels.
Smith card offer A fruit salad sculpture and a tour of the kitchen if Xavier Pellicer’s in residence.
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Book this hotel
To book this hotel please click here, or contact our travel team on 1 866 610 3867.
Local restaurants
As befits the most accomplished restaurant in Barcelona, ABaC keeps abreast of the competition, and can point even the pickiest diners in the direction of superior sustenance. El Asador de Aranda (www.asadordearanda.com) in Tibidabo is devoted to classic Castilian cuisine, serving delicious clay-oven cooked lamb washed down with fine Ribera del Duero wines. Its terrace is ideal for summer dining. Located on the Tibidabo mountainside, La Venta (www.restaurantelaventa.com) is two restaurants in one, both offering sweeping city views and excellent Mediterranean cuisine. The upper eatery, El Mirador de la Venta offers the most dramatic views, but just seven tables to enjoy them from, so book early.
Local bars
The cocktails are average and the music commercial, but at Mirablau (+34 93 418 58 79), everything comes second to the mind-blowing city views. Right beside the Tibidabo funicular, the view from the colossal windows stretches right to the sea.
Worth getting out of bed for
ABaC is well suited to petrolheads – the hotel can arrange for you to spend a day gunning Ferrari or Lamborghini around a racing circuit. If that’s too adrenaline-heavy, hire a Segway for a tour of the Gothic quarters or the Gaudi route. There’s a personal shopper on hand to help you navigate Barcelona’s boutiques. For fantastic views, take the funicular to the top of Mount Tibidabo, where you’ll find the city’s oldest (and now only) amusement park (www.tibidabo.es).
