GOXO: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE CHEF OF A 3-STAR MICHELIN RESTAURANT OPENS A “HAUTE CUISINE” FAST-FOOD SPOT IN BARCELONA?
The Cost -$22 per person
The Atmosphere – Located inside the NH Hotel Barcelona Costanza, GoXO is a uniquely designed restaurant made to look like a dark, neon-light-filled fast food joint. Just like a typical fast-food restaurant, you order at the counter and pick up your food when it is ready. There are no reservations accepted but credit cards are, and casual attire is entirely appropriate. While there have been articles written about GoXO’s long lines, we visited on a Thursday evening at 9:30 and there was no wait to place an order. That may be early for a Spanish dinner but there was still no line once we finished dining at 10:45.
When one of the most famous chefs in Spain who is at the helm of a three-star Michelin restaurant opens a second establishment that is said to bring “haute cuisine” to people at a price that is about one-tenth that of a three-star Michelin dining experience, people get excited. That is precisely what happened when Chef Dabiz Muñoz of Madrid’s DiverXO, decided to open GoXO in Barcelona. GoXO’s menu features an international collection of typical fast-food dishes that are prepared in creative ways using ingredients often found in more high-end establishments like the coconut cardamom bechamel used in the restaurant’s Lasaña Mumbai or the caramel popcorn with spicy butter used in its Udon con Leche Cremosa. For many, GoXO is a must-visit when traveling to Barcelona and so we set out to see if the eatery is as good as it sounds.
The Order – Perrito Japo Coreano, Costillas de Cerdo Chifa Style, and Udon a La Carbonara Signapore.
The Great – One of GoXO’s signature dishes is the Udon a La Carbonara Singapore, a dish with a thick udon noodle base coated in smoked butter with bacon pieces and a few grilled shrimps mixed in. The dish comes with a tomato-based sauce that you can pour over the noodles as you wish. The best part of the dish was the smoked butter which gave great umami flavor. Surprisingly, the ingredients all combined well, and the concept was a really creative and playful one, truly combining comfort foods from different parts of the world into one heavy but tasty dish.
The Good – The Costillas de Cerdo Chifa Style is a pork rib dish with Asian and Peruvian influences that is cooked for twelve hours in a barbeque sauce made with shitake mushrooms and huacatay, a Peruvian mint-like herb. The ribs come with steamed bao buns as well as a salsa chifera which is made with chiles and lemongrass. This dish won me over with its description but unfortunately disappointed with its execution. The bao were not cooked properly and were too dry while the ribs didn’t have that “fall off the bone” quality that you look for after being slow cooked for twelve hours. The barbeque sauce wasn’t bad, but it was too sweet; it could definitely do with less sugar. Overall, I really enjoyed the creativity and use of Asian and Peruvian flavors, but the execution wasn’t good enough for a ribs dish priced at $30, even if the menu indicates that it serves two people.
The Perrito Japo Coreano is another one of GoXO’s signature dishes and while it wasn’t bad, it also wasn’t too good. The description of the dish talked about the “Frankfurt sausage” with a brioche bun, yuzu mayo, kimchi ketchup, creamy egg yolk, and black truffle. In reality, the dish was a cheap-tasting hot dog with ketchup that tastes mostly like ketchup, a Texas toast-type thick hot dog bun, and not a lot of exotic flavors or textures. I expected a very elevated play on the typical hot dog but got a hot dog with a little bit of flair. It was an enjoyable dish to eat, it just didn’t live up to the hype or the description.
The Verdict – Whether you’ve heard of Chef Muñoz’s wild gastronomic creations or you’ve seen the GoXO’s menu, you are likely to be intrigued, if not ecstatic about making a trip to the Barcelona eatery. But while the restaurant certainly has an atmosphere that can be appreciated for its play on fast-food culture and a menu boasting creativity that jumps off the page, GoXO didn’t deliver the wow factor that it needed to given all the hype. We don’t want to steer you away from trying it out, but instead want to lower your expectations going in. Regardless, if you do visit GoXO, be prepared for a heavy meal.