New Spanish restaurant review: La Rambla in IFC, Central, Hong Kong

A gorgeous (and delicious!) new Spanish restaurant in IFC

Maybe it’s because I grew up in the suburbs but I usually associate mall food with mediocrity. And overpriced mediocrity at that. Obviously this isn’t always the case, especially in Asia where Michelin-starred spots are often located in malls. But even though I’d heard that a new Spanish spot had replaced the old Isola location at IFC (beside Lane Crawford, Isola is still in IFC though relocated to a smaller space), I didn’t add it to my ‘to try’ list because of my bias. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to try out La Rambla, the aforementioned Spanish spot, by Catalunya and was pleasantly surprised.

Firstly, the décor is very cute. It’s all light wood and fun art. The private room is serious enough for a business dinner (as long as your workplace isn't super conservative), yet cheery enough for a special celebration with friends. When the weather cools, the outdoor terrace would be a nice place to watch the sunset.

On the evening I went, I tried a special four hands menu between La Rambla’s Executive Chef, Ferran Tadeo, and Suculent’s (Barcelona) Executive Chef, Antonio Romero. La Rambla’s friendly and very knowledgeable restaurant manager, Mauricio Rodriguez, explained he used to work with Antonio at El Bulli back in 2011 and how the restaurant was trying to bring new fresh, new experiences to its clientele. Hence the four hands menu that was offered for two days only.

While most of the food I sampled was one-off, I do want to go back and try more of the regular menu because smells. I was sat at the bar facing the kitchen, right in front of the paella pans and did the food ever smell good. Since we had hungry eyes, Mauricio kindly ordered a Red Prawn Squid Ink one for us to try ($550 for regular, $650 for large) and it was very flavourful and fresh. Watching the juices ooze out of the prawn as it was being de-shelled was a treat.