Me (mother in Vietnamese) could mean two ways for the chef owner Thanh Pham of his eponymous restaurant in Barcelona. It could mean a culinary heritage transmitted by his mother or it could mean the cuisine of his motherland, in anyway, his Vietnamese root is giving his cooking an edge in country where there have only thirty nine Vietnamese people that live there

Thanh Pham uses the best products with the best ingredients to translate his Vietnamese cooking, so Catalans and the others westerners could eat appreciate and understand. His cooking is not only savory but it has soul and depth.  The whole cuisine is a definition of East meet West with a Catalan twist. He’s probably one of the three chefs that know how to use and mix herbs, spices and exotics ingredients with talent and accuracy the others two are Tran Duc at the Mango Room in Hoi An and Didier Corlou at La Verticale in Hanoi, Vietnam.

On our passage on Friday may 3^rd, we were the last group of clients that arrived at eleven at night, and fortunately, we have Thanh Pham who sat down and took time to explain each dish to each of us and told us how he cooks and how he uses the ingredients for each dish while his barman was mixing great cocktails for the whole table.

Each dish we ate has received a “wow!” from all of us, especially his sashimi and beef tartare, Vietnamese style, and his dessert, the cheesecake with lemongrass and rosemary herbs is knockout.

Not only he’s a great cook but a very good sommelier that is rare enough to mention, especially for an Asian chef. We asked him to advise us to choose two bottles of Catalan wine to pair with our meal, one white and one red. He chose two incredible bottles, the white one is from Missenyora 2011 from Coste Del Segre and a red one is Como Vella 2008 from the Priorat’s region.

We wish we could have the same quality and counsel for our meal the next day at ABAC.

Mẹ is a modern restaurant that understood how to make its clients happy and satisfy with great cooking and drink, with its relax and personalized service, but not only, it has soul and personality .

We know a lot of restaurants in Europe and around the world should take Thanh Pham’s restaurant as a model to be.

Carrer Paris, 162.

Tél : 93 419 49 33.

Accueil de 20 h 30 à 23 h 30, du jeudi au samedi de 13 h 30 à 16 h. Fermé le dimanche et le lundi.