The new restaurant in Hotel Bagués offers cuisine using the freshest products Barcelona's famous Boqueria market has to offer

Bistro El Regulador

Hotel Bagués opened its doors in November 2010 and is a jewel among the hotels of Spain. Its restaurant embodies the métier and the spirit of a bistro, adapted to the concept of a unique hotel that brings together culture and art in one of the city’s most beautiful palaces. Bistro El Regulador is a new name on Barcelona’s culinary circuit, offering high-quality cuisine in an exquisite setting and unique location at the heart of the Ramblas.

The highlight of the cuisine in bistro El Regulador is its simple but extremely carefully prepared dishes, the fruit of the involvement of the Derby Hotels Collection team who are direct participants in designing both the menu and the recipes used. The menu is highly exclusive and is based on two central elements: the French influence and select, top-quality ingredients from the Boqueria market. This enables the bistro to offer its guests the best meats, fish, vegetables and fruit available in Barcelona. One of the establishment’s chefs, George Pierre, directed the opening of El Regulador with Raúl Sánchez as head chef in the everyday running of the restaurant.

French inspiration with a modern twist

Bistro El Regulador is a project based on a mix of the traditional French bistro and brasserie styles. It combines an atmosphere that is warm and welcoming, original and simple, urban yet relaxed, with a careful selection of healthy, seasonal gourmet cuisine in the traditional bistro style alongside a daily seafood selection.

Bistro El Regulador takes its inspiration from these two styles to offer an up-to-the-minute formula with a menu based on the creative use of products from the local market and of seafood, together with a selection of the best oysters available.

Fruits de mer, one of the stars of the show

One of the main features on the menu is steamed seafood, using the French technique that best conserves the properties and brings out the flavour of the seafood.

Spanish lobster, French crab, giant crayfish, king prawns, giant clams and sea snails direct from the Boqueria market are accompanied by a selection of the best oysters on the international market, such as Genaro oysters from Galicia, French Bouzigues oysters and Japanese oysters from the Pacific Ocean.

Creative market-fresh cuisine, the other staple on the menu

Alongside seafood, creative market-fresh cuisine is the other mainstay of the menu. The chef brings traditional, classic dishes bang up to date using local, seasonal produce. These dishes feature in the changing weekly specials, such as onion soup with organic egg, rack of lamb with ratatouille and candied garlic, sautéed baby squid with peas from the El Maresme region or scallops with braised ham and artichokes.

Other surprises that the menu has in store are the high-quality, delicious burrata di bufala with tomato and rocket as a starter, or the bull tartare with fresh ginger and wasabi.

Meat

The steak tartare of ox with straw potatoes and toast deserves a section to itself. The meat is hand-cut with a knife and prepared to order. A real delicacy for fans of steak tartare.

A unique dish on the menu is Wagyu steak with baby carrots and porcini mushrooms. A real Japanese delicacy, this meat has an unmistakeable flavour and colour.

The greatest meat lovers will not be disappointed by the Nebraska steak. These are cooked very rare to allow the guest to appreciate the quality of this tender, juicy and extremely flavoursome meat.

Fish

The lobster carpaccio with nori is noteworthy as a dish rarely seen on the menu in Barcelona. This dish will impress even the most seasoned gourmet and is one that is served to perfection in El Regulador .

The Mediterranean selection on the menu includes grilled wild turbot and lobster with rice in broth. The range of fish dishes on offer is complemented with a request from our diners: belly of bluefin tuna. A dish for guests who enjoy lightly cooked, high-quality fish, in this case accompanied by a smoked balsamic emulsion, puree of carrot and sautéed spinach.

Morning, afternoon and evening

Bistro El Regulador awakes to a view over the city through its large windows to offer both hotel guests and the people of Barcelona a hearty breakfast. A full breakfast buffet with both hot and cold dishes is served between 7 am and 11 am.

One of the most unusual suggestions at bistro El Regulador is available from 4 pm, teatime. The teas on the menu are specially blended for the Derby Hotels Collection hotels by Inés Berton, former tea specialist with the brand Mariage Frères. These are teas that awaken the senses with unexpected fragrances: lavender, vanilla, coconut and natural spice flavourings such as cinnamon, verbena and ginger. Tea is accompanied by an exquisite selection of petits fours. Tea is served in the bar until 8.30 pm every day of the week.

The bar in bistro El Regulador is an ideal spot for all types of guests for meeting after work, having a drink and discovering new cocktails. The El Regulador bar offers a wide variety of drinks: sweet, bitter, dry... from the classic Long Island Iced Tea, Dry Martini, Manhattan, Whisky Sour, White Russian and Margarita, to the tropical Mojito, Caipirinha and Caipiroska. The bar also offers the popular Sex on the Beach, Piña Colada and Mai-tai and a whole range of others, including the newly repopularised gin and tonic and the more exotic flavours such as Saketini (sake, dry Martini and powdered silver).

Cocktails and alcoholic beverages are available from 4 pm to 8.30 pm on weekdays and from 11 pm to 1 am on Friday and Saturday.

The bistro’s bar has entered into an exclusive collaboration with one of the best gin and tonic bars in Barcelona, the renowned Xix Bar, owned by the Scottish barman Mike Cruickshank. Together, they plan to open the Hotel Bagués terrace next spring. Throughout this season they will be serving their authentic gin and tonics to devotees of this beverage at private events, culinary fairs and one-off celebrations. Varieties include lime, cucumber, fruits of the forest and many more... There is a gin and tonic to delight every palate.

Praise for El Regulador

Bistro El Regulador is the restaurant of the recently opened Hotel Bagués located in the former Bagués-Masriera studio and jewellery shop on the Ramblas in Barcelona. Hotel Bagués is the result of a joint project between the Bagués-Masriera jewellers and Derby Hotels Collection to create a bijou hotel that is unique in Spain. The name of the bistro, El Regulador, is in fact part of the building’s history—it is a tribute to the old weighing scales used in the jeweller’s shop, which were very well known among the people of Barcelona and are currently on display in the Boqueria market.

The opening of Hotel Bagués marked the restoration of the palace, which was designed by the architect Josep Fontserè i Domènech in 1850, to its former glory. The building is a magnificent example of classicist romance architecture in a markedly Italian style. The hotel has 5 stars with just 31 exquisite rooms. The interior design and decoration revive the full splendour of the years in which Modernism and Art Nouveau made Barcelona one of the world’s most important cities.

In perfect synergy with the rest of the hotel, bistro El Regulador is directly accessible from the Ramblas. In it the same age-old calm reigns as in the rest of the building. Its wide windows allow guests to contemplate Barcelona life from the comfort of luxurious silk sofas, surrounded by solid wenge wood screens and under the spectacular Venetian glass chandeliers designed by Mariano Fortuny.

Bistro El Regulador has the capacity to serve 35 guests seated 70 in a cocktail arrangement. The opening hours are Monday to Sunday from 7 am to 1 am.

The new bistro restaurant El Regulador is open for business under the direction of George Pierre as executive chef, with the collaboration of Raúl Sánchez, head chef of Hotel Bagués, and under the general management of Joaquim Clos.

The chef George Pierre

Executive chef of the Derby Hotels Collection restaurant at the Banke (Paris), Restaurant 3 at Granados 83 (Barcelona) and bistro El Regulador at Hotel Bagués (Barcelona)

Chef George Pierre was in charge of rolling out the new culinary generation within Derby Hotels Collection, supervising the cuisine in the restaurants of the hotels Granados 83 and Bagués in Barcelona and the Banke in Paris. The company calling card is clear in all of these locations: quality and exclusivity.

At the age of 39, George Pierre, who was born in French Guyana and trained in France, has a glittering CV. His curiosity and interest have compelled him to work in well-known restaurants around the world. Although he began as a kitchen hand in Jamin (Paris) under Joel Robuchon, followed by La Maison Blanche, he soon began working in New York and Paris: in the Park Avenue Bistro Restaurant, in Le Bilboquet, in Claude Troigros’ restaurant in the Big Apple and in the restaurant of the Little Palm Island Hotel.

He made his debut as Food and Beverage Manager for the Ritz Plaza Hotel, Miami, in 1997. A few years later, in Barcelona, he was appointed supervisor of Gourmet Paradís, and later of the restaurant Rúccula with Joan Piqué.

Having finally settled in Barcelona, he worked as pastry chef in the restaurant Caelis at the Palace Hotel. Also noteworthy are his spell in Noti as head chef and his time in The Kitchen and Sugar.

Pierre also has experience training chefs in the El Maresme College of Tourism, and has managerial experience as director of the catering company Chefaurantes.

He joined the Derby Hotels Collection group in May 2006 as head chef of Restaurant 3 in Hotel Granados 83.

Chef Raúl Sánchez

Head chef and Head of Development for Hotel Bagués and its restaurant, bistro El Regulador (Barcelona)

At just 31 years of age, chef Raúl Sánchez has inherited a family tradition of more than 35 years in the restaurant Mas Oliver in Palafrugell (Girona). As well as working in the family business, Raúl Sánchez has worked as a chef in Rúccula and L’Univers Gastronòmic in Barcelona and was also head chef in the Arabic-French restaurant El Ayoun in Ibiza. Influenced by his travels, this young chef has developed a genuine passion for cuisine from around the world.

It was 2002 when he first worked with George Pierre at Caelis, the restaurant of the Palace Hotel, under the command of Romain Fornell. His connection with Pierre continued in Sugar and the catering company Chefaurantes, in which he was a partner.

Raúl Sánchez joined the Derby Hotels Collection team in June 2006 as George Pierre’s right-hand man. He was kitchen manager in Restaurant 3 at Hotel Granados 83.

Since the opening of bistro El Regulador at Hotel Bagués, he has been responsible for the organisation and development of the hotel’s kitchens and the restaurant, working with the support and involvement of the Derby Hotels Collection team, as is always the case within the chain.