Valencia Eats: Casa Baldo
Casa Baldo has been smack in the middle of the middle El Centro for the longest time. Since 1915, proclaim the awnings! Even though my office was very close by, I somehow had never, ever eaten there before. I guess recently, Grupo Trinquet, the people behind the restaurant Pelayo Gastro Trinquet which I really like - a modern twist on Valencia food - took it over. That was a good sign.
The interior certainly followed the Trinquet playbook of a kind of theatrical design harkening back to heritage.
I liked the place settings quite a bit.
Bread was good - and 3,30€.
The patatas bravas (7,50€) were called “bravas del Trinquet según Baldo,” implying that they must have the best features of Trinquet and Baldo. Well, this was a huge disappointment. The potatoes looked fried but were completely wet, soggy, and greasy, and covered with this foamy aioli.
I love artichokes in Spain - they’re usually eaten when still small, and prepared where they’re quite crunchy. These were just so so, prepared with a rather thick breading. Also made soggy with the “jugo ibérico” sauce that puddled underneath. What I didn’t like most of all was the price - 16,70€ for this very small portion.
The final disappointment were the garlic shrim, “Gamba blanca al ajillo con sobrasada ibérica.” These were tiny shrimp. And I completely forgot that it was with the sobrasada (a paste like the inside of a chorizo), because I missed that tiny blob in the middle.
I’m not hugely surprised that a restaurant right in the middle of a heavily touristed part of town is a let down, but I did have higher hopes for Grupo Trinquet. I didn’t find this worth returning to.
