I discovered Vayable while reading an article in an in-flight magazine this past summer. A group of friends & I were in the middle of planning a 10-day trip through Germany, France, and Spain, and we were looking for something interesting to do in Barcelona. We agreed to try Javier's "Underground Restaurant" dinner. He was very helpful in arranging our evening - from our food "likes" and "dislikes" to help with directions to his apartment, etc. We arrived at Javier and Maite's apartment at 8:30 on a Friday night. The ambiance was lovely - candles lit, a beautiful table set, and great dinner music. The evening's menu was printed out on the table for us which included the wine pairings. We started off with three appetizers: anchovies with marinated tomatoes, a shrimp lollipop with crispy curry "confetti", and a wonderful sobrasada with honey on a toast round. The apps were paired with a Spanish Albarino and a Hungarian Furmint (slightly sweet - a great complement to the sobrasada). Next came our salads - mixed greens with a Cavalli balsamic dressing - which were delicious. This course was paired with a Crianza Graciano. In choosing the main course, I had asked Javier if he could do tapas-sized versions of both fish and beef. He readily agreed and prepared wild sea bass with pickled mussels and veal cheeks with a red wine reduction. Both were nicely plated and very good. A tempranillo accompanied the main course. For dessert, a home made tiramissu rich with cocoa, coffee, and liqueur. As a bonus, Javier brought out a special fig aperitif for us to try. The pace of our dinning allowed some conversation between courses, but never lagged. Javier and his wife would serve a course, tell us a little about the ingredients as well as the wine, and head back into the kitchen. If we had any questions, he always tried to answer them. His English is quite good, although I wouldn't call him fluent. We didn't have any problems understanding his explanations. Overall, it was a great experience. I loved the intimacy of dining in his apartment versus the hectic pace of a meal at Cal Pep (although that was an experience I wouldn't have passed up). Other beverages are also available (soda, beer, water, coffee). For a bunch of foodies, it was a blast. Check out Javier's blog at http://comedorclandestino.blogspot.com.es/. You'll get an idea of the type of chef he is and you can also see many of his recipes. I have posted photos from our evening with Javier and Maite on Snapfish. Cut and paste the web address below to access the photos (I can't seem to make a hyperlink work here). http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=9192666007/a=38421382_38421382/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/ Betsy