Barra Oliba

"A vibey new Spanish restaurant opened in Little Italy in mid-November slinging tapas like patatas bravas and a curated selection of pintxos. Barra Oliba may also have one of the sleekest new dining rooms in town, with rich red banquette tables parallel to a marble-topped bar. Find crudos from the raw bar, main plates like Iberian pork chop with romesco and Gallegan-style octopus with steamed potatoes, and traditional tortilla and gambas al ajillo on the tapas side. Don’t miss the Basque cheesecake or olive oil ice cream for dessert." - Helen I. Hwang, Candice Woo

"The neighborhood of Little Italy adds a taste of Spain with the opening of Barra Oliba slated for Friday, November 8. Though the interior of the Kettner Boulevard restaurant is chicly compact, sidewalk tables and a streetside parklet on Kettner Boulevard provide extra seating. Behind the long bar, which will pour a large selection of sustainable wine sourced from all over Spain and select regions in France along with sangria, a Spanish spritz, and small glasses of beer called caña in Spanish, sits a case filled with charcuterie, from jamon Iberico and mojama (salt-cured tuna loin) to dry-aged fish — kampachi and bluefin tuna — which will be used for plates of crudo and tartare. The menu, which ranges from handheld pintxos to tapas and shareable mains, reflects the travels of its owners, Eduardo Bustamante, one of the co-owners of India Street’s Crudo Cevicheria, and Ernesto Casillas, formerly a founding partner of Zibaris Hospitality Group, which runs popular Tijuana restaurants like Mantequilla, Ziba, and Saketori-ya. In addition to classics like patatas bravas, Galician-style octopus, arroz meloso — a creamy Spanish rice dish — and a variation of Basque cheesecake made with idiazabal, a sheep’s milk cheese, chef Joshua Mayhew says he’ll also be running specials featuring local seafood, from spicy lobster to fish like California sheephead, procured from the fishermen he got to know during his two-year tenure at Ironside in Little Italy. Casillas, who tells Eater that he and Bustamante, are looking forward to developing more restaurants in San Diego via their newly-formed Oliba Group, says that Barra Oliba will start by offering dinner service before eventually expanding into weekend lunch." - Candice Woo