Y. Cherski
Google
I'd say any restaurant committed to serving fresh seafood while being located almost 4000 km away from the nearest ocean deserves praise. This place is busy during the weekends, so maybe make reservations ahead. The airy and seaside-like interior design creates a very pleasing atmosphere.
The menu offers an abundance of all kinds of seafood, which is quite impressive. Overall, it was a good experience, with most dishes meeting expectations. While they have one of the best deals in town for oysters (KZT 19,990 for 13 oysters), it took them some time to figure out what kind of oysters they are serving under that deal. So far, we've been to only one restaurant in Almaty where they serve oysters, and the staff is aware of their origin and flavor profile, and La Barca is not one of them. Sea bass and tuna tartare were exceptional, and ajvar was delicious as well. Red mullets were dry, if you ask me, maybe because they were much smaller than I've ever seen before and ended up overcooked. I also finally was lucky to get horse meat steak, which proved to be much more challenging in Kazakhstan than one would think. I know it is a somewhat grey area with horse meat when it comes to how well you want your steak to be done, but I've had a fair share of good horse meat steaks, and I know the proper doneness, and here they definitely overcooked it.
Also, the lady who served our table for the first half of our stay was very nice and attentive, but then she was substituted by another waiter who left not the best impression. He reminded me of waiters in Southern Mediterranean coast countries. Some people like that approach, but personally, I do not enjoy the company of people who make me feel like I owe them something. It's called the hospitality industry for a reason.
Again, I rather enjoyed our stay in this restaurant, but things were not perfect. If you claim the status of a fine dining establishment, you must strive for excellence, and La Barca still has some work to do in this direction.
