Pepe Carvalho will eat spring rolls at Casa Leopoldo, which becomes a Chinese restaurant

If someone was in charge of placing the traditional Casa Leopoldo del Raval on the international map, it was Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. It was his favorite restaurant. The Barcelona writer took there the detective from his police novels, Pepe Carvalho, who was in charge of making it popular. There Montalban with his fellow writers and the police Carvalho tasted their famous whitebait omelettes, prior to the Barcelona Olympics. If they sat at his table today, the one at the back of the corner, they could try a delicious Asian menu for the modest price of 12.50 euros. Casa Leopoldo has been converted into a Chinese restaurant. The good news for defenders of the architectural legacy is that the new owners have kept the Andalusian tiled walls and bullfighting posters. The menu includes a first course, main course and dessert or coffee, with several options to choose from that make up a mixture between Chinese and Catalan. On this week’s menu, you could choose between homemade fried noodles as the first course and grilled sausage with potatoes as the second course. Neighbors lament the loss of mythical restaurants Several associations in the Raval neighborhood have lamented the loss of one of their mythical traditional cuisine restaurants: “What would Manuel Vázquez Moltalbán think when he saw his favorite restaurant like this?”, they ask from the Yo Amo account el Raval. The centennial Casa Leopoldo restaurant, in El Raval, has been converted into a Chinese restaurant with a set menu, at 12 euros. A place with an enormous literary and culinary tradition, what would Manuel Vázquez Moltalbán think when he saw his favorite restaurant like this? pic.twitter.com/D8L7S2jhYY— I love Raval (@raval_barcelona) October 5, 2022 Casa Leopoldo was a successful restaurant with classic dishes and walls dedicated to the world of bullfighting. Under the command of its hostess Rosa Gil, it caught the attention of bohemian and literary diners such as Montalbán, Terenci Moix or Eduardo Mendoza. With the passage of time and the arrival of international cuisines, the illustrious restaurant gradually lost diners until it closed in 2015. However, in 2020, Romain Fornell and Oscar Manresa ventured to recover the city’s emblematic restaurant. They did not count that they were at the gates of a global pandemic and a confinement that would paralyze the country. When the businesses reopened, the entrepreneurs decided to dedicate themselves to other businesses that they had underway and transferred the premises that same year. Few remembered what had become of Casa Leopoldo until the neighbors discovered that it had passed into the hands of Chinese owners who maintain its decoration.