Alongside the fried ear and the Casa Labra-style breaded cod, the kitchen turns out a homemade anchovy preparation and a langostino cocktail, all built on classic Spanish home-style cooking with house-made sides and desserts.

Valentí wanted something small enough to carry on his own, a place, as he puts it, to grow old as a cook. So the room is set up like the living room of a house, decorated with old cartas and menus from classic restaurants. One on the wall is a menu from La Broche dated 12 January 1997, signed to Valentí by Sergi Arola with a note that the future was theirs and there was a lot to do in Madrid.

It opens Monday to Friday only, lunch and dinner. Valentí says he'd rather keep the same people around him, so regulars see the same faces, and that a full Monday is worth the same as a full Saturday. The flip side of the early success is the phone, which rings constantly; booking well ahead is the realistic plan.

The cooking is strictly market-led and deliberately unfashionable: Valentí looks for dishes that have fallen out of use and lost flavours, and a dish that diners don't order comes off. The short carta starts with tapas such as anchoa preparada, tuna empanadillas, langostinos en gabardina and a caramelised onion tortilla made without potatoes, and a breaded tajada de bacalao in homage to Casa Labra.

From there it moves to green beans with crushed potato and ham, a cigala tartare with chicken skin, macarrones de campo, the canelones of Mestre Fermí Puig, a lobster ropa vieja, oreja with patatas paja and brava, and oxtail stewed with capers. The most requested dish is huevos estrellados with garlic prawns. There's a grill for butifarra, quail, solomillo served as rosbif and fish from the lonja, and to finish, a buñuelo de anís, a frozen lemon and 'the flan you didn't eat as a child'. Bread comes from Alma Nomad Bakery, and the wine list covers Ribera, Rioja, international bottles and sparklers.