Barcelona recommendations
Before traveling, we’ll usually ask for tips on Instagram and in the ever-helpful Berlin Food Stories forum. Never have I received such an enthusiastic response of restaurants that people absolutely adore. It feels like everybody who’s been there loves Barcelona (with an asterisk around the hordes of tourists and the pickpockets that follow).
We were in town for two whole weeks, and eating out every night + most lunches. Every single meal was at least good, and most were excellent. It’s simply a fantastic food city, with a rich local cuisine endowed with an early Arab influence, proximity to France & Italy, historic wealth to refine palettes, and a front-row seat for the best seafood crawling and swimming out of the Mediterranean. The food scene is also buoyed by a post-Franco Catalan consciousness after decades of repression under the dictatorship, giving the local cuisine a special pride and sense of place.
It’s as if Catalonia’s history and geography were deliberately structured to produce a perfect cuisine. Historically, you can still taste early Arabic influences (like much of Spanish cuisine, audible in the words for staple ingredients like ‘arroz’ (rice) and ‘azúcar’ (sugar) from the Arabic ‘ar-ruzz’ or ‘as-sukkar’), the sauces brought over from aristocrats fleeing the French Revolution, and New World ingredients from Spaniards returning home after expeditions to the west.
Geographically, Catalan food is a cuisine of ‘sea and mountains.’ Not only does Barcelona have access to Mediterranean seafood from squid to sea snails to stingray, mussels and clams and cuttlefish; the mountains are also a happy home to sheeps, goats, cows, and of course, pigs. Catalonia has the widest variety of wild mushrooms in Spain, and meat products like blood sausage, fuet, and longaniza are produced near wonderful cheeses like the moldy goaty Garrotxa and sharp sheep’s cheese Serrat.
One of the most exciting things about this rich history & geography is how components are combined into classic Catalan dishes. The ‘sea and mountains’ theme doesn’t just describe the region, but also an array of dishes that bring land and sea products together. Think clams with jamon and fino sherry, or classic Catalan dishes like chicken & lobster, pig’s foot & prawns, meatballs & cuttlefish.
Not bad for a region the size of the state of Maryland. While there are many cuisines in Europe I love dearly, Catalan cuisine has an eclectic vibrancy I think is quite unique. I can’t wait to come back and taste more.
Here, I list a few of our favorite restaurants from our time in town. The few spots we went into without research or reservation were still good, but it’s a touristy-enough town that it’s worth mapping your calories in advance. Take this list as a starting point, but certainly look for other guides from trustworthy sources and avoid paying €30 for a shitty paella. Before you go, I also recommend Claudia Roden’s The Food of Spain, which offers a great few chapters of Spanish food history before hundreds of recipes clearly labeled by region.
Upscale & fine dining
Set menu restaurants, €80+ pp.
Clever and sexy Catalan dishes in an intimate chef’s table setting, cooked by what was clearly the most talented kitchen I dined at in town. Several strong and whimsical ‘surf and turf’ dishes over most of the menu, like sea snails beside a pig’s trotter terrine or smoked peas & oyster leaves. Finished with an absolutely hype-worthy dessert: smoked cheesecake topped with matcha powder. When making a reservation, try and ensure you’re sitting at the bar vs. the patio outside.
Prawns in almond cream
Seafood-driven restaurant with 1 Michelin star. Impeccable service and beautiful plates, deserving of its star. Some dishes delve into the pretentiousness that comes with Michelin scores (e.g noting that the green curry with stingray and cod belly, in fact, has 50 ingredients) but still great value for money and not overwrought. A safe bet for both Michelin Guide skeptics and those in the fine-dining scene; the ornamentation doesn’t get in the way of very strong technique, plating, and flavors.
Lobster claw and deboned chicken wing in tamarind sauce, a fine dining take on a Catalan ‘sea and mountains’ dish
Pan-mediterranean tapas restaurant serving historic recipes that help showcase the rich cuisines of the region. Ancient Egyptian leeks preserved in beer, pig nipples with a shot of broth, salt-cured fish and pressed pigeon muse on the cuisine of ancient empires, Renaissance banquets, and the first recorded recipes. This all sounds quite gimmicky, but it really is a tasty restaurant that teaches its guests about the gastronomical history of the region.
Pig nipples with a shot of broth. It’s ok to hate this, all the other dishes were entirely uncontroversial and delicious. But I had to order one dish from their more ‘medieval banquet’ vibe on the menu.
Date-night casual
Tapas bars and seafood counters with upmarket ambience and service, €30-80 pp.
Line up before they open and grab a first seat at the counter for lunch. Delightful vibes and great service. Fantastic clams (in different sizes -- try the fingernail-sized ones), tortillas, and crema catalana. Our favorite lunch, likely because we met a native Spanish-speaking friend there who’s a regular.
Delightful service with Catalan and Spanish classics (like Bombas, the meat-stuffed fried potato balls and wonderful tortillas or Ensalladilla de Cadiz with potatoes and bacalao), but also a few unique dishes like fried ortiguillas (sea anemone).
Gabatxo
French-run cocktail bar with a small menu. Worth starring and popping in for a cocktail if you’re in the neighborhood, but don’t plan a day around it.
Suckling pig chain with 13 locations around Spain. Feels like the kind of spot you’d take your Spanish grandma to lunch -- but in a very, very good way. Their wood-fired oven is a sight to behold, as are the stacks and stacks of suckling pig platters cooked for dozens of hours and prepped to heat & crisp the skin to order. Amazing building to amble around on your way to the table. A funny place that doesn’t quite fit with the trendier options on this list, but we very much enjoyed our lunch there and I’m glad we went.
Classic tapas & seafood counters
Truly casual tapas bars with just a bit of chaos. Difficult to spend more than €20 pp at any of these even with a few drinks.
A must-go. Belly up to the counter for a market lunch with the sausage & peppers, bombas, boquerones, and bravas.
Another must-go –– enjoy a few glasses of cava for < €2 each and try as many of their sandwiches as you can stomach.
A very laid-back tapas spot with most of the Catalan hits, but most noteworthy: the best anchovies I’ve ever had. Great bombas and migas as well.
Quirky small spot but a good pick if you’re into tinned seafood and want to try a selection on one plate. I had a big mixed platter of mussels, langoustines, tuna, sardines, anchovies, boquerones, and squid, most of which I’ve never tried before. They also make their own vermouth and, bizarrely, operate a sushi restaurant out of the same building. Do seek it out if you want to try a mix of canned seafood without committing to a full can at your Airbnb!
A mix of tinned seafood at Bar Chiqui
Other stuff worth tasting
It’s worth seeking out a wide selection of Penedes wines from the region, both white wine and sparkling Cava (which hails from the region). Both wines use white grapes that I haven’t had before (and I think production / demand are too low for much of an export market), but we consistently had balanced and elegant wines. Didn’t explore too much of the wine scene but the Penedes I had consistently wonderful peach-almond notes and a bit of a barrel-y, oxidized flavor… Very interesting and affordable wines, I’m sure there are many great spots to buy wine in the city but this one had a very nice selection of Catalan wines and very helpful staff.
Heavily recommended spots we didn’t get to
No direct experience at any of these but each was recommended several times by trustworthy folks!