• Xerta Restaurant

    Xerta Restaurant

    Xerta Restaurant brings the seafood and wetland treasures of the Terres de l’Ebre territory to Barcelona’s fine-dining scene. Review: Xerta Restaurant, OhLa Eixample Hotel, Eixample, Barcelona Xerta had a big impact in Barcelona when it opened in the new OhLa Eixample 5-star hotel, winning a Michelin star in its first year. That created some controversy but…

  • Lasarte

    Lasarte

    Lasarte – Barcelona’s only three-Michelin-star restaurant – offers distinctive, sure-footed cooking of the very highest standard. Review: Lasarte Restaurant, Monument Hotel, Eixample, Barcelona Barcelona’s reputation as a destination city for fine dining has mushroomed. But until recently, it did not have a restaurant with three Michelin stars. This irked local food journalists no end. They griped…

  • Els Pescadors

    Els Pescadors

    Els Pescadors restaurant, on a pretty and un-city-like square in Poblenou, serves some of the best rice and fish dishes in Barcelona. Review: Els Pescadors restaurant, Poblenou, Barcelona The centre of the Barcelona neighbourhood of Poblenou never fails to charm. It still feels like a place where people live, not just visit. Stroll up from the sea along its main…

  • La Falconera

    La Falconera

    UPDATE 2018: La Falconera has closed permanently La Falconera specialises in traditional tapas and hearty, nose-to-tail stews despite its fashionable location in Barcelona’s Eixample.  Bite-sized review: La Falconera restaurant, Eixample, Barcelona Trad is trendy again. Even so, there aren’t many places in the upper reaches of Barcelona’s Eixample that specialise in stews and similar rib-sticking…

  • Disfrutar (2017)

    Disfrutar (2017)

    Now in its third year and with a Michelin star, Disfrutar is still the most exciting restaurant in Barcelona. Review: Disfrutar restaurant, Eixample, Barcelona When I visited Disfrutar in 2015, I was blown away. I raved about it in my review here. I’ve since sent dozens of people there and heard only good reports in…

  • Fishhh!

    Fishhh!

    Fishhh! restaurant in Barcelona’s L’Illa Diagonal shopping mall serves a first-rate seafood feast that belies its unoceanic location. Review: Fishhh! seafood restaurant and oyster bar, L’Illa Diagonal shopping centre, Les Corts, Barcelona A city shopping centre probably isn’t the first place you think of when you’re in the mood for seafood. Especially in Spain, where…

  • Roig Robí

    Roig Robí

    Roig Robí has earned its status as a classic Barcelona restaurant. After 35 years, it still offers deeply satisfying traditional Catalan dishes and exemplary service. Review: Roig Robí restaurant, Gracia, Barcelona It’s not easy, running a traditional restaurant in Barcelona. Yes, there’s a deep well of culinary culture to draw from and a shared appreciation for…

  • Rocambolesc (Barcelona)

    Rocambolesc (Barcelona)

    Rocambolesc on Barcelona’s Ramblas serves lollies and ice creams worth licking, based on desserts by superstar chef Jordi Roca. Bite-sized review: Rocambolesc ice-cream shop, Liceu opera house, La Rambla, Barcelona The Ramblas are ground zero of Barcelona’s tourism explosion. The shock-waves of undiscriminating diners that roll down the boulevard have scorched clean all traces of its gastronomic…

  • Lamprey and goose barnacles at Rías de Galicia – Espai Kru

    Lamprey and goose barnacles at Rías de Galicia – Espai Kru

    The blood-sucking lamprey and otherworldly goose barnacles top the bill in a feast at Barcelona’s leading seafood restaurant.  I’ve eaten at espai Kru before and loved it. You can read my full review here but for the TLDR crowd: just book a table and go. It’s a spin off from Rías de Galicia, located downstairs, which is…

  • Mont Bar

    Mont Bar

    Mont Bar bistro in Barcelona’s Eixample successfully combines superb,  star-quality cooking with an informal, everyday atmosphere. Restaurant review: Mont Bar, Eixample, Barcelona Informal fine dining is hard to do well. Without the traffic signals of traditional formal service to guide them, restaurateurs often take a wrong turn. Diners are driven into a nightmarish no-man’s-land where…

  • Gouthier

    Gouthier

    Gouthier, in the uptown district of Sarrià, is Barcelona’s go-to bar for top-quality oysters. Review: Gouthier bar-restaurant, Sarrià, Barcelona Gouthier oyster bar is in Sarrià, an uptown Barcelona district that still feels like the separate village it once was. Its terrace spills out onto a pretty square far beyond the roaming range of most tourists. No…

  • The Guardian Travel – City Breaks With Kids: Barcelona

    Read my latest article about Barcelona, City Breaks With Kids, in The Guardian travel section. The Guardian has just published an article I wrote about what to do in Barcelona with kids. It’s also in the 28/1/2017 print edition. If you live in Barcelona or if you’re planning a family holiday here, please check it…

  • Opera Samfaina

    UPDATE: Opera Samfaina is now permanently CLOSED.  Review: Opera Samfaina bar/restaurant/food experience, Grand Teatre del Liceu, Les Rambles, Barcelona I was convinced I was going to hate Opera Samfaina. Its website is full of phrases like “gastronomic fantasyland” and ” multisensory trip”. It made me shudder. When I was invited to go and review it, I…

  • Green Spot

    Green Spot is a vegetarian restaurant in Barcelona that everyone can enjoy, with gorgeous interior design and fun dishes. Review: Green Spot vegetarian restaurant, Barceloneta, Barcelona Barcelona isn’t the best city for vegetarians. This is a city built by, and for, meat eaters. There are vegetarian restaurants of a tolerable standard but nothing that really makes…

  • La Panxa del Bisbe

    La Panxa del Bisbe

    La Panxa del Bisbe restaurant in Gràcia, Barcelona is a little treasure, serving Mediterranean cuisine with successful creative twists. La Panxa del Bisbe restaurant, Gràcia, Barcelona When La Panxa was at its previous location, a block away on Carrer Rabassa, I used to go fairly regularly. It was tiny, cramped and always full, but the…

  • Mercer Restaurant – Barcelona (2016)

    Mercer Restaurant – Barcelona (2016)

    Barcelona’s 5-star Mercer hotel changes its restaurant chef yet again. Harry Wieding goes back to basics with a very good menu of produce-led Catalan cuisine. Review – Mercer Restaurant, Hotel Mercer, Gothic Quarter, Barcelona The Mercer’s kitchen seems to have been fitted with a well-oiled revolving door. The late, great Jean-Luc Figueras was the first…

  • Dos Pebrots

    Dos Pebrots

    Dos Pebrots – the new restaurant in Barcelona’s Raval by former El Bulli head chef Albert Raurich – is a masterclass – and  history class – in Mediterranean cooking. Review: Dos Pebrots restaurant, El Raval, Barcelona A confession: I didn’t walk into Dos Pebrots with an open mind. Every since I heard about chef Albert Raurich’s plans for…

  • Please Don’t Tell by World Class at Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona

    Please Don’t Tell by World Class at Mandarin Oriental, Barcelona

    Please Don’t Tell (PDT) by World Class moves from New York to Barcelona for a month of masterful cocktails and hot dogs designed by star chefs. SWIPE OR CLICK ON THE IMAGE ARROWS TO SEE GALLERY ABOVE Please Don’t Tell (PDT), the renowned Manhattan speakeasy, popped up across the Atlantic in Barcelona in September. The location…

  • 4amb5 Mujades

    4amb5 Mujades

    4amb5 Mujades, a promising new restaurant in Barcelona’s Raval, makes local vegetables the focus of its refined and refreshing non-vegetarian dishes. Review: 4amb5 Mujades restaurant, Raval, Barcelona “WTF is ‘4 amb 5 mujades‘ supposed to mean?” was my first question. I felt embarrassed about my poor Catalan vocabulary until I realised that my Catalan wife didn’t know…

  • Bobo Pulpín

    Bobo Pulpín

    Family-friendly tapas restaurant Bobo Pulpín, near the cathedral in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, puts octopus in prime position but offers something for everyone.   Review: Bobo Pulpín tapas bar and restaurant, Barri Gòtic,  Barcelona With apologies to Dickens, this is a tale of two densities. Traditional Spanish tapas dishes are typically heavy. There’s a lot of deep frying…

  • Barcelona Boat Trip

    Barcelona Boat Trip

    “Fancy a boat trip and a few beers?” It was my friend Rob, of the redoubtable Homage to BCN blog, asking a stupid question. Of course I did. And so we met at Barnabier in Barcelona’s Port Olimpic, to be  joined by other friends old and new, including Ben Holbrook  (who has written a better…

  • La Castanya

    La Castanya

    La Castanya in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter serves smart, creative tapas giving local ingredients an Italian twist. Review: La Castanya creative tapas bar and restaurant, Barri Gòtic, Barcelona I knew for sure that La Castanya would be good as soon as I saw the chef arrive. But I was already pretty confident by then. Why? Well, the…

  • Le Cucine Mandarosso

    Le Cucine Mandarosso

    Le Cucine Mandarosso is an authentic southern Italian restaurant in Barcelona serving big flavours at bargain prices. Review: Le Cucine Mandarosso southern Italian restaurant, Sant Pere, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona Le Cucine Mandarosso – just off Via Laietana, a few metres from the Palau de la Música Catalana – has been open since 2008 and on…

  • Radish Barcelona

    Radish Barcelona

    This new supperclub/pop-up restaurant in Barcelona by Scottish cook and food writer Philip Dundas skilfully combines Caledonia with Catalonia to produce robust, hearty flavours. Review: Radish Barcelona pop-up supperclub Barcelona, like many cities, is in the grip of a supperclub boom. Platforms like EatWith are connecting record numbers of tourists (and, I suppose, some locals)…

  • Drive Me Barcelona

    Drive Me Barcelona

    In a one-time-only unscheduled change to my usual posts, I’m going to talk about Ferraris instead of food. As regular readers will know, when I’m not eating I am a self-employed copywriter. This is less glamourous than writing about restaurants but has the upside of actually earning me some money.  Drive Me Barcelona recently contacted…

  • Bardeni (2016)

    Bardeni (2016)

    Bardeni ‘meat bar’ near la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is a carnivore’s dream: top-quality tapas in informal surroundings. Review: Bardeni ‘El Meatbar’, Eixample, Barcelona Bardeni ‘el meatbar’ impressed me when I visited in 2014 (see here). I’m also a fan of its sister restaurant Caldeni, located next door. Knowing that Bardeni had been fully renovated, and keen…

  • Eat Street

    Eat Street

    Photos from the first Eat Street Barcelona food truck event of 2016. Click on arrows or swipe to see gallery. I should have posted these photos earlier, but better late than never. Eat Street (which I’ve covered before) and written about for the FT, is one of the pioneers of Barcelona’s street food scene. In…

  • Kresios Barcelona

    Kresios Barcelona

    UPDATE: CLOSED An ambitious new Michelin-star contender opens in the Mercer Barcelona hotel: Kresios Barcelona adds a welcome Italian element to the city’s fine-dining mix. Update: Kresios didn’t last long. The restaurant is again called the Mercer and has a new chef: Click here for my review of the latest iteration of Mercer restaurant.   Review:…

  • Mikkeller Bar Barcelona

    Mikkeller Bar Barcelona

    2017 edit: chef Emanuele has now left Mikkeller and started his own Italian restaurant, Il Birrino. Mikkeller Bar Barcelona puts quality Catalan-Italian food on tap alongside excellent but expensive Danish craft beer. Review: Mikkeller Bar, Eixample, Barcelona Danish brewer Mikkeller is to European craft beers what Apple once was to tech: a brand that’s kept its…

  • Sergi de Meià

    Sergi de Meià

    Catalan chef Sergi de Meià takes all-local, almost-all-organic ingredients and creates contemporary but rustically redolent dishes that evoke a strong sense of place. Review: Sergi de Meià restaurant, Eixample, Barcelona When I read about Sergí de Meià restaurant last year, it went straight onto my ‘must-try’ list. Run by a young chef from Espluges via the small…

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