Author: FoodBarcelona

  • Surya

    Surya

    ‘Mumbai street food’ in Barcelona: a modern Indian restaurant for relaxed snacking. Surya (C/ Pau Claris 92, +34 936 678 760 Barcelona isn’t the typical flock-wallpapered Barcelona Indian restaurant that transports you to the bad old days of 1980s Britain. The first thing that you’ll notice, apart from the bright murals, is that there’s a bus parked…

  • 1881 Per SAGARDI

    1881 Per SAGARDI

    Great views, superb steak and slick service at this rooftop restaurant overlooking Barcelona’s Port Vell.  Restaurant locations in Barcelona don’t get much better than this. The Basque-Catalan 1881 Per SAGARDI (Plaça de Pau Vila 3, Barcelona; Tel. +34 932210050) perches atop the waterside Museu d’Història de Catalunya, at the crook of the old harbour where the former fishing district of Barceloneta juts away from…

  • Fòrum Gastronòmic Barcelona 2014

    Fòrum Gastronòmic Barcelona 2014

    A wayyyyyyyyyyyy overdue post about 2014’s  Forum Gastronomic in Barcelona. Forget the write-up, enjoy the photos. Culinary legends were honoured and top chefs presented their latest ideas at October’s Gastronomy Forum in Barcelona. The four-day event ran alongside hospitality industry expo Hostelco and BarForum to form Barcelona Hosting Week.  57,000 producers, winemakers, importers, exporters, restaurauteurs…

  • Fodor’s Travel BARCELONA

    Fodor’s Travel BARCELONA

    The bestselling Barcelona travel guide book now features a chapter on ‘Where to Eat’ by the author of this blog. As regular readers may know, I recently wrote and edited reviews of hundreds of restaurant reviews plus features on Catalan food and wine for the 5th edition of Fodor’s Barcelona. It’s now on-sale in both…

  • Eat Street #4

    Eat Street #4

    Click on the arrow keys to see the whole gallery. The fourth Eat Street food fair was a massive success thanks to the hard work of the BCN Mès newspaper team who organized it and the cooks who slaved for hours on a scorching afternoon to feed everyone. I was covering the event for the…

  • Manairó

    Manairó

    Inventive and impassioned cooking from a charismatic chef whose personality shines through in every dish in his restaurant, making it one of the finest in Barcelona. Note: This review is based on a visit in January 2014. Chef Jordi Herrera isn’t, at first glance, the kind of guy you might expect to delicately arrange exquisite…

  • Tragaluz

    Tragaluz

    Tragaluz’s stunning glass roof, stylish interior and high-quality but play-it-safe cooking make it an ideal choice for entertaining business guests or taking a break from designer shopping sprees on Passeig de Gràcia. It was raining hard and the sky above Barcelona was black when I set out for Tragaluz (Passatge de la Concepció 5, Tel. +34 934…

  • Manlleu Pork and Beer Festival 2014

    Manlleu Pork and Beer Festival 2014

    This year’s meat feast in Manlleu, some 80 km north of Barcelona, was a perfect platform for the new generation of Catalan craft beer brewers and a testament to the lasting appeal of traditional gastronomy. After having thoroughly enjoyed last year’s Festa del Porc i de la Cervesa I wasn’t going to miss a second helping. Unfortunately, the…

  • Restaurant Sant Pau

    Restaurant Sant Pau

    The three-Michelin-starred Sant Pau, a short train ride up the coast from Barcelona, offers one of Catalonia’s greatest dining experiences. UPDATE: October 2018: Chef Carme Ruscalleda has closed Sant Pau to concentrate on other projects. I’m leaving this post up as a memento of the wonderful meal I enjoyed there in early 2014.  Thanks to…

  • L’Arrosseria Xàtiva

    L’Arrosseria Xàtiva

    Rice done right: L’Arrosseria Xàtiva in Les Corts and Gracia is one of Barcelona’s best bets for paella Like having your wallet stolen on the Metro, bad paella is more a question of ‘when’ than ‘if’ for unwary visitors. In every part Barcelona you’ll find tourists wearing expressions of profound disappointment on their sunburnt faces as…

  • Roca Bar

    Roca Bar

    Snack in style at the Roca brothers’ Barcelona gastrobar, annexed to their Michelin-starred Roca Moo restaurant in the luxury Hotel Omm. 2018 Update: Roca Bar is now PERMANENTLY CLOSED.   Barcelona is an informal, unstuffy city, where jackets and ties are always optional. Even in five-star hotels in Barcelona there are always a few tourists…

  • Cal Xim

    Cal Xim

    Cal Xim is as good a choice for a traditional country lunch as you’ll find in Catalonia. It’s less than an hour’s drive from Barcelona, in the Alt Penedés wine region where you can also enjoy some excellent vineyard tours. I don’t get out on my motorcycle as much as I used to; it’s not very practical…

  • Alkimia

    Alkimia

    Jordi Vilà’s Alkimia (C/ Industria, 79, +34 93 207 6115, closed weekends) is a lot of people’s favourite restaurant. Vilà himself is one of Barcelona’s gastronomic stars: a prodigy who worked under some of the city’s greatest chefs including the recently departed and much-missed Jean Luc Figueras. He opened Alkimia with his partner Sònia Profitós…

  • Conill al Romesco (Romesco Rabbit)

    Conill al Romesco (Romesco Rabbit)

    A rustic rabbit recipe from Catalonia that’s delicious enough to turn even bunny-phobes into finger-licking fans. Rabbit’s not what it used to be. The miserable, mass-produced specimens that line the chiller cabinets of Catalan supermarkets don’t have much to recommend them in terms of either flavour or farming ethics. I’ve talked about this before. You…

  • Enoteca

    Enoteca

    The 2-Michelin-star Enoteca at the Hotel Arts is one of the jewels in Barcelona’s culinary crown and its executive chef, Paco Perez, is one of Catalan cuisine’s biggest talents. I recently enjoyed my second meal there in 12 months and wrote about my experiences for the Travel Channel’s ‘FoodTripper’. Check out the article here. I’ll…

  • Fricandó amb Moixernons o Cama-Secs  (Braised Beef with Wild Mushrooms)

    Fricandó amb Moixernons o Cama-Secs (Braised Beef with Wild Mushrooms)

    This classic dish is a staple of menus across Catalonia with as many variations as there are cooks. It’s really an autumn dish but it can be made year-round using dried mushrooms. The combination of tender meat, savoury fungi and rich onion and tomato sauce is finished with a characteristically Catalan touch: a picada (paste) of…

  • Bite-Sized Review: Ca L’Estevet

    Bite-Sized Review: Ca L’Estevet

    Some things should never change, and Ca l’Estevet (C/ Valldonzella 46, +34  93 302 4186) in the Raval is one of them. Unmoved by the tides of gastronomic fashion, it has been turning out old-school Catalan cuisine to devoted regulars since long before I first ate there over 15 years ago. It may be just around the…

  • Bardeni

    Bardeni

    Anywhere that describes itself as a ‘meat bar’ is already halfway to a place in my heart. Low-carb lunches are often a bleak prospect but Bardeni (c/ Valencia 454, no reservations, closed Mondays) promised to put a high-protein smile on my face with a meat feast of tapas. I hoped it would distract me from…

  • Piras Brasería

    Piras Brasería

    I was in Gracia, hungry and in a hurry, when I stumbled across Piras Brasería (C/ Montseny 10, +34 93 218 26 05, closed Tuesdays). I’d just visited Barcelona’s best (and only) English-language second-hand bookshop, Hibernian Books just a few doors away on the same street and I was lured inside Piras by the smell of…

  • Arola (Hotel Arts)

    Arola (Hotel Arts)

    Fine food and a fantastic terrace? A winning combination and, you’d think, a concept restaurateurs in Barcelona would regularly seize upon. There are, however, relatively few places where you can eat outstandingly well while enjoying the warm weather; lots of good places, certainly, but not many you’d describe as excellent. A notable entrant in this…

  • Gresca (revisited)

    Gresca (revisited)

    Actually I revisit Gresca (C/ Provença 230, (+34) 934 516 193, website) as often as I can, which isn’t as often as I’d like. I tend to send people there a lot, however, when they ask me: ‘What’s your favourite restaurant in Barcelona’. In fact, Gresca isn’t my favourite restaurant, but it’s my favourite that just about…

  • Bite-sized reviews: Café de L’Academia

    Bite-sized reviews: Café de L’Academia

    For a straightforward, fresh, top-value lunch in Barcelona’s Barri Gòtic, close to Plaça Sant Jaume, it’s hard to beat Café d’L’Academia (C/ Lledó  1, (+34) 93 319 8253, reservations required). This old favourite has seen dining trends come and go and ignored them all, staying packed every day with tourists and loyal locals in search…

  • Hisop

    Hisop

    Carpe mensam – seize the table. I’m sure my Latin’s all wrong but hopefully you can understand the hurry I was in to book a restaurant when an unexpectedly child-free evening arose in May as the result of an impromptu babysitting offer. It was short notice but I decided to try my luck at Hisop,…

  • A Tu Bola

    A Tu Bola

    I always love exploring Barcelona’s Raval; it’s constantly changing. Every time I go to the neighbourhood I find new ideas, new languages, new shops… but not always new restaurants. Or at least, not ones worth getting excited about. Barcelona’s most multicultural barrio has not yet produced any truly outstanding ethnic restaurants (that I’m aware of)…

  • Making bread in Barcelona

    Making bread in Barcelona

    I don’t eat much bread. I love it, but it’s something I reserve for weekends and special occasions. When I do eat it, I want something as healthy and tasty as possible. Bread quality in Barcelona is on the up but the typical barra is tasteless stodge and pa de pages can be a hit-or-miss affair.…

  • Igueldo

    Igueldo

    Igueldo (c/Rosselló 186, 08008 Barcelona (between Enric Granados and Balmes)), +34 93 452 25 55) is a modern Basque restaurant with a growing reputation in the Eixample district. If you don’t mind traffic fumes, or if you’re a smoker, it has a neat little street terrace where you can eat; most visitors, however, will pass through…

  • Pepito

    Pepito

    Sometimes all this fine dining and foodie community stuff can make you a bit crazy. You lose perspective and start to think that everyone is like you; that they’ll travel miles then tolerate appalling service or horrendous decor or cripplingly uncomfortable chairs, just for the sake of a sensational mouthful that makes you go ‘Mmmmmm.’…

  • Tradición Moderna: Cocina Peruana Creativa

    Tradición Moderna: Cocina Peruana Creativa

    UPDATE: Tradición Moderna is now PERMANENTLY CLOSED. The good news is that another Peruvian restaurant, El Chalaco, has taken over the premesis. It’s less elaborate but good, no-frills traditional food.   I feel a bit guilty about this review. I know, obviously, that for reasons of time, money and stomach capacity that I can’t check out…

  • I hope you’re hungry…

    I hope you’re hungry…

    …because there will be FOOD coming to this blog again in the next few weeks. After a hectic few months of professional reviewing for Fodor’s Travel I can now share with you some of my favourite new discoveries… and a few old favourites that I’ve revisited. Obviously posting will be sporadic because, well, that’s how…

  • Llamber

    Llamber

    Appearances can be deceptive. At first glance it would be easy to write off Llamber (Carrer de la Fusina 5, +34 933 196 250) as just another example of the many stylish-but-bland tapas sheds which have sprung up across the city in recent years. It sits directly opposite the Mercat del Born cultural centre, perfectly placed to snare tired…