Barcelona Restaurants

Barcelona's restaurant scene is an ongoing surprise. What with the cutting-edge of avant-garde culinary experimentation and the cosmopolitan and rustic dishes of traditional Catalan fare, there's a fleet of inventive chefs producing some of Europe's finest Mediterranean cuisine.

The Cuisine

Catalans are legendary lovers of fish, vegetables, rabbit, duck, lamb, and game, as well as natural ingredients from the Pyrenees or the Mediterranean. The mar i muntanya (sea and mountain—that is, surf and turf), recipes combining seafood with upland products, are standard: rabbit and prawns, cuttlefish and meatballs, chickpeas and clams are just a few examples. Combining salty and sweet tastes—a Moorish legacy—is another common theme, as in duck with pears, rabbit with figs, or lamb with olives.

The Mediterranean diet, which is based on olive oil, seafood, fibrous vegetables, onions, garlic, and red wine, is at home in Barcelona, and food tends to be seasoned with Catalonia's four basic sauces—allioli (pure garlic and olive oil), romescu (almonds, hazelnuts, tomato, garlic, and olive oil), sofregit (fried onion, tomato, and herbs), and samfaina (a ratatouillelike vegetable mixture). Typical entrées include habas a la catalana (a spicy broad-bean stew), bullabesa (fish soup-stew similar to the French bouillabaisse), and espinacas a la catalana (spinach cooked with oil, garlic, pine nuts, raisins, and bits of bacon). Bread is often doused with olive oil and spread with tomato to make pa amb tomaquet, delicious on its own or as a side order.

Meal Times

Lunch is served from 1 to 4, dinner 9 to 11. Some restaurants serve continuously from 1 PM to 1 AM.

Deals & Discounts

Menús del día (menus of the day), served only at lunchtime, are good values. Beware the advice of hotel concierges and taxi drivers, who have been known to warn that the place you are going is either closed or no good anymore and to recommend places where they get kickbacks.

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