12 Best Shopping in Barcelona, Spain

At the corner of Carrer de la Palla and Banys Nous, this café and shop sells wine and foodstuffs such as honey, biscuits, chocolates, and preserves made in convents and monasteries all over Spain. You can pop in to pick up an exquisitely packaged pot of jam, or linger over divine pastries and coffee in the tearoom.

This shop is one of the most aromatic and picturesque in Barcelona, bursting with teas, coffees, spices, saffron, chocolates, and nuts. The star is an almond-roasting stove in the back of the store—purportedly the oldest in Europe, dating from 1851 like the store itself, so make sure to pick up a bag of freshly roasted nuts to take with you.

Just up the street from Santa Maria del Mar, this coffee emporium is famous for its sacks of coffee beans from all over the globe and is said to serve the best cup of coffee in Barcelona, also available to go. El Magnífico's best-kept secret is its nearby "Mag by El Magnífico" coffee shop, open Friday through Sunday only ( Carrer de Grunyí 10).

To-die-for pastries, croissants, and chocolates have made Foix de Sarrià, founded in 1886, a Barcelona landmark. J. V. Foix, the son of the patisserie's founder, was an important Catalan poet who managed to survive the Franco regime with his art intact. He was born in the building that houses the branch of the shop at Major de Sarrià 57; one of his best-known poems is engraved in bronze on the outside wall. On Sunday, barcelonins come to Foix de Sarrià from all over town; Sunday just wouldn’t be Sunday without a cake from from arguably Barcelona's best patisserie, to take to grandma’s. 

The late Mey Hofmann, a constellation in Barcelona's gourmet galaxy for the last three decades through her restaurant and cooking courses, established this sideline dedicated exclusively to pastry. Everything from the lightest, flakiest croissants to the cakes, tarts, and ice creams are about as good they get in this legendary sweets emporium. 

Choose from the vast selection of Catalan and Spanish wines at this high-ceilinged bodega, which also sells fancy cheeses, pâté, Iberian ham, and other gourmet fare to go. It’s also a wine and tapas bar, so you can sample a bit of everything before you buy.

Scotswoman Katherine McLaughlin has put together the Gothic Quarter's most delightful cheese-tasting sanctuary on the site of an ancient buttery. (A 19th-century butter churn is visible in the back room.) A dozen artisanal cow, goat, and sheep cheeses from all over Spain, and olive oils, can be tasted and taken home. La Seu is named for a combination of La Seu Cathedral, as the "seat" of cheeses, and for cheese-rich La Seu d'Urgell in the Pyrenees. Katherine's wrapping paper, imaginatively chosen sheets of newspaper, give a final flourish to purchases.

This busy emporium next to the church of Santa Maria del Mar stocks excellent cheeses, hams, pâtés, and homemade sobrassadas (pork pâté with paprika). Catalan botifarra sausage is the main item here, with a wide range of varieties, including egg sausage for meatless Lent and sausage stuffed with spinach, asparagus, cider, cinnamon, and Cabrales cheese.

As you can guess from the name, which is decorated with cod-fishing memorabilia, this shop specializes in bacalao—salted and dried salt cod, which is used in a wide range of Catalan recipes (such as esqueixada, in which shredded strips of raw salt cod are served in a marinade of oil and vinegar). Slabs of bacalao can be vacuum-packed for portability, and there are lots of recipe books if you're looking for inspiration.

Barcelona’s wave of creative cake makers owe a lot to Antoni Escribà, a pastry chef who elevated the craft to an art form, especially in the field of chocolate sculptures. His three sons—Cristian, Joan, and Jordi—keep his spirit alive in the Casa Figueras, a jewel box of a shop awash in mosaic murals, curly copper work, and other fanciful Art Nouveau detailing. Tortes, chocolate kisses, and candy rings are just some of the edible treasures here that delight and surprise. A second Escribà shop, which has a café area, is at Gran Vía 546 in the Eixample.

Founded in 1890, this historic Moderniste shop, its windows decorated with reproductions of Catalan artist Ramón Casas paintings, has a superb selection of some 200 cheeses, sausages, wines, and conserves from Spain, Catalunya, and beyond. This work of art–cum–grocery store (queviures means foodstuffs, literally, "things to keep you alive") is definitely worth a stop.

Purveyor of fine hams in Spain and abroad for more than 30 years, Reserva Ibérica has a shop in the Eixample where it not only sells a selection of its best, all-acorn-fed products, but also offers the opportunity for customers to taste the hams, accompanied by a glass of wine.