45 Best Restaurants in Barcelona, Spain

Chef Rafa Zafra’s elegant hodgepodge of a menu features contemporary Catalan fare, French classics like sole meuniere, and dishes inspired by his alma mater, El Bulli. The prices are as jaw-dropping as the dining room, which features soaring ceilings, towering marble columns, ornate chandeliers, and gilded accents galore.

Specializing in Catalan bar food and local, organic, biodynamic, and natural wine, this sometimes-rowdy bar may not look like much from the outside but the hordes of people waiting to be seated give it away. Top choices include the mushroom carpaccio with wasabi vinaigrette and strawberries, the black squid-ink croquettes and the spicy patatas bravas.

One of the first things you'll notice here is the scent of freshly baked bread, then you'll take in the open kitchen, head-nodding playlist, and cozy interior, with oversized windows facing the street. The chef's modern spin on Catalan cuisine features Peruvian and Asian influences, and the dishes are made almost exclusively using locally sourced organic products.

The atmosphere is relaxed but sophisticated in this invariably fully booked (for good reason!) restaurant with a constantly changing menu that blends the very best seasonal produce from the Spanish regions of Catalonia and Galicia. Freshly caught fish and seafood---think Galician cockles and dry-aged beef, or red shrimp from the Med---take pride of place, as do the seasonal vegetables.

Just down the road from the Picasso Museum, Bodega La Puntual might look like a tourist trap, but it's a classic, specializing in hearty portions of Catalan fare, made from seasonal, locally sourced produce. Top menu choices include the fresh marinated anchovies, the plate of premium hand-cut Iberian jamón, and trinxat: a traditional Catalan dish made with potatoes, cabbage, and pork meat, served with a fried egg.

This restaurant takes contemporary decor and fine-dining style and adds the pizzazz of open-kitchen cooking. It's known for its decadent tasting menus, and the star dish is a rich mar i muntanya macaroni with lobster, foie gras, and artichoke. The contemporary decor combines gleaming traditional copper with retro-cool mid-century modern furniture. Wine selections can be added at a surcharge per person. 

Once you find this spot, tucked inside the boutique Wittmore Hotel at the end of a tiny alley, you’ll be rewarded with a wonderfully creative menu of small plates and hearty baked pastas. Dishes are served in the lounge-like dining room or out on the courtyard patio with its twinkling lights and impressive vertical garden.

With a "short" 10-course tasting menu priced at just €58 (the longer one is €82 for 14 courses) Cruix is the fine-dining restaurant for people who don't want to spend hundreds of euros on a meal. Everything here is laid-back and unpretentious, including the exposed-brick interior, but the quality speaks to the Chef Miquel Pardo's pedigree: he worked under Spanish superstar chefs like Albert Adrià and Jordi Cruz before opening Cruix in 2017. 

The sumptuous glory of this restored late-19th-century Moderniste dining room has food to match, courtesy of chef German Espinosa, who spent many years working under superstar Martín Berasategui. Catalan cuisine is interpreted with a French influence—set menus start at €40 (for lunch) and go to €151 for the full tasting menu including premium wine pairings, a relative bargain considering the presentation, the knowledgeable staff, and the historic setting. 

Inside the ultrasleek Mandarin Oriental hotel, this restaurant, with food by Raül Balam and his mother—the legendary Carme Ruscalleda—lives up to its stellar pedigree, with original preparations that draw on deep wells of Catalan culinary traditions. Dishes on the tasting menus display a masterful lightness of touch and come to the table so exquisitely presented that putting a fork into them feels almost like wanton vandalism; the reward, however, is sublime, with treasures of taste revealed in every astonishing bite.

This is a strong contender for the crown of Barcelona’s best bistro, where chef Toni Romero turns out Catalan tapas and dishes that have roots in rustic classics but reach high modern standards of execution. The name is a twist on the Catalan sucar lent (to dip slowly), and excellent bread is duly provided to soak up the sauces, which you won't want to let go to waste.

Much of Xerta's menu is the expected swanky fine-dining fare, but stand-out options use unique produce from the deltas and rivers of the Terres de l'Ebre region, such as sweet miniature canyuts (razor clams), oysters, and fresh eel. The superb weekday four-course lunch menu includes two glasses of wine per person and is a steal at €45.

Alegria translates as "joy" and nothing is more joyful than finding a sunny spot on Alegria's popular patio for a glass of iced vermút and a tapa of spicy patatas bravas or the famous truffled ham and cheese toastie. Vermouth culture is all about bar hopping from place to place until you are full (and tipsy) and suddenly realize the sun set a long time ago and you have no idea what time it is—nor do you care. Sant Antoni is full of vermouth bars just like this and Bar Alegria is a great place to kick things off.

Just above Diagonal, this elegant retro space serves first-rate products ranging from wild sea bass to the best Ibérico hams. Crowded, noisy, chaotic, delicious—it's everything a great tapas bar or restaurant should be. The wine selections and range of dishes proposed on the chalkboard behind the bar are creative and traditional and the service is superb. The menu changes with the seasons, but staples include the solomillo with seasonal mushrooms (or foie gras when mushrooms aren't in season) and the utterly decadent lobster with egg and brandy. Don't let the friendly and casual feel of the place lull you into thinking that la cuenta (the check) will be anything but sobering. Entrepanes Diaz, directly opposite, is a spin-off that serves more humble (and more sensibly priced) snacks and sandwiches in a similarly elegant style.

Since opening its doors in 1928 (then under a different name), Bar Muy Buenas boasts a modernist design, more than 30 Catalan wines to choose from, and an extensive menu of classic recipes from the region.

Set in a charming Moderniste space dating back to 1892, this bar hits the perfect balance of quality, price, service, and ambience. The menu mixes classic dishes like deep-fried calamari and spicy patatas bravas, with house specials like the steak tartare.

Blanc's menu couples traditional Catalan cuisine with fresh, seasonal products, and the three-course lunch menu, and the ever-changing, five-course "Sundays at Blanc" tasting menu are popular. The dining room is in an airy atrium at the heart of the Mandarin Oriental and feels lively most of the day, starting when the first hotel guests come in for the (excellent) breakfast. 

A short stroll from the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion and CaixaForum, this bustling brick-walled restaurant serves top-notch seasonal Catalan cuisine prepared on the Josper charcoal oven. Order à la carte or go with the multicourse prix-fixe menu, which is a good deal.

This restaurant has been serving old-school Catalan cuisine to local and loyal customers since 1940 (and under a different name for 50 years before that), and the practice has been made perfect. Standouts include butifarra sausage with spinach and chickpeas, meatballs with squid and shrimp, or veal stew with wild mushrooms. Most dishes are hearty, but there are a few lighter options such as steamed mussels and oven-baked cod.

Since the early 1970s, Ca l'Isidre has elevated simplicity to the level of the spectacular, with traditional Catalan dishes prepared to an extraordinarily high standard (and at a rather high price tag by Barcelona standards). Ignore the menu—just follow the recommendations and order whatever's in season. The restaurant is decorated with original works by a slew of luminaries, including Miró and Dalí, both former patrons. Spain's King Juan Carlos celebrated his wedding anniversary here, and regular guests include politicians and visiting Hollywood celebrities.

With wicker chairs, stone walls, and classical music, this place is sophisticated-rustic in style. Contemporary Mediterranean cuisine specialties such as roast vegetable "timbale" with black sausage and Parmesan or eggplant terrine with goat cheese, make it more than just a café. Politicians and functionaries from the nearby Generalitat frequent this dining room, which is always boiling with life. Call ahead to reserve a table indoors or on the busy terrace.

Founded in 1931, this rustic corner restaurant is a local favorite for the array of classic tapas and mains, along with Catalan “pizza”—flatbread topped with traditional ingredients such as caramelized onion and butifarra (garlicky pork sausage) or sobrasada (soft, cured pork sausage) with brie and honey. There’s a small but decent wine list featuring several ecological wines.

Obsessively local, scrupulously sourced, and masterfully cooked, the dishes of Catalan-Canadian chef Jordi Artal put the spotlight on the region's finest ingredients in an intimate, sophisticated setting. It's hard to believe that this garlanded restaurant is Jordi's first, but there's no arguing with the evidence of your cinc sentits (five senses). There's no à la carte option, only a tasting menu priced at €159 and €189. For your money, you will be taken on a fun run-through of reinterpretations of traditional Catalan dishes using cutting-edge techniques, matched with wines exclusive to the restaurant.

Elevated sharing plates made from locally sourced, seasonal ingredients are the bottom line at this trendy Eixample eatery. The menu features unlikely combos: artichoke salad with Parmesan cream and bottarga, or glazed mackerel with pumpkin—blends that shouldn't work, but yet they really do—along with nods to the most classic of Catalan "grandma" dishes, like the decadently meaty macaroni covered in cheese. The intimate dining room is chic but unfussy, works by local artists adorn the walls, and the small outdoor terrace has four tables for four for diners who prefer to eat alfresco.

Local gourmands pilgrimage to this tiny, unassuming-looking bar on the edge of the famous Boquería market, where Catalan chef Arnau Muñío flexes his culinary chops in full view of the diners at his chef's-table-style counter. There are two tasting menus, one long, one short, both of which showcase Muñío's unique approach to Catalan-Asian fusion food. Think miso scallops with pickled mushrooms and shrimp in green tea kombucha. Capacity is extremely limited and reservations (well in advance) are essential. 

Part of Poblenou’s Sala Beckett cultural center, this restaurant’s vast, high-ceilinged dining room fills up with locals at lunchtime, thanks to its excellent, well-priced "menu del día" of classic Catalan dishes. Reserve a table for the popular Sunday-afternoon vermouth hour, featuring live jazz between noon and 1 pm.

One of the city’s oldest restaurants (dating back to 1908), this homey spot that's popular for lunch serves unfussy Catalan cuisine in a lovely rustic dining room, complete with original multicolored-glass windows looking out on the tranquil Plaça del Sortidor. The paellas and arroz negro (black rice with squid) are particularly good.