42 Best Restaurants in Catalonia, Valencia, and the Costa Blanca, Spain

Simple, fresh, and generous dishes are the draw at this informal little eatery, an institution in Cadaqués. Tables are shared, and there is no menu; the staff recite the offerings of the day, which might include local prawns and sardines a la plancha, mussels, and sea bass. The walls are plastered with pictures of the celebrities who have made the pilgrimage here, including Dalí himself. 

The word "compartir" means “to share” and this excellent restaurant bases its menu on a small-plate sharing approach that has been taken to another level by the culinary team of Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro, and Eduard Xatruch (who also run Barcelona's two-Michelin-starred Disfrutar). Each dish is served by attentive staff within an 18th-century courtyard.

There’s almost always a line outside this old-school, family-owned tapas bar, a local favorite since its founding in 1940. If you can’t get a table, sidle up to the long wood bar, choose from the display of bite-sized, toothpick-speared pintxos, and eat them standing, just like a local.

Holder of three Michelin stars since 2009, El Celler de Can Roca, helmed by the Roca brothers—Joan, Josep, and Jordi—is a life-changing culinary experience. Its two tasting menus, ranging from 14 to 22 courses and priced in the €250 range, feature wildly inventive dishes and daring presentations.

Just 1½ km (1 mile) north of town, this restaurant—housed within a rather nondescript hotel—has been hailed as the birthplace of modern Catalan cuisine and is a beacon for gourmands. The hyper-local menu changes with the seasons and features such dishes as eggplant with anchovies from Cadaqués, stewed chicken with morels plucked from the Collserola mountains, and a vanilla tart topped with strawberries from nearby Vilafant.

Dine on fresh seafood, grilled meats, and pasta on the tranquil, tree-shaded patio or inside the rustic-chic dining room. From here, it’s a short stroll to the secluded Aiguafreda swimming cove. It’s a great alternative in summer to Begur’s perpetually packed beachfront restaurants.

Under co-owners Fede and Diana Cervera and chef Xicu Ramón, this distinguished restaurant in the center of town continues to reinvent and deconstruct traditional Valencian cuisine. The setting is an architectural tour de force: a 16th-century town house transformed into a sunlit modern space with an open kitchen and a three-story-high wall sculpted to resemble a billowing white curtain. The midweek menus, available for lunch or dinner, include a selection of creative tapas—minicourses, really, that might include a soup or a salad—and one rice dish or other main course, giving you a good idea of the chef's repertoire at an unbeatable price.

"Bread and Grapes" in Catalan, Pa i Raïm is an excellent restaurant set in writer Josep Pla's ancestral family home in Palafrugell. It has one rustic dining room as well as another in a glassed-in winter garden, plus a leafy terrace, which is the place to be in summer. 

Book in advance for a table on the romantic riverfront terrace and you’ll be rewarded with exceptional views of Besalú’s medieval bridge. The prix-fixe menu changes monthly and offers a wide array of traditional Catalan dishes of superb quality, with seasonal ingredients sourced from the nearby Banyols market.

Stone arches dating from the 14th-century frame the tables at this atmospheric restaurant in the historical Part Alta (Old Town). The cooking is smart and modern, with a focus on seasonal, local ingredients, like the crispy veal cannelloni topped with a reduction of Priorat, an intense red wine from the Tarragona province.

This stylish restaurant, just around the corner from the Teatre-Museu Dalí, focuses on seasonal Empordà ingredients from the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. Look for classic Catalan fare like prawn and cuttlefish fideuá alongside more modern dishes such as tuna tataki with black garlic.

For an upscale treat, Botafumeiro never disappoints; the counter is the place to be for icy Albariño white wine and pop a feira (octopus on potato slices with smoked paprika), a Galician favorite.

This bistro’s menu includes a 20-strong list of Catalan-style pizzas, served on peasant bread and incorporating regional ingredients like botifarra (sausage) and seasonal mushrooms. The delightful terrace is situated below a flight of stone stairs leading to the 17th-century Sant Martí church.

Half a block in from the town's beach, this restaurant serves house-cooked seafood and upland specialties. The pimientos de piquillos rellenos de brandada (sweet red peppers stuffed with codfish mousse) are first-rate, as are the rice dishes.

Spelled with a capital C, this legendary seaside spot opened in 1913 and spawned the term that’s given to similar bars dotting the Spanish coast. There’s nothing particularly outstanding about the food—typical seafood tapas, much of it fried—but the waterfront terrace is ideal for soaking up the sun and more than a century of history.

On the edge of the old town, this relaxed bi-level restaurant serves enticing dishes in plentiful portions. Downstairs, indulge in tapas and simpler dishes, or head to the fancier dining space upstairs for specialties like roast suckling pig, lamb chops, and sea bass baked in rock salt.

Around the southern end of the beach at Sant Feliu de Guixols, perched over the entrance to the harbor, this family seafood restaurant offers superb sea views as well as fine fare at unbeatable prices. Whether straight seafood such as lubina (sea bass) or dorada (gilt-head bream) or revuelto de setas (eggs scrambled with wild mushrooms), everything served here is fresh and flavorful.

Set alongside the harbor, this Valencian favorite has been serving traditional cuisine with a modern twist for more than 30 years. From a terrace with views of the water you can choose from an array of excellent seafood dishes, including house specialties such as arroz en caldero (rice with monkfish, lobster, or prawns) and gambas rojas (local red prawns). À la carte dining can be expensive, while set menus are easier on your wallet. 

This casual restaurant with a beachfront terrace serves fresh seafood and rice dishes, plus an affordable three-course lunch menu (€16.50).

This popular restaurant focuses on fine French fare, with such specialties as house-made foie gras, fillet of turbot, and beef entrecôte. There's also a variety of game in season, including venison and partridge.

Elegantly rustic, this restaurant beside Tossa de Mar's medieval walls serves classical Catalan cuisine from the sea, including lobster rice, and the mountains, such as a traditional mixed-meat stew. A tapas tasting menu (€98) lets you sample a bit of everything.

Owned by a professional cyclist and decorated with an abundance of bike memorabilia, this inviting café serves healthy, organic breakfasts and lunches—avocado toast, egg dishes, quinoa bowls—along with superb locally roasted coffee. It's a popular fuel-up stop for local cyclists.

Locals regard this bustling, informal restaurant, on the promenade at El Cabanyal beach, as the best in town for seafood paella. Founded in 1898, the walls of the establishment are covered with signed pictures of appreciative visitors, from Ernest Hemingway to King Juan Carlos and the royal family. Try the paella marinera (seafood) topped with shrimp and mussels or hearty platters of calamares (squid) and langostinos (prawns). Save room for the delectable tarts made with fruit in season.

This family-owned spot serves basic Catalan comfort food­—sausages, smoked cod, croquetas—in a cozy, rustic space with arched ceilings, wood tables, and stone walls. The terrace is a treat, abutting the beautiful 12th-century church of St. Peter.

A favorite of Valencia's well connected and well-to-do since 1982, this family-run restaurant a few steps from the Plaza de la Reina specializes in seafood dishes like anguilas (eels) prepared with all i pebre (garlic and pepper), parrillada de pescado (selection of freshly grilled fish), and traditional paellas. Lunch begins at 2 and not a moment before. The walls are covered with decorative ceramics and the gastronomic awards the restaurant has won over the years.

This thoroughly modern but comfortable restaurant in the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern is likely to put a serious dent in your budget, but it's unlikely you'll sample better venison carpaccio anywhere else, or partake of any finer an arroz caldoso de bogavante (soupy rice with lobster). The dinner menu is prix-fixe (€70). A great choice for lunch is the informal downstairs eatery, on the museum terrace, where the €12.50 prix-fixe lunch gets you a three-course feast.

This wine bar and restaurant in the heart of the casco antiguo (old town) earns high marks from locals and international visitors alike. There's a wide selection of montaditos (sandwiches), paella, and fresh seafood tapas—oysters, mussels, razor clams—complemented by a well-chosen list of Spanish wines. 

If you have time for only one meal in the city, take it at this elegant little restaurant in the heart of historic Tarragona. The menu is bursting with both mountain and Mediterranean fare, and the prix-fixe lunch is a bargain at €19. Start off with the canelons d'auberginia amb ànec (eggplant and duck cannelloni); seafood fans should try the tronc de lluç al forn amb patates (oven-baked hake with potatoes).

So tasty is the paella here that even Valencianos regularly travel out of the city to Maribel Arroceria, off the main drag in El Palmar. Sit surrounded by the rice fields of Albufera Nature Park, either in the contemporary, air-conditioned dining room or outside at pavement tables overlooking the canal. Off the à la carte menu, diners can sample all i pebre anguilas (smoked eels simmered with garlic, paprika, and pepper), the rich and ever popular paella de magret de pato y foie con setas (with duck, foie gras, and wild mushrooms), and, if there’s room, dig into a brownie or cheesecake for dessert.

Contemporary architecture and cuisine in the old part of Girona make for interesting dining at this sleek, streamlined restaurant. Grilled eel and pepper rice and fideuà with shrimp in a seafood emulsion are typical dishes, and there's a frequently changing five- and 10-course tasting menu.