Gastronomy is a very important aspect of Barcelona’s cultural heritage, as there is a great culinary offer aimed at tourists who come to visit it. Tourists often begin an important gastronomic route through the city not only because of the restaurants proposed in Barcelona but also because of their gastronomic quality.
You can live in Barcelona a real gourmet experience to combine good food with magic. So, come and discover Barcelona’s best places to eat through the various restaurants that we’ll mention you and where your palate is the real protagonist.
Check out our Gastronomic route
In this article, we are going to talk about five different places where you can go, that are different because of the type of food they offer.
1. Enjoy authentic seafood in “Paradeta”
The Paradeta restaurant has an original concept since it mixes both a restaurant and a fish market in one place. It’s not a classic restaurant where you can order your menu and then a waiter brings it to you depending on what you’ve chose on the menu board. No: at the entrance of a seafood restaurant La Paradeta, you have a “parada” (“puesto” in catalan), when you have to stop to order your food. You will find there varied fish and seafood, as it can be found in a typical market fish stall where you will select your menu.
At this stage of your gastronomic experience you have to choose and ask what you want to eat afterwards, either fish or seafood. Then you have to choose a drink and bread to accompany your order and pay.
Then, you will just have to find a table and wait to be called by your order number to collect your meal already cooked (cooked on a griddle). There is no waiter to serve the dish, consequently you will have to take it at the bar.
The Paradeta has 5 restaurants located in Barcelona: in the Born (behind the Mercat del Born) in Sants, near the Sagrada Familia, in Meridiana and Sitges.
The price is quite affordable and the restaurant’s products are good, so you will find a good price-quality ratio.
Locations:
La Paradeta Sants
C/ Riego 27 08010 Barcelona
Tel. 934 319 059
La Paradeta Born
C/ Comercial 7
Tel. 932 681 939
La Paradeta Meridiana
C/ Pacífic 74
Tel. 935 346 557
La Paradeta Sagrada Família
Passatge Simó 18
Tel. 934 500 191
2. A mix of Mexican and Mediterranean types of cuisine in the “Rita Blue restaurant”
You can eat and have a drink in this place that offers a menu in which Mediterranean and Mexican cuisine are mixed. The Rita Blue Restaurant is located in the Raval and has a magnificent terrace and two floors. Besides the origin of the ingredients used to make the menus are to be outlined, as the restaurant providers are local which guarantees you a good product quality.
We also have to highlight that this restaurant prepares100% natural, vegan and organic food to satisfy all kinds of gastronomic tastes.
More info:
Location: Plaça de Sant Agustí, 3 (Barcelona)
Opening hours:
Sunday to Thursday: 11:00 am-2:00 am
Friday to Saturday : 11:00 am-3:00 am
3. “Bosc de les Fades”: a magical and a fantastical place that will take you to another world
In this place you will be able to enjoy tapas, hot or cold sandwiches, while discovering an enchanted world made of forests and fantastic creatures. But the Bosc de les Fades also allows you to just take a coffee, a drink or a cocktail.
This place is populated by strange trees and gnomes waiting for you to discover every secret that is hiden in every corner of its different rooms. This bar is known for its eccentric decor, made with trees and a jungle vegetation. It also has a ceiling studded with stars and a fairy located near a fountain. Many details will transport you to a fantasy world. Let’s not forget to mention the sounds you’ll be able to hear, sounds which imitates noises of the forest with sounds of crickets and other nocturnal animals.
More info:
Location: Pasaje de la Banca, 5
Opening hours: Monday to Friday :10:00am – 01:00am; Saturday, Sunday and during public holidays: 11:00am – 01:00am
How to get there:
Metro: Green line (L3), Drassanes Station
Buses: 120, 14, 59, 91, 64, D20, H14
4. Enjoy the market cuisine in the Quim de la Boqueria
Within the Mercat de la Boqueria and for less than 20 €, you have at your disposal a large range of tapas and entrees, baby squid, fresh fish cooked on the grill, sandwiches, desserts and all the products are natural. This place is a classic market spot in barcelona where people usually gather since 1987. The opening hours of the Quim de la Boqueria are the same as the Mercat de la Boqueria.
More info:
Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday 7:00 – 16:00; Friday to Saturday: until 5pm.
Closed: on Sunday and Monday.
Location: la Rambla, 91. Boqueria market
5. “The Granja Mabel” family restaurant
This family restaurant is one of the most popular places in the Marina neighborhood. For less than ten euros, it offers four starters and four second dishes, cooked with a great expertise and originality.
One example of the dishes they serve: “macarrones al revés” (a type of unusually cooked macaroni). La Granja Mabel is certainly one of the best -if not the best- restaurants to eat in the Poble Nou district. Jordi Rufino has successfully renovated this restaurant that was once of his parents, and is maintaining its essence bybasing its offer on an excellent cooked food made of good products that represent an excellent quality-price ratio.
Among other dishes, you can enjoy creamed peas and foie coulis, fagottini artichoke with carrot and saffron sauce or homemade burger with caramelized onions and reduction of Pedro Ximenez
More info:
Location: Marina, 116, Sant Martí
Opening hours : Monday to Saturday: 8:00 onwards
Come and enjoy the best of Barcelona’s restaurants!