Eating and Drinking in Barcelona

Barcelona is a city truly full of venues, and there is no shortage of opportunities to eat well. From typical Spanish or Catalan eateries to ethnic cuisine, from Italian restaurants to gourmet places, every palate will be satisfied in Barcelona. There are numerous places to eat in Barcelona, closer or further from the centre, but still very well accessible by bus or metro.

On La Rambla

The area of Barcelona most frequented by tourists is undoubtedly the Rambla, the long tree-lined boulevard that runs from the Columbus Monument to Plaza Catalunya.

Like all big cities, eating in a tourist area often means dubious quality and high prices. That’s why we don’t recommend eating along La Rambla at all if you want a proper meal at a normal cost; on the other hand, you will have the chance to eat in a unique setting, sitting outside watching the human stream of people passing by at all hours of the day and night, and you can also enjoy the performances of the street artists who often entertain those who choose to dine along La Rambla.

In the markets

A fun way to get in touch with the local scene is to dine in the markets. The most famous market in Barcelona is undoubtedly La Boqueria, located along La Rambla and closed on Sundays. It is an explosion of colours, smells and tastes: fish, fruit, vegetables, meat, typical Catalan products, all put on display as if in a painting.

Among the numerous stands you can also find bar-restaurants where you eat sitting at the counter, ordering directly what you see on display in the best Spanish tradition. The quality is excellent and the products very fresh, the experience is truly remarkable and a great way to get in touch with the local cuisine. Unfortunately, being a market targeted by tourists day and night, eating at the Boqueria is more expensive than average.

The seafood restaurants of Port Olimpic and Passeig Marittim

The area of the Barceloneta promenade leading up to Port Olimpic is where the city’s upmarket and trendy restaurants are located. They are next to each other, but their characteristic is that at seafront level there is only the entrance: to enter each of them you have to descend steep stairs, which means that it is impossible to see inside except once you are inside sitting down to eat.

Fortunately, before going down the stairs, the menu in English and Spanish is displayed with prices, so that no one has any nasty surprises.

What to eat in Barcelona: typical Catalan cuisine

In terms of gastronomy, Catalonia is one of the most important regions of Spain, thanks to its rather rustic basic cuisine, but full of great varieties of dishes, usually accompanied by four basic sauces: sofrito, samfaina, picada andalioli.

Thanks to the region’s geographical location, Catalan gastronomy blends mar y muntanya: high-quality fish, crustaceans and molluscs, some of which can only be found on the Catalan coast, such as the espardenyes, belonging to the cephalopod family and known only along the coasts of Barcelona and Tarragona; meat, especially pork; and game, where partridges stand out.

Accompanying everything is a vast selection of vegetables and fruit and numerous species of forest and meadow mushrooms.
Alongside the typically Catalan dishes, however, there are many others where the foreign influence is evident, such as that of delicate Provençal cuisine, or the reflection of neighbouring cuisines, such as that of Valencia.

Regional specialities

The best of Catalan cuisine to guide you through a menu!

Breakfast

• Canya – cream-filled pastry
• Bikini – toast with cheese and ham
• Torrada – toast with your choice of filling
• Xurros amb xocolata (churros with chocolate) – fried batter sticks dipped in thick chocolate

Sauces

• Sofregit – fried onion, tomato and garlic
• Samfaina or chanfaina – sofregit plus red pepper, aubergine
• Picada – made with ground almonds, garlic, parsley, hazelnuts and breadcrumbs
• Alioli – beaten garlic with olive oil, and egg yolk
• Romesco – almonds, tomato, olive oil, garlic, vinegar

Lunch and Dinner

• Paella – typical Spanish dish consisting of rice and meat and/or fish, with seafood
• Tortilla Jamon – a kind of omelette with very tasty diced typical Catalan ham and a creamy Basque cheese inside
• Canalons – Catalan cannelloni
• Mariscada – seafood dish with prawns fried in olive oil and garlic
• Arros negre – rice with cuttlefish ink
• Escudella i carn d’olla – soup made with different types of meat and vegetables served with rice or pasta
• Botifarra – the classic Catalan sausage in both the ‘nigra’ version, red and very tasty, and the ‘blanca’ version, served with egg
• Queso Idiazabal – Basque cheese with an unmissable flavour: a mixture of Sardinian pecorino and spicy provolone. It is served in very thin long triangular slices and combined with Jamon Catalano
• Zarzuela de Pescado – a varied fish dish cooked with a rather spicy tomato sauce

Desserts

• Crema Catalana – a thick yellow cream sprinkled with caramelised sugar
• Flaona – cupcake filled with cheese or cream
• Xuixo / quicho – pastry filled with custard, fried and sprinkled with sugar
• Ricotta with honey
• Bombons de Músic – dry fried cupcake

Drinks

• Orxata – a cool drink made with chufa juice, a fruit similar to papaya
• Granizado – orange or lemon granita. Also available with coffee
• Beguda de pobre – literally ‘drink of the poor’ – typical of the Lleida region, it is made with oranges, aniseed and sugar
• Vermuth al grifo – wine macerated with herbs
• Moscatel – sweet dessert wine

Wines

Catalonia is a region with a very complex and diverse wine geography, with no less than ten appellations, each with well-defined characteristics.

The high quality of its wines, thanks to a production tradition more than a thousand years old, combined with a continuous search for innovation, place Catalonia at the oenological vanguard of the whole of Spain. Numerous wineries have skilfully blended indigenous and foreign grape varieties, achieving results of great personality.

Catalonia is also the home of Cava, a sparkling wine produced exclusively with the classic method. Having imported processing techniques from Champagne at the end of the last century, today a couple of international industrial groups and a large number of small wineries produce and export more than 230 million bottles of cava per year.

The Denominations of Origin of Catalonia are: Alella, Ampurdán-Costa Brava, Catalunya, Cava, Conca de Barberá, Costers del Segre, Montsant, Penedés, Pla de Bages, Priorato, Tarragona, Terra Alta.

Vegetarians in Barcelona

Spain is not exactly a paradise for vegetarians, who may encounter some obstacles to their diet. However, they will certainly enjoy the numerous fruit and vegetable markets, or ethnic restaurants (e.g. Chinese and Arab). For those who eat fish, there are no major problems, as the menu of the dia almost always includes a seafood dish.

Be careful when ordering a dish that might seem vegetarian, as it might actually be cooked in meat broth or contain ham, which is often not considered meat by the Spanish!

Here are some useful expressions to use in restaurants:

• ¿Lleva carne o pescado o jamón? = Does it contain meat, fish or ham?
• Soy vegetariano/a = I am vegetarian
• Soy vegan/a = I am vegan
• No pescado / marisco / carne / productos animales = I don’t eat fish / seafood / meat / animal products