Category: Barcelona Restaurant Reviews

The lunch menu at the Roca brothers’ Barcelona restaurant is a worthwhile lighter option for business people or eager shoppers. 2018 Update: Roca Moo is now PERMANENTLY CLOSED. Review: Roca Moo restaurant, Hotel Omm. To get to Roca Moo you must first pass through the ground floor of the five-star Hotel Omm and skirt Roca Bar,…

Tickets Bar takes diners on a slightly chaotic, creatively charged tapas funride through a world of miniature marvels. Review: Tickets Bar, Barcelona It’s hard to know where to start with a write-up of Tickets. It’s all been said before: the big-top circus theme, elBulli, Ferran Adrià, the more publicity-shy Albert Adrià stepping out of his brother’s shadow,…

Star chef Jordi Cruz’s ‘second’ Barcelona restaurant is a delight, and better in some ways than his flagship ABaC. Review: Angle restaurant, Hotel Cram, Barcelona Note: I prefer to review restaurants on their own merits and not in relation to other establishments but when you visit two in a week that are run by the…

Haute cuisine but lacking heart? Some exquisite dishes let down by directionless menu with disappointing desserts at one of the city’s finest restaurants.  Review: ABaC restaurant, Barcelona I really wanted to love ABaC. Its chef, Jordi Cruz, is someone I’ve admired for a long time. I’ve watched him rise from Barcelona’s ranks of talented young cooks to become a…

Like mama used to make – but better. Top-quality traditional Catalan food at affordable prices, served in style .  UPDATE 2018: Freixa Tradició has now CLOSED due to the retirement of Josep Maria and Dori. Thanks for the memories! Review: Freixa Tradició restaurant The Freixa family knows how to cook. Josep Maria Freixa won a…

  UPDATE FEB ’17: Espai Sucre is closed and will reopen in a completely different format later in 2017. It seems that the new concept will be a single shared table for a limited number of diners. Surprise and delight in equal measures in an original menu that creatively combines both sweet and savoury. Review:…

A Barceloneta seafood institution that remains unspoiled by the tourism boom. Review: Can Solé restaurant, Barcelona La Barceloneta isn’t what it once was. Like the rest of Barcelona’s ciutat vella (old town), it has seen its character diluted and damaged by the tidal wave of tourism that has swept up from the airport and cruise ship…

Hard to find, harder still to know what you’re spending, but also hard to beat for seafood. Review: El Passadís del Pep restauraunt, Barcelona Does this look like the entrance to an iconic restaurant? At El Passadís del Pep (‘Pep’s corridor’), there’s no sign outside; no name on the buzzer. Even forearmed with the correct address, you’ll…

The perfect blend of old-school service and first-class modern cooking; a great choice for romantic dinners and special occasions. Review: Via Veneto restaurant, Barcelona Is Via Veneto Barcelona’s most overlooked restaurant? In some ways, that’s an absurd question; after all, it has a Michelin star, and – after nearly 50 years as a fine dining…

A fun-filled masterclass in modern technique and good taste. Disfrutar lives up to the hype and delivers a very special experience. Review: Disfrutar restaurant, Barcelona El Bulli, El Bulli, El Bulli … The ghost of Ferran Adrià’s famous restaurant, closed in 2011, is more of an active, pan-chucking poltergeist haunting the Barcelona food scene than…

Beautiful restaurant with cooking to match – but understaffing stops it reaching its potential. Review: Mercer restaurant, Hotel Mercer Update, September 2015: Please note that head chef Xavier Lahuerta has now left Mercer restaurant. Click here for my review of the latest iteration of Mercer restaurant. The Mercer is a gorgeous hotel. It’s built into…

Bold flavours, good taste, inventive cooking, and a profound love for food: one of the best restaurants in Barcelona. Review: Manairó restaurant The last time I went to Manairó (in 2014) I was hugely impressed. It stood out even among Barcelona’s other one-Michelin-starred restaurants, delivering daring big flavours under tight control. There are many restuarants…

Big flavours and bargain set menus at this Eixample restaurant won’t leave you feeling blue  Review: Blau BCN restaurant As its name suggests, blue is the dominant colour at Blau BCN. Think, however, of a cool, jazzy, sophisticated blue – not the my-dog-done-died, 12-bar variety – and you’ll be closer to imagining the atmosphere at chef…

Gothic Quarter bistro in 5-star Hotel Mercer offers upmarket tapas with deft, creative touches. Review: Le Bouchon, Hotel Mercer The chefs at the Hotel Mercer have big boots to fill. Both the hotel’s main restaurant (review coming soon) and Le Bouchon, its more informal bistro, were conceptualized and then overseen by the great Catalan chef Jean Luc Figueras…

UPDATE MAY 2017: Cometacinc has closed permanently. Barcelona Gothic Quarter bistro with old-fashioned charm and updated food Review: Cometacinc restaurant, el Barri Gótic The monumental wooden shutters and doors at Cometacinc are baffling, in more ways than one. They seem scaled to block out the blazing sunlight of a wide, open square, not that of…

Barcelona’s best bistro? Certainly a strong contender. Rustic dishes, refined, in the Raval.  Review: Suculent, Rambla de Raval, Barcelona People who know me were always telling me to go to Suculent. “You’ll love it,” they said. “Just your sort of thing.” Fellow gastronauts with similar tastes have spoken in hushed, awed tones of The Steak…

Good, family-friendly tapas, tucked away among the tourist traps in El Born, Barcelona Review: El Guindilla del Born: tapas bar, takeaway and restuarant The Born district incarnation of El Guindilla, like its sister restaurant of the same name in Barceloneta, belongs to the same family that owns and runs the various Asador de Aranda restaurants. I…

A tapas ‘trojan horse’ for traditional Barcelona cuisine on one of the city’s best contemporary terraces. Review: Bravo 24 restaurant and tapas bar (Hotel W)  Bravo 24 wasn’t what I was expecting. Not even close. I’d spent the previous evening staying in the Hotel W (known locally as the ‘Vela’, or sail) and I thought…

A rollercoaster ride through Asian cuisine, powered by passion and steered by a world-class chef. Intro (you can skip this bit if you just want the review…) The word ‘passion’ is greatly over-used when it comes to cuisine. I blame the melodrama of the various international iterations of Masterchef and its ilk. If contestants aren’t…

A hidden treasure: A characterful and quirky Barcelona bistro that prioritizes quality produce. Note: This restaurant review is based on a visit in February 2015. X no longer marks the spot where treasure is said to lie. Instead, a pointer on Google Maps or Tripadvisor sends adventurers scurrying in search of the mythical prize: an authentic, unspoiled…

Note (Dec. 17) BistrEau is once again called Blanc and is now run by Carme Ruscalleda. Read the review of Blanc here. Bold start in Barcelona by seafood specialist ‘Chef del Mar’ Ángel León at the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Note: this review is based on a visit in November 2014. The menu is now different but I…

Surprisingly good rice and great views on Barcelona’s Sant Sebastià beach. There are a strip of restaurants styled after chiringuitos, beach bars, on the sand-side base of Barcelona’s towering W Hotel (known locally as the Vela). Barcelona’s chiringuitos are great places to get a snack or a drink but they don’t always have the best reputation when it comes to…

Beautiful space, delicious food, professional service, no surprises: the basics done right in Barcelona’s Eixample. Places like Mordisco (Passatge de la Concepció 10, 08008, Barcelona, Tel.  (+34) 934 879 656; Metro Diagonal) raise an interesting question: What do you want from a restaurant? When you’re deep down the foodie rabbit hole, either as an industry professional or just as an…

Seafood and sea views from a stylish restaurant on Barcelona’s Somorrostro beach. Bestial‘s most obvious strength is its location (Ramon Trias Fargas 2-4, 08005, Barcelona; Tel. (+34) 932 240 407, Metro Ciutadella-Villa Olímpica, closed Monday lunch). Its multi-level garden terrace looks out over Somorrostro beach. There, on the golden sand, Barcelona’s beautiful people play volleyball before frolicking…

Exquisite, world-class fine dining in Barcelona from the Ruscalleda family. Carme Ruscalleda has accumulated a constellation of Michelín stars: three in Sant Pau, half an hour up the coast from Barcelona in Sant Pol de Mar; two in Sant Pau in Tokyo, and two in Moments (Hotel Mandarin Oriental, Passeig de Gràcia 38-40, 08007 Barcelona; Tel. (+34)…

Friendly and affordable fine dining in Barcelona’s Eixample. Etapes (c/ Enric Granados 10, 08007, Barcelona, Tel. (+34) 933236914)  opened in 2010 and I visited the following year. Despite some rough edges, the restaurant showed great promise and duly went on to win a Michelín Bib Gourmand.  Etapes has undergone a cosmetic facelift since then but remains…

A stylish haven for the hungry among the shops and offices of Sarria-Sant Gervasi. Negro-Rojo‘s split name reflects a split personality. There are, in fact, two completely separate restaurants on the premesis (Av. Diagonal 640, 08017, Barcelona, Tel. +34 934 059 444, website) in front of La Illa shopping centre: Rojo, downstairs, is a ‘Japanese…