The best meal we had in Barcelona and other Barcelona, Spain Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant Name: Alboroque

After visiting Park Guell and before heading to La Sagrada Familia, we decided to try this restaurant that had been recommended to us. It is not walking distance from the Park (about 5 minutes by taxi), but not too far from the Sagrada Familia.

The restaurant is apparently owned and run exclusively by women. The waitresses and the cook must have been sisters, so this is probably a family business.
It is quite small and really looks great on the inside.

Then there is the best part: the food. It had that home-cooked feel to it.
I had the "Escudella" which is a traditional dish of several meats (beef, pork, poultry, etc) that you put in a broth. There are also some boiled potatoes and vegetables. It was great!!!
It is actually very similar to the Portuguese "Cozido à Portuguesa" (hint in case you are visiting that beautiful country :)).

My girlfriend had the rabbit with raisins that was also very good.

The deserts were great too: the almond pie and the "panna cotta" with red berries were excellent.

Definetly the best meal we had in Barcelona

Favorite Dish: Everything!

Leave a Comment

Theme: Local
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: 93 4580855
Address: C/ Mallorca 304

Restaurant Name: El Rodizio Grill

Rodizio is a Brazilian concept and an all-you-can eat meat feast.

This place tries to do something similar. It is a buffet, fixed price meal. You just eat as much as you want from one of the cold buffets or some nice, warm meat.

If you have tried the real thing, or as in my case, a similar thing (there are some places in Portugal that are quite faithful, I have been told), you will miss some things like the rice and beans to go with the meat (they apparently only serve it on Saturdays) and some other strange things like chicken hearts (although I can live without them).

They also serve "Caipirinha" and "Caipiroska" (Caipirinha made with Vodka). There's the kiwi and strawberry varieties, but I would stay away from those.

Favorite Dish: Go for the "Picanha" (probably my favorite meat), "maminha" and some of the sausages were also quite good.

Leave a Comment

Theme: Buffet
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: 93 2655112
Address: Consell de Cent 403, 08009 Barcelona
Directions: It is on a street perpendicular to Passeig de Gracia (heading east), about 10 minutes walking, but worth it.

Restaurant Name: Attic

We were told that this is the only good restaurant in Las Ramblas and I have good reasons to believe it is.
First it is almost impossible to get a table without reservation unless you go really early (before 20.00) or late (after midnight). This when most other places were empty.

You can see it is something special even before you walk in as it already looks really nice from outside.
The interior is very nice, in my opinion, All wooden walls and ceilings, but in a very modern style.

Service was good although I was a bit offended by our waiter as he insisted on speaking English when I was trying my best with Spanish ;) I guess he was just trying to be friendly.

The food was really good and prices were reasonable. I would definetly go there again and highly recommend it.

DO MAKE RESERVATIONS.

Favorite Dish: The Arròs Negre Sípia (Black rice) was delicious and so was the chocolate cake.
I would skip the tomato bread as there is barely any tomato on it...

Leave a Comment

Theme: Local
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$21-30  » Currency Converter
Phone: +34 93 3024866
Address: Les Rambles 120
Directions: Right at the beginning of Las Ramblas (heading to the sea) on the left-hand side coming from Plaza Catalunya.

Restaurant Name: Centfocs

This is a nice place close to the Hotel we were staying at.

We were a bit dissapointed to have to wait for a while 10-15 minutes when we were told to wait "just a second" as it was getting late and we were very hungry (it was about 22.30). When we were finally seated, we were rushed into making a choice as "the kitchen was closing"...

In any case the food was very good and the prices were very reasonable, so I would go there again.

Favorite Dish: We had a really good tuna "belly" and a calamari and pea stew!

Leave a Comment

Theme: Local
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: +34 93 4120095
Address: C/ Balmes 16 Baixos, 08007 Barcelona
Directions: Very close to Plaza Catalunya, heading to C/ Pelay

Restaurant Name: Trobador

This restaurant is just off Plaza Catalynua and is a modern, trendy place.

Service was very good.

I ordered an "Amalida de Bolets i Bacalao" which is a salad with mushrooms and codfish (raw, marinated I guess). When I got it, they had forgotten the codfish (I had been told this is one of the more typical Catalunian dishes). When I finally got it, it was nice.

My girlfriend had grilled Artichokes (Carxofes Brasa) that were also very nice.

The chocolare pyramid (Piramide de trufa) was very good.


Leave a Comment

Theme: Local
Comparison: about average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: 93 318 4041
Address: Rambla Catalunya, 2-4, 08007 Barcelona
Directions: Right next to Plaza Catalynua.

Restaurant Name: Cafe Zurich

In Portugal, some of the best places to go for a coffee are the ones with the not-so-friendly but extremely efficient, white-jacket waiters. I guess Spain is not much different.

What is better than sitting in the sun (even indoor) enjoying a coffee/juice and a fresh pastry served by sweaty (yes, it does add to the charm) waiters? On top of this, the waiters were actually friendly!

It is also great for just sitting down and watching people go by.

It's not the cheapest place to go as it is very central and popular, but it was very conveniently located from our hotel and we liked it a lot.

Favorite Dish: I like the "canya con la crema", it is just a pastry with an egg-based filling.

Leave a Comment

Theme: Coffeehouse

Address: Placa Catalunya.

Restaurant Name: Farggi

Strolling around the Passeig de Gracia, we felt tired and decided to sit down and have a refreshment.
We just passed in front of this place and saw some nice-looking crepes covered in melted chocolate and decided to give it a try.

We ordered a crepe, a "Hot&Ice" (warm melted chocolate with a scoop of ice cream) a juice and two waters.

They only had two kinds of juice: Orange or Peach, but this seems to be the case in other places too.

The crepe was OK, not great, the Hot&Ice was not made with dark chocolate as stated in the menu. We were served two glasses of tap water, which is fine as I always drink it at home and it seemed perfectly safe to drink it in Barcelona as well.

The annoying part came when I asked for some more water. Eating chocolate makes you thirsty and since they did not have any juice that I liked, I asked for some more water. The waiter told a colleague to serve us some more water but made a quite rude gesture (and sound) indicating that it was tap water - as if saying that we were cheap tourists that did not want to pay for water. The look on his face helped to confirm this feeling.
Even if this had been the case, you cannot treat customers like that. I had actually asked for water so I expected it to be bottled, as that is usually the case if you don't specifically ask for tap water.

In the end, when I went to pay, the bill was 9.60 and I gave him a 20 Eur bill. He returned 10 and waited for a while expecting me to tell him to keep the change. In those circumstances, I would not have left 1 cent.


Leave a Comment

Theme: Coffeehouse

Address: Passeig de Gracia 94