Barcelona Food Guide 10 restaurants & bars to try

Barcelona Food Guide. Finally, here comes my favorite post from Barcelona: the foodguide. Since it was my first time in Barcelona, I have been looking at various blog for good restaurants for weeks. I didn’t have any orientation in the city, which is why I’ve created a Google Map and marked all the good ones. Moreover, we hadn’t planned anything for our stay. Therefore, the map was super handy because it was easy to see which restaurants where nearby. Luckily, a friend of a friend accompanied us a bit and was also a foodie. He writes the blog FoodaholicBCN focusing on meals under 15€ (unfortunately, only in Spanish but pictures and the addresses will help). If I’d known that he had a blog I could’ve skipped all my research.

 

Barcelona Food Guide | Starting off at Wave Restaurant

 

Unfortunately, all rooms were booked at the W Hotel Barcelona. But I was still interested in seeing the hotel, which is why we decided to spend our first lunch there –the perfect start of our girl’s trip. At least, it should have been. But we all had massive flight delays and the third one of us arrived super late in the afternoon. However, something to eat was waiting for her.

The Wave Restaurant spoiled us a lot. For a starter, we ordered a variation of Tapas (a must when in Spain), which went so well with our rosé wine. We ordered two dishes to share: a tuna tatar on an avocado cream and summer rolls with prawns. As soon as my friend had arrived she ordered the octopus, which looked delicious. A sweet final was served and even though we were super full, we couldn’t resist. I highly recommend having lunch at the Wave Restaurant.

 

Barcelona Food Guide | Brunch at Granja petitbo

On our second day we drove to Parc Güell and walked back into the city. My map was super useful to find a place to eat and we bumped into Granja Petitbo. Barcelona is full with great blogger-restaurants and cafés (that’s not meant in a negative way at all, I think that blogger have great recommendations most of the times. Thank you Gabby at this point!). Some would call it a hipster place. There is to say that the whole healthy, vegetarian and vegan food scene has been growing a lot in Barcelona. There are so many different places right now compared to years ago.

I’m a huge fan of Granja Petitbo – a cozy café/restaurant, where you can brunch, have lunch or just have a drink. There are daily dishes and the juices are fabulous (take the big one, though. You’ll get more for your money!). We ordered Nachos for a start, followed by a Caesar Salad, a quinoa dish and Egg Benedict. The other dishes looked really delicious too. Ours were amazing! The interior of the restaurant is super cozy and definitely one of my favorites so far.

 

Barcelona Food Guide | Best paella at Arenal Restaurant

Good tapas, a healthy restaurant, drinking Sangria and a delicious paella were on my food list. Luckily, Albert recommended Arenal Restaurant as one of the best paellas in town. He also told us that you’ll get a good paella starting from 18€, which was fine for us for once. We took a walk on the Barcelona beach and reached the restaurant, which is located right on the beach with a spacious terrace. You can also sit inside but it smelled a bit weirdly (if the weather is great, sit outside!).

We didn’t know that most of the times you pay more if you’re sitting outside on the terrace. Also here. We knew that they have various lunch menus and went for the gourmet menu. We picked a salmon tatar with avocado cream (the avocados were so good in Barcelona, every single time) followed by the paella as main dish. As dessert they had a fruity lemon sorbet. A glass of wine was included. In my opinion, the whole menu was a little bit too much for our appetite. The paella was huge and I highly recommend to order it for 2 persons instead of 3 (it will be enough and it is also less expensive). The paella itself was savory. The classic paella normally is a mix of meat and fish, which I also love a lot. Nonetheless, a lot of people prefer the seafood version much more. I’d missed the mix one here.

 

Barcelona Food Guide | More tapas at La Luna

 

Next point – tapas! On our first evening we went to La Luna in the Gothic neighborhood. The restaurant is great for having drinks and various tapas. The assortment is great, but the prices are a little bit higher than in a classic tapas bar. Still, the portions are big and satisfying. All in all, we paid around 17€ each including a Litre of Sangria.

 

Barcelona Food Guide | Tapas on a budget at Blai Tonight

 

As you can see we were spending a hell of a money on food but it was so worth it. However, we wanted to go to a real tapas bar one time and Albert had recommended going to Blai Tonight. Carrer de Blai is full with tapas bars but this one should’ve been the best one. You’ll find a lot of young people here having tapas and drinks. Blai Tonight offered a great selection of Tapas – some for 1€, others for 1,5€. You won’t be paying more here. It’s perfect to try different ones and we shared a couple. Compared to the much more expensive La Luna you’ll get 1,5 litre Sangria for the same price. In the end, we exit with around 10€ each, which is definitely a bargain.

 

Barcelona Food Guide | Dinner at Barcelo Raval hotel

 

Our Hotel Barcelo Raval invited us for dinner one evening. The breakfast was already really good, and we weren’t disappointed of our dinner. They organized a little menu for us, which included heavy Spanish food but served in small portions. It was all very delicious.

The Restaurant B-Lounge also offers a brunch open to the public on the weekends.

 

Barcelona Food Guide | Croquetas and tortilla at Bodega Marin

 

Unfortunately, we didn’t explore the Garcìa neighborhood a lot. A lively hub with restaurants and bars – best in the evening and at night. Albert brought us to this small bodega, where we had a little aperitif – some wine and a few tapas. We tried various croquetas this time, which were so good. I learned that croquetas aren’t made of potatoes, but get their consistence thanks to the béchamel sauce. Some were filled with meat, others with vegetables, e.g. pumpkin. Delicious! We drank a light white wine. Obviously, the aperitif was only the start of a long evening…

 

Barcelona Bar Guide | Mojitos at Sub Rosa Cocktail

 

One of my favorite bars was definitely Sub Rosa Cocktail. Yay for the low prices in Barcelona. The mojitos were really good and I loved the dark ambience and good music.

 

Barcelona Bar Guide | Mehr Cocktails im Bar68

 

We found this nice cocktailbar Bar68 near our hotel Barcelo Raval. Another place that serves great mojitos and other cocktails in totem glasses. It was quite calm since it was a weekday, but I’m sure there is going on a lot here on weekends.