Restaurants in Barcelona
A selection of Barcelona's best restaurants in all areas of the city
In Barcelona, the Spanish and in particular the Catalan cuisine is at home. However you can also find an exquisite international cuisine, since people from many countries live in Barcelona.
If you would like to eat fish or seafood the former fishing area near the Barcelona’s beach is Barcelona's first address. In the Gothic quarter (Barrí Gotic) in the centre of Barcelona you will find a rather wide variety of restaurants from around the world. In the district of Eixample, outside the mass tourism of the old city, a traditional Spanish cuisine dominates.
From Thursday to Saturday, you should reserve a table.
Opening times
Spaniards eat compared to the Middle-Europeans rather late. Lunch is served between 14:00 and 16:00 in the afternoon and you don’t eat dinner before 21:00. Some restaurant’s kitchens often open only from 21:00 to about 24:00 due to that. Around the Rambla in the Gothic quarter, many restaurants have adapted to the tourists and open the kitchen earlier.
Pricing and Payment
Spanish-Catalan recipes
Bring a little flair of the Catalonian home with our delicious recipes. From the classic paella to tapas.
Many restaurants offer a cheap lunch menu (menú del día), salad, main dish, dessert and a drink. Prices range from 6 -15 €.
At night you should calculate with slightly higher prices. Of course every price class restaurant can be found in Barcelona - from fast-food restaurant to gourmet temple. Often the prices are indicated on the menu cards without the 7% value added tax (IVA).
Only one person pays at a table. The breakdown of the invoiced amount you have to do among yourselves.
Restaurants in Barcelona's districts
Tips for dining in Restaurants in Barcelona
Seating in restaurants
Please wait at the entrance of the restaurant until the waiter lead to a free space. Often a waiting area is set up at the entrance. In bars and pubs you can sit at a table yourself. Not usual it is to settle at a table where someone already sits.
Tipping
Local people in Spain only give a little tip. In restaurants you give about 5 percent, or you round the amount up to an "straight" sum. Leave the tip on the table when leaving the restaurant.
Smoking in restaurants and bars
From 2011, a tougher non smoking-law applies: Smoking is generally not allowed in bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Previously possible exceptions, such as separate smoking areas in restaurants or bars, no longer exists. But on terraces you can smoke as before.
Recognize good restaurants
When the Spanish meal time a restaurant is full, then that is a good sign. But judge not too easily: in the empty tapas bar next door, guests may come just two hours later.
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