Bar Fischer, a discovery on Aribau street with an excellent lunch menu

BarcelonaI was looking for a place to eat on Aribau Street and stumbled upon Bar Fischer. It's true that going somewhere without expectations usually works in your favor. When you walk in, you immediately see that it's a comfortable atmosphere. Then they give you the menu and the lunchtime set menu, and you think, "Hey, that looks good." At that moment, I didn't even know who owned the restaurant, or what skilled hands were behind the kitchen. That came much later.

The lunchtime set menu costs €15.50 and is offered from Tuesday to Friday. And it creates a big problem: choosing. I'll share what I found, although they change it every two weeks. Three options for the first course (sautéed peas with ham; grilled eggplant with miso sauce; grilled lettuce heart with anchovy and Caesar dressing), three options for the second course (capitota, house macaroni, and fried sardines with grilled endive). For dessert, the options are limited to two (pineapple with coconut cream or fresh fruit salad). The price includes a drink, and you can substitute dessert with a coffee. Keep in mind that some dishes have a supplement. Looking at the menu, there are also some very interesting options, such as leeks with anchovies, sautéed mushrooms, Iberian pork shoulder, or fried squid. They also offer humble (but well-executed) patatas bravas, which they were reluctant to include on the menu, but they're so good they had no choice. If you order à la carte, the idea is to serve tapas, and you can eat well for around 30 euros per person.

There are four key figures behind the success of this establishment, which opened in May 2025. Àlex Ventura and Yueying Zheng, a couple, are working in the dining room; His sister, Yuejie Zheng, is the cook, and Youssef Costa, also in the kitchen, was a providential addition to the team. Yueying and Yuejie were born in Castellón, in the Valencian Community, and came from a family of restaurateurs. Àlex studied economics, and he and Yueying shared a passion: their interest in food. They are young, hardworking people with very clear ideas. They spent two years looking at premises. One day they saw the Bar Aribau Tapas. Vicente and Lili had been running it for 35 years. Vicente was actually reluctant to sell. But they were persistent and kept visiting him. And in the end, Vicente trusted them. He could have sold it to some foreigners who would have paid more, but he chose these level-headed young people. As a tribute, they kept the bar's plaque inside the restaurant.

At Bar Fischer, they serve Catalan cuisine because that's Yuejie's specialty. He studied cooking at the Bellart school and worked at the La Fonda restaurant. Eventually, Youssef joined the team; he was the head chef at the Dos Pebrots restaurant. After a long career at the forefront of fine dining, Youssef was taking a sabbatical. They had a mutual friend who introduced them. "He's very good; sometimes I forget because he's a friend of mine," says Àlex. He was going to work at another establishment, but he helped out of camaraderie. First, he helped put together the menu, and after a while, he naturally joined the project. They all clicked. Àlex complains that they often have trouble finding staff. "It's hard for us to hire people because there aren't that many people who speak Catalan, who want to work... We're always doing interviews," he says. We can't blame the young people here, because they are young too.

A Josper oven and a lot of ingenuity

The kitchen is small, and they perform a kind of miracle every day. They have a Josper oven, which was the most expensive item they bought. They certainly get good results from it. The restaurant is divided into two rooms: the entrance room, bright and with more of a bar feel, and the back room, next to the kitchen, which is more elegant. Besides a good meal, chess games have also been held at Fischer from time to time. Àlex has participated in amateur chess competitions his whole life. He, his brother, and some friends organized the Vila Olímpica Chess Club. So, they sometimes take advantage of the Sundays when the restaurant is closed to organize a game. If someone asks, they always have a board hidden away. You've probably already guessed that the restaurant's name is a tribute to the eccentric chess genius Bobby Fischer. "We joked that we'd have a place where Fischer, who was very particular, would feel comfortable," says Àlex. I don't know what Fischer would have said, but his good technique convinced me with a checkmate in just a few moves.