The hidden restaurant with green garden of chef Jordi Vilà where you can eat tapas and dishes of Catalan cuisine

BarcelonaIt's Friday noon and on Carrer Major in Sarrià, a few meters beyond the Foix de Sarrià pastry shop, the waiters at the Vivanda restaurant are asking those entering for lunch if they want to dine in the indoor room, with its wooden floor and white walls, or in the garden. The answer I hear is unanimous: the garden. And that's where I'm heading too. I find trees, a large palm tree, ivies, and well-distributed, spacious tables that make you think you've entered a small oasis. You can't hear traffic, there's calm, and a family-friendly, neighborhood atmosphere. We are at the restaurant with the green garden of chef Jordi Vilà, the Vivanda, which has been run by him for eighteen years. As we have just started the month of June, Vilà has just changed the menu there, so we will taste summer dishes.

Before going to the pantry, Jordi briefly reviews his career. We just remembered that Vivanda is eighteen years old, and we're doing other calculations. "I started my own business, opening the shop, paying bills, suppliers, paying for everything and cooking, in 1998, at the Abrevadero restaurant, which means almost thirty years ago." Before that, he had studied at the Joviat hotel school in Manresa, where he coincided in the same course with chef Oriol Rovira (Els Casals) and, one course below, with Oriol Castro, from Disfrutar. In 2008, when Vivanda, which has traditionally been considered a tapas bar, opened, other restaurants of the same style were opening in Barcelona: Albert Adrià was cooking at Inòpia; Carles Abellan, at Tapas 24, and the late Fermí Puig, at Petit Comitè. And another piece of information, which I must mention: in 2004 Jordi Vilà obtained a Michelin star for Alkímia, when the restaurant was located on Carrer d'Indústria in Barcelona. In 2016, he moved it to the first floor of the Moritz factory (ronda de Sant Antoni, 41), where it is located today.

Tables with tablecloths

And now, the food. The tables are set, with tablecloths. On the menu, there are croquettes, coated in thick breadcrumbs, tubular in shape, with Iberian ham, millimeter-sized cubes inside and copious. "We make the breadcrumb coating ourselves; we started making croquettes like this in 2008, at a time when croquettes weren't made like this, as they were then coated in biscuit flour," points out the chef. As starters, there are also omelets, which will remind you of those from the Alkostat restaurant: they have caramelized onion and potato. Individual size. You will also find a creative Russian salad, Catalan style, with capers, with Iberian ham cut into thin strips. Andalusian-style squid, the good kind; cod fritters, round and filled. And dishes that demonstrate Jordi Vilà's sense of humor and good taste: try the roastVic, the authentic Catalan roast beef, according to the menu, made with pork roasted with pickles, mustard mayonnaise and capers. You will also find hot starters, such as green beans with 'botifarra del perol' (those who go to Alkostat and Alkímia know it) and clams, mussels and winkles.

Secondly, summer options that are highly recommended: the fish, for which you can order a half portion of wild fish. They will tell you at the moment what fish they have, and they will serve it to you with vegetables and romesco. Order bread with tomato, which is made from coca bread, is well soaked and seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, and eat it at the same time. To continue, rice dishes and dishes of meat, among which I highlight the Wellington fillet made in Jordi Vilà's free style, which means it is filleted on puff pastry, foie gras with mushrooms and Port wine sauce.

"El Vivanda is a restaurant where you can come and not worry about anything because you will find dishes that you will like: now in summer, tomato salad, which I go to get myself from Maresme, organic; also a rice dish, arròs a banda, Catalan style, which I prepare in two services with cubes of monkfish and squid and then: lanternfish, sea bass, prawn and langoustine," explains the chef when defining what Vivanda is. I ask him about the first floor, because Vivanda is on the ground floor, but I see that the restaurant occupies a whole house in Sarrià. Well, on the first floor there is a private room, named Privanda, with a capacity for twelve people, which has windows overlooking the oasis garden, the one with the palm tree, the trees, the ivy. A privileged space. A detail of the garden that I had not written down: on the wall that separates it from Carrer dels Graus there is a large ceramic fruit bowl, with all sorts of fruits crowning it, which is worth observing. It makes you marvel at the beauty, and shows that good food always enters through the eyes, also in art. Know also that on Carrer dels Graus, which goes from Plaça de Sarrià to Carrer Major de Sarrià, you will find another door to the Vivanda restaurant: it is the one that connects directly to the garden, through which you can also enter.

To finish, I dedicate a whole paragraph to prices. "When we started, we had all dishes in single digits, because it was our strategy, but taxes went up, it became law that prices had to include VAT, and then we went to double digits." Despite this, today, in 2026, the prices of Vivanda's dishes are very competitive, designed so that you can go to Vivanda often. The average ticket price is 50-60 euros. And I forgot to mention that for dessert you will find Pauet's curd cheese with honey, which was the winner of the cheese competition at the last edition of the Làctium de Vic competition cheese competition at the last edition of the Làctium de Vic competition. You can also try hot puff pastry and apple pie with vanilla ice cream, crema catalana, strawberries with cream, or cheese flan and red berries.

El Vivanda is the green garden with a restaurant with the best cuisine by Jordi Vilà. A garden to celebrate the beginning of summer.