It was during the pandemic that the Ferré family realized things had to change. “Sometimes without realizing it, inertia takes you to a place you don’t want to be. When we stopped, we had time to think, and that’s when we realized we had lost the essence that our father had established,” explains Sílvia Ferré. She is the owner of the iconic Gothic restaurant Els 4 Gats together with her three brothers Lluís, Ivan, and Òscar. Four brothers to tame Els 4 Gats.

To talk about Sitges, we could go back many centuries, when, thanks to its privileged coast, it began to become a town of fishermen and maritime trade. But we want to focus on the present. Sitges is one of the six municipalities that form part of the Garraf region. It is a town that looks to the sea, both from the more playful aspect and from the commercial necessity, and which, at the same time, stands out for its economic, cultural and social fabric.We are at the La Nansa restaurant, founded in 1963 by Antoni Rafecas and his wife, Rosa Maria. Currently, the restaurant is run by three of their four children: Anton, Mireia, and Francesc, with the invaluable support of Angel in the kitchen and Isidoro in the dining room. You can feel the Mediterranean, both in the decor of the place and in the numerous references on a menu that seeks to preserve the memory of the Sitges cuisine of our grandparents. There is a traditional menu for 38 euros, but we opt for the a la carte menu.We start with a prawn salad with caramelized onion, a Sitges xató (with endive, cod, tuna, and anchovies) and some fried prawns with garlic and parsley, chosen from the list of suggestions. The wine list dedicates a prominent section to wines from Garraf, while the rest of the references are mostly Catalan.In the second part of the meal, we want to taste some of the most representative seafood dishes of the local cuisine. The first is octopus romesco with beans, a fishermen's recipe made with one of the least commercial, but most appreciated fish. The second is a turbot caught, possibly, by Oriol or Alfredo, two of the most emblematic fishermen of the town. The third deserves special mention: lobster with margin snails.The reference to this dish comes from the book Sitges dels nostres avis, written by Emerencià Roig i Raventós and published in 1934. The work collects the history and popular memory of Sitges and its inhabitants. “At the end of the 19th century, there was the Fonda Carcolse in the area of Carrer de les Parellades. The book talks about lobster with snails; we make it with lobster so as not to excessively increase the price, but the recipe did not appear there. My father started preparing it after talking with fishermen and added a very personal touch. Now my brother Francesc is leading the kitchen and preserving this recipe book”, Anton tells us, proud to be able to maintain, together with his brothers, a family and town legacy.We have left the Sitges-style rice, made with pork ribs, sausages, cuttlefish, langoustines, and clams, for another day. The desserts we taste are also homemade and deeply rooted in the region: Sitges foams, according to the recipe of the old pastry shop l'Estrella (meringue and almond cookie), burnt cream, and carquinyolis from Sant Quintí de Mediona. All of this, well accompanied by a sip of Sitges Malvasia.Anton, Mireia, and Francesc, still with their parents' remote support, run a restaurant that honors the seafood cuisine of a town open to the Mediterranean. Respect for fishermen, local produce, Sitges' history, and the hard work of the three siblings are the pillars that make La Nansa a must-visit establishment. It's always a good time to go to Sitges, but for us, now even more so.

The Solomillo bar aims to be an informal space: you can sit at a high bar or at a noble, large high table, shared with other diners. Both are comfortable and cozy, and at the table, the options are simple, but it's that simplicity that many of us want: tomato salad, with real flavor, a platter of Iberian ham, Joselito, with glass bread rubbed with tomato skillfully, and if you're up for it, a beef burger, which you'll find with different combinations: I chose mine with arugula, and, of course, it comes with a bowl of French fries, which is neither too big nor too small, just enough.

There are people who exude optimism, and a way of understanding work based on enthusiasm and perseverance. Joan Carles is one of them. After a professional career linked to Empordà, three years ago he decided to shape the most personal project of his career. Thus, three years ago, Descarat was born, a restaurant that deliberately moves away from the canons that have marked a large part of his journey.

“A restaurant should not be opened out of enthusiasm, nor kept open out of pity”, says Rafa Zafra, who recently closed the restaurant Per Feina in Barcelona. We are at a round table organized by The Fork on profitability in gastronomic businesses. Its participants, Nandu Jubany, Rafa Zafra, Carlota Claver, and Gary Llempén, have very different businesses, but one thing in common: they work and make money. “A restaurant that works earns between 250,000 and 300,000 euros a year,” says Zafra. All of them exercise transparency and share advice that can be useful to anyone who wants to enter the restaurant business. Let’s list some of the learnings they shared along with data from a study conducted by The Fork.

Four generations of Batlló lived on the third floor of Casa Batlló, this modernist gem on Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia designed by architect Antoni Gaudí that amazes everyone who visits it. The descendants of the Batlló family had lived in this apartment for more than a hundred years, until 2019, which is why had been preserved with an "exceptional authenticity" and now, the property has been opened to the public and you can have a meal there, after a meticulous renovation, in which all the original elements have been respected and restored – even a previously unknown handle designed by Gaudí has been discovered–. In the renovation, the talent of Italian architect and designer Paola Navone, from OTTO Studio, was chosen to make a proposal that was respectful of the place where it is located, but at the same time revised, as in the green mosaic counter that welcomes you.

The Viena restaurant chain closed the 2025 financial year with improved sales, in a context it considers "especially challenging" for the sector. According to the results released this Tuesday, the company recorded a turnover of 91.9 million euros in 2025, 1.8% more than the previous year. The improvement in operating results has made it possible to increase profitability on sales – obtained by dividing net profit by net sales – to 14.4%, above the figures for the previous financial year.

It was July 18, 1936, when Josep Ensesa Gubert inaugurated La Taverna del Mar on Sant Pol beach, in s’Agaró. It was a brilliant day, with a deep blue sky, when everything had to go well, because he had worked hard for the awaited day. By his side, the architect Francesc Folguera was happy with how that restaurant, which Josep Ensesa had named "tavern. Years earlier, he had not used the word hotel for the establishment with rooms in the s’Agaró urbanization; he called it Hostal La Gavina. As if he wanted discreet words for solemn establishments. The fact is that old Ensesa, as his friend and writer Josep Pla used to call him, went from joy to sadness in one day: the next day, July 19, the restaurant closed due to the start of the Civil War. Today, ninety years later, the Ensesa family, the four grandchildren, continues at the helm of their grandfather's tavern. They have been through thick and thin, but the present is full of novelties, such as the celebration menu they have devised to launch the summer, and which will be available all year round. It features seafood and Palamós prawn starters, and above all a fisherman's stew where the potatoes are as good as the fish, as it should be for a good stew.

It is Friday midday and on Carrer Major in Sarrià, a few meters beyond the Foix de Sarrià pastry shop, the waiters at the Vivanda restaurant suggest to those entering for lunch whether they want to do so in the interior room, with a wooden floor and white walls, or in the garden. The answer I hear is unanimous: the garden. And I head there too. I find trees, a large palm tree, ivies, and well-distributed, spacious tables that make you think you have entered a small oasis. No traffic can be heard, there is calm, and a familiar, neighborhood atmosphere. We are at the restaurant with a green garden of the chef Jordi Vilà, the Vivanda, which he has been directing for eighteen years. As we have just started the month of June, Vilà has just changed the menu, so we will taste summer dishes.

On April 20, 2024, the Banco de Boquerones group took over a historic restaurant in the city of Barcelona: Casa Leopoldo. And this Sunday they will close its doors, as communicated by the group's owner, Bruno Balbás, on the restaurant's Instagram. The iconic establishment in the Raval had been through a lot since its charismatic owner, Rosa Gil, passed away. It had a new period of splendor when chefs Òscar Manresa and Romain Fornell took over, but the project was cut short by the pandemic. Afterwards, a Chinese family took over, who served Asian food and dispensed with some of the architectural elements that had made the place very recognizable. This venture did not work out, and it was then that the Banco de Boquerones group – owner of other restaurants such as Casa Ràfols, Can Framis, and Casa Lolea – took on the challenge. Their intention was to bring back the original gastronomic proposal and serve the classic oxtail. In addition, they personalized two private rooms, one dedicated to Rosa Gil, and preserved the table dedicated to Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, accompanied by a commemorative plaque.

Samuel Soria is a person who is well-loved. He has been able to learn from the best teachers: his parents. He is the son of Mar i Rufo, one of Barcelona's most outstanding eateries. At Somsis, the product is the most important thing, and therefore, inventions are superfluous. This is a joint project by Lluís Costa and Toni Carrasco, led from the kitchen and dining room by Samu. We are in the Gothic Quarter, in a space that occupies the last vestige of the primitive convent of Mont-Sió from the 15th century.

We are in a 17th-century farmhouse belonging to the Torelló family. In 1983, the father ceded some land he owned to the Torrelles de Llobregat Town Hall to house the leisure space Catalunya en Miniatura. They were cherry orchards, which in the past had been vineyards. High-quality cherries are one of the aspects for which this town, located in the Ordal mountain range, stands out. If you have never been there, you can take advantage of this weekend when the 46th edition of the Cherry Festival is being celebrated.

On the north coast of Formentera, in the center of the island, we find es Pujols. It is a tourist center, with a long beach and a promenade lined with small wooden boats and restaurants. The first of them all, located in a privileged corner spot, is called Fandango and today we will stop there.

The chef Rafa Zafra, from Seville and an adopted Barcelonian, has a pile of successful restaurants. But a few weeks ago he had to close the restaurant with his most popular cuisine located on Via Augusta in Barcelona. "Per Feina has been the most exciting project of my life. My mother used to punish me by sending me with my father on the truck. I didn't know that deep down I loved it. The truck bounced and then we stopped to eat a menu of three starters and three mains. And I was the happiest child. As an adult, I wanted to do the same, but updated," explains the chef on the day he presents another popular project: the Masia Tibidabo restaurant, at the top of the amusement park.The establishment was first located in Poblenou, on Ciutat de Granada street, but at the end of August last year it decided to move it to the upper part because it had many difficulties in making the nights profitable. In the new location, the restaurant gained a surname: "Per Feina / Per Plaer" (For Work / For Pleasure). In this case, in addition to an economical menu, a more substantial meal could also be had. Even so, it has not been enough to keep the business afloat. "I wanted to keep the prices, cheap, and the restaurant was working. We had two hundred people every day, but we invoiced 4,000 euros. And that's a table at Estimar. Or at Jondal [the restaurant Rafa Zafra has in Ibiza], I don't even need to say. We had a whole team working and running for that," explains the chef.

“Never leave us!”, a gentleman shouted. “Return!”, “Hospitality!”, “Main festival!”. The public shared what they thought of when they thought of Motel Empordà. We are at this pilgrimage site on its 65th anniversary. On June 4, 1961, Josep Mercader inaugurated this temple of good cuisine and culture just outside Figueres. Culture understood in a broad, generous, and deeply rooted way.

The managers of BSM, the municipal company that manages the Tibidabo amusement park, have described it as a "crazy idea" and a "dream come true". The fact is that they have wanted to reinforce the gastronomic offer of this leisure space for some time. Enrique Tomàs and Christian Escribà are already present. Soon, it will be the turn of Albert Adrià, who cannot yet specify what, but they are already working on various proposals. In fact, it was Adrià himself who recommended Rafa Zafra to take charge of La Masia Tibidabo, the project that is starting this Friday and which they presented today to authorities and civil society.

Anabel and Vicente opened their little refuge in El Born eight years ago: Orvay. They weren't just looking to open a restaurant, but to give shape to a way of understanding the pleasure of eating and drinking, a space where gastronomy and wine would dialogue naturally, without artifice. This idea also runs through the premises. They decided to paint the walls as a journey through the colours and times of wine: at the entrance, the beige tones of the earth, the origin of everything; in the centre, the green of the living vineyard, still full of light, and in the background the deep purple, almost violet, that recalls the ripe fruit and the wine when it reaches its final destination.

“From the entrance, you can tell this restaurant wasn’t built to be a three-star Michelin”, says Disfrutar’s chef Oriol Castro with his usual honesty, and Eduard Xatruch adds: “We didn’t have a dime or an investment fund behind us, we had to trick the bank and the landlord”, he jokes, because among those listening to him is the owner of the premises, Sandra Mira, who explains that this place – before the restaurant opened in 2014 and forever changed the history of Catalan gastronomy – was a warehouse for La Casa de las Mantas. “Do you know how much space was needed to store duvets, blankets, pillows...?” She quickly saw that the chefs were honest people eager to work, so she rented them the space. Perhaps she believed more in Oriol Castro, Mateu Casañas, and Eduard Xatruch than they did themselves, because in the original design, the bar at the entrance was meant to serve tapas. And in the basement below, they wanted to put a large room “for large groups and communions”, says Xatruch. They ran out of money, and they never built that room. Luckily. Because when they had to expand the cellar and build the kitchen to develop the creative part, they needed that space. “The clients wrapped us up”, they say. They explain that the first part is inspired by Miró’s mosaic; when you cross the kitchen, into the pottery kilns, and once in the large white room, in Cadaqués, where they opened their first restaurant together: Compartir.

We are in front of the sea, the train tracks and the N-II. This is a very typical configuration for a large part of the towns in Maresme. On a sunny day, the light and serenity of the Mediterranean end up diluting the noise of the commuter trains and the constant traffic, turning the experience into a pleasant break by the coast.El Blau de Mar is a restaurant located in an early 20th-century Indian house, sensitively renovated by architect Neus Fornaguera. The building retains its historic character and unfolds into five distinct spaces: terrace, interior patio, dining room, private room, and rooftop, allowing for adaptation to different times of day and types of needs. The interior combines elegance and warmth, inviting you to disconnect from the outside world.We start the meal with Cantabrian anchovies, some scallops (zamburiñas) with foie and broth reduction, and some sautéed squid with Maresme peas and black pudding. In the middle, to share, a dish of medium-sized prawns from Arenys. The wine list reinforces this territorial view with a clear commitment to Catalan wineries, especially from DO Alella. However, we accompany ourselves with a bottle of Syrah Reserva from Casa Mariol, a winery from Terra Alta. We drink a reserva at the price of a crianza or young wine. We continue the meal with "mongetes del ganxet" (a type of bean) with prawns, turbot with bacon, and monkfish with clams and prawns. As you can see, the Arenys prawns are ending up coming out of our ears and become the most majestic accompaniment for any dish. For dessert, we order a creamy crème caramel, artisanal vanilla ice cream with macadamia nuts and strawberries from Pep Marpons' garden.El Blau de Mar is more than a restaurant; it is a business designed for the well-being of diners, workers, and the community. At the helm of it all is Josep Bayo, a person who has excelled in various fields (healthcare, communication, hospitality...), but especially in project management and development. They suffered the pandemic and its consequences, but, fortunately, there was financial muscle behind this project. When the restrictions ended, they were able to start working freely and show their intentions: “We wanted there to be a lot of harmony between the space, the service, and the food. We have the port of Arenys and we must take advantage of it. We have a menu with classic proposals and some a bit more mischievous, where elaboration predominates. We want people to eat as much with their mouths as with their eyes and for our chefs to be able to shine,” Josep tells us after a demanding service, while we enjoy the views of the beaches of Arenys.Product and values

Beyond good food and very friendly service, this restaurant stands out for its commitment to local produce: fish from the Arenys fish market, strawberries from Can Marpons, cheeses from Can Xicoi, meats and cured meats from Cal Tomàs, and also everything offered by Maresme producers who work the land ecologically. Furthermore, Blau de Mar collaborates with the Fundació Junts Autisme in Arenys, where the foundation's young people carry out pre-vocational tasks four days a week, accompanied by their therapists.El Blau de Mar, with Josep Bayo at the helm, combines a very good gastronomic proposal with the company's social responsibility, both with employees and suppliers, and with any person or entity related to the restaurant. Cuisine and values facing the coast of Arenys.

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Welcome to Mineral. This is undoubtedly one of the openings of the year and, if all goes well, it could become a landmark restaurant in the city of Barcelona, as Gresca is, for example. It has absolutely everything to succeed. Or at least I hope so, for the following reasons.

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