The chef Miquel Pardo, who has the CruiX restaurant in Barcelona, on Entença street, and the Melós, on Mallorca street, is the best chef of the year in Catalonia. The chef, born in Onda (Plana Baixa), is known for precision cooking but linked to his roots and experiences and, above all, for making rice dishes with a very thin layer of grain, well browned (socarrat), and top-quality products. After performing miracles with a tiny kitchen in his first establishment, the CruiX, in 2025 he opened his flagship restaurant, the Melós. There he was able to install good equipment that allowed him to raise the gastronomic bar. For this reason, the expert jury and the public have chosen him as the best chef of the year, a recognition that reaches its fifteenth edition this year and is presented within the framework of the Gastronomic Forum of Barcelona. Last year the award went to Jeffery Ruz and Helena Termes from La Cort del Mos, in Palamós.

Today we are stopping at a corner of Carrer Ferlandina and Carrer de Sant Vicenç in Barcelona. A corner of the world that reminds us of the city that used to be. And that always will be as long as places like Bar Agustín keep raising their shutters every day. It is a space to have breakfast or lunch, to converse with the person next to you, to build community, to find out what happened to the woman who runs the tobacco shop, to discuss the news, to argue about football, to drink from a porró, and to mingle with people who are not in your circle. It is opened every day by Carles Tarrasón Monte, the son of Agustí, who has worked there forever. What time does it open? "It depends on the queue at the bakery to buy bread," he tells me. Things are not rigid here, but at approximately 7:30, Carles begins to serve his community with a very subtle sense of humor and a kindness that can be seen from miles away. Carles has the characteristic of making everyone feel like a lifelong friend, even if you have just arrived at his bar five minutes ago. He knows his regulars and knows what everyone likes. The bar is not very big, and its marble tables fill up quite quickly at lunchtime to have the homemade lunch menu, which costs between 15 and 16 euros depending on the dessert and coffee.

We recently said goodbye to L'Hermós, the fish bar at the Mercat de la Llibertat in Gràcia. However, we have been celebrating a premiere for a few weeks now. From those ashes, a robust project has been born in the same spot: Seny. A huge scorpionfish welcomes us. It is painted on the wall, black on white. It is the work of Max amb X, a tattoo artist. When the stall is closed, however, the scorpionfish doubles, as it is also reproduced on the shutter in negative, white on black. Seny is the new fish restaurant-stall-bar by chef Carles Ramon (Barcelona, 1986).

We were already in tomato injury time –they are practically the last ones of the season–, and Roger Viñas has used them to prepare a wonderful gazpacho. He tells me that people don't ask for it much, even though the tomatoes are from Xavier Carbó, from the Mas Rabassa agricultural estate, in Sant Genís de Palafolls. "If only they knew," I say to myself. And the lamb meatballs? They are from Cal Tomàs, in La Pobla de Segur. Meatballs made of lean organic Xisqueta lamb served with a bread and garlic sauce. A perfect dish: for its quality and the values it conveys. You will find all of this on Passeig de Sant Joan in Barcelona.

What a discovery, dear readers. I arrived there because a restorer expert in spoon cooking recommended it on Instagram. I thought: "If he says so, it must be tasted". It is a small, simple, and charming place in Barceloneta. Finally, I have a favorite spot to go eat rice in the seaside neighborhood. A new establishment, since it is only a year and a half old, but it feels like a restaurant that has always been there. Ideal for those who like to dip bread, for those who slurp shells and do not mind getting their fingers dirty, and for people who know that eating is so important that time must be dedicated to it. This week I present to you the Casa Maians.

Very close to Plaça Osca there is a charming tavern. Casual. With a nice patio in the back, very cozy. Like "a Balinese space without Buddhas," they describe it. And with an offer that you will not find anywhere else. Catalan cuisine with an Indonesian finish. I ended up there without knowing anything about it, other than that it was called Bitxo. And once I had the menu in my hands I said "hey, we are in an interesting place." It didn't take me long to figure out where the talent came from. And then I understood everything.

“We are just getting the stall started,” says Ton Díaz. In a corner of the Ninot market in Barcelona’s Eixample district, Tonet del Mercat—or just Tonet—has been set up for a few weeks now. It bears Ton Díaz’s name because he is the axis around which this project revolves, based on nose-to-tail cooking, such as offal and other meat by-products. “This week we are adding sweetbreads and kidneys with sherry and onions,” says a thrilled Díaz.

The Ter river is born in a spring in Ulldeter (Ripollès) and flows into the Mediterranean. Very close to the Gola del Ter there is a restaurant founded in 1961 by the Xicars family. In this location, converted into a hostel restaurant, there used to be a farmhouse where Josep Xicars' great-grandfather lived, trying to cover basic needs to help the family grow. "At eight years old, I was already peeling potatoes. The shower was a basin and we had to go to the fields to relieve ourselves. My father turned it into what it is now, and I have followed in his footsteps," comments Josep, feeling the weight of the passing years.We are in a pleasant place that is part of an enviable environment. "The river is life", as was claimed in the early 2000s in the Terres de l'Ebre in an environmental and territorial protest. The sea is right nearby. The clientele is mostly local, with some visiting practitioners of the noble sport of golf. Within a radius of very few kilometers, we find Empordà Golf and Golf de Pals, two highly renowned golf courses.We don't play around, but we really enjoy discovering places where one can eat well, wherever they may be. Knowing the virtues of the restaurant (fish, seafood, and good rice dishes), we begin the meal with some Gillardeau oysters, some steamed rock mussels with orange vinaigrette, a plate of sand eels, and an exceptional jig-caught squid. The wine that accompanies us is Els Boscals, a 2023 black garnacha from the Boscals valley, in Les Gavarres.Once we have finished the first courses, we move on to the second, in the singular. We play it safe and order a Pals rice with lobster. Everything is perfect: the ingredients, the flavor, and the cooking are at their optimal point. We can only say good things about it. For dessert, puff pastry with angel hair and communion wine, coulant of chocolate and nougat ice cream.Waiting for relief

Josep is a peculiar guy, with good conversation. We sit in the dining room, where there are paintings representing his father. “My father started by doing a bit of everything. He worked as a cook, he was a fisherman, a hunter, he had made the tables himself... He lived basically off the river environment”. Josep is not a professional cook, he is one out of necessity and because life has brought him here. “Well, for me, just like for my father, I have always liked to eat well, and that is the main basis for knowing how to cook. If you know how to eat well, you will know how to cook well, because that is the best way to satisfy the diner. You want the best for them”.He is nearing his seventies and is eager to retire, but for the moment he cannot find anyone to replace him. In the meantime, he enjoys the satisfaction of a job well done and the recognition of his customers. Sooner or later he will leave it, and we hope that life grants him many more years of health so he can live without working and enjoy a rest that he has earned since, at the age of eight, he started peeling potatoes in the family business.We, as long as we are at the foot of the canyon, will return. There are meals and people that become unforgettable.

These are major festival days in the city (with the permission of Santa Eulàlia). So, I am taking the opportunity to make a list of highly recommended restaurants in the city of Barcelona. A question I am asked very often is “what is your top 10 restaurants in Barcelona”. I am not a big fan of rankings. Besides, there are too many factors that make them impossible to compare. To go with a partner? To celebrate an anniversary? To go with children? What budget are we talking about? So, take this compilation as a handful of restaurants that I encourage you to visit.

The RíasKRU restaurant in Barcelona (c. Lleida, 7) "is not for sale for more than two million euros despite what a real estate agency says," states manager Borja Iglesias, who adds that he has asked the agency to remove the advertisement stating that it is for sale, and that, if they do not do so, they will take legal action." It is a fact that this year marks forty years since the Rías de Galicia was inaugurated by the Galician couple Cándido Iglesias and Purificación García. Later, their three children took charge, but during the covid pandemic they took the restaurant into insolvency proceedings, and it was bought by businessman Manuel Lao, the current owner.The RíasKru is the fusion of Rías de Galicia, which is located on the ground floor, and the Espai Kru, on the first floor, both specialized in fish and seafood, and both restaurants have marked an era of fine gastronomy in the city of Barcelona.

Joan is 82 years old. This means that seventy years ago, when he was twelve, he started working. First in a hardware store in his neighborhood, La Barceloneta. Later, to earn a little more money, he started washing glasses on Sundays at the bar next door, Casa Pascual. The owner saw he was sharp and told him to work there full-time. He went from earning 75 pesetas a week to earning 150. Imagine what a raise and how happy they were at home! He kept working hard until one day he realized he needed to have one day off a week: Sunday. They already had two daughters with Soledad Martínez, and a third one was on the way. That is how Bar Joan was born, to be able to have 24 hours of rest.

It is a gateway to Vietnamese cuisine for anyone who wants to discover it. Or a return door for those who already know it and miss it. This is how the co-owner of Món Việt describes his restaurant. I look around the dining room and see many Catalans, of very diverse ages. Also a Vietnamese family. A few months ago I visited Món Việt, located on Sepúlveda street in Barcelona, because as New Year's approaches, they make a special menu to let us know what is eaten during Tết, as they call the holiday in this Southeast Asian country. I was impressed by the quality of their homemade food. Without going any further, they served a whole boiled chicken. It was tender and tasty. An apparently simple dish but absolutely succulent. How did they manage to make a humble meal worthy of celebration? Since then, I have followed the trail of this restaurant and have ended up getting the answers I was looking for.

It's funny when you've been in a property, let's say at friends' apartment, and you return some time later when other people live there. It's inevitable that your mind starts playing the game of differences, seeing what is there and what is no longer there. The same happens with restaurants – aggravatedly, I would say – because Barcelona's voracity for opening and closing businesses is greater than that of Saint George's dragon eating sheep. So you often go to places where you've been before, but with other tenants and other furniture. Today we are in a place where we've been when it was called Tickets, when it was called Teatro (a more modest change, as it was as if someone from the family had taken it over) and now, it's called Osteria Condal, and it's starting a new chapter. They have done extensive renovations, and if it weren't for the fact that it's on the same corner of Paral·lel, we wouldn't recognize the space. The investment has been significant. We see it in all the details, from the menus to the imposing open kitchen.

Dreta de l'Eixample. We are on Bailèn street, between Mallorca and València. Here a chick is the sheriff of the corner. It is the yellow and recognizable logo of Billy Brunch, which has three locations at numbers 113, 115, and 129. In addition, its vehicles can be seen parked, red and with the chick superimposed. Between the three locations, they serve 900 people on weekends, and about 500 during the week. The one in the middle of the corner, the one at 115, is the first one that opened, out of the six in Barcelona (then two more opened in Madrid and two in Seville). This first location, which was a resounding success, has just been expanded by adding a slide and a ball pit, red and yellow, which can be seen from the street. The pool was installed after the one in Madrid in the center of the restaurant was a great attraction. This one is more discreet, though. "Adults can go in, right?", the owner tells me, inviting me to try it. In Barcelona, it seems we don't dare as much and leave it for the kids and the influencers.

The butters of different colors like jewels, the bread cart, the impressive wine cellar, the exquisite service, the wrought-iron sculptures decorating the tables... If anyone wants to try a restaurant with class, elegance, and where all the dishes will be excellent, perfect, and well-rounded, what you are looking for is called Lasarte. This year it celebrates twenty years of existence, a not insignificant figure in current times when haute cuisine is suffering. The restaurant, located in the Monument Hotel, was Barcelona's first three-Michelin-starred establishment. Since 2017, when it achieved this, the city now has four.

The new restaurant in Poblenou catches the eye as soon as you pass by. Located at Pujades street, 133, it occupies a single ground floor. It's part of one of those blocks of houses in the neighborhood that used to be cheap. In fact, through a side door, you access the interior of these narrow streets full of plants and their own life, away from the hustle and bustle of the main street. But let's return to the main street, we find a polished façade, cream-colored with painted letters that say: Finca Nebot 1924. The Nebot family used to be there then, hence the name, which its current owner, Leo Chechelnitskiy, wanted to revive as a tribute.

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 set,” 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.

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.

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.