Great Local Barcelona Restaurants

[seanthree]

Hi All, I am heading to Barcelona for a week and would love to get your recommendations on great local (non-touristy) restaurants and tapa bars. I am interested in Catalan and fusion cooking. Also, interested in up and coming chefs. I like neighborhood places as well. Also, love Spanish wines so a good wine list would be appreciated.

Also, I love to cook so recommendations on specialty cheese, meat, bread and vegetable markets would be appreciated. Thank you!!

[SusanB]

We'll be in Barcelona in October - thanks for the link.

[tancone1027]

I'd skip Comerc24. I was there in May and it was horrible.

We loved Cinc Sentits and Quimet y Quimet - recommend them both!

[jl0328]

Just finished dinner at Cerveceria Catalana and it was great. Service was a little slow. Ate at cinq setits last night and all I can say is WOW! Definitlry going on my list of best meals ever! Ate at tapas 24 the night before..good place to start on your first night in barcelona...need a place for tomorrow night-our last night :(

[criticalfoodie]

Try Gelonch- Fabulous and up and coming chef. For something different, try Las Fernandes- Amazing place, very very local....with fantastic food and drink (try their sangria).

[seanthree]

Did not see much written up about cinq setits. What kind of restaurant is it. Thanks for the input.

[PBSF]

Cinc Sentits is probably the most written about modern Catalan restaurant in Barcelona on this board. Search this board with the correct spelling and you'll be reading for the rest of the day.

[sf_duke]

Do not miss Cinc Sentits during your visit. Fantastic dinner and even better is that it is family-owned and operated. All of the staff were over-the-top and exceeded expectations. Also, if you are a wine aficionado, the Riedel decanter collection is just insane. By far the best meal I had in BCN. Looking forward to comparing meals at Alkimia, Cinc Sentits, and Comerc24 on my next trip.

[Aleta]

IMHO, Comerc24 is not in the same league as Alkimia and Cinc Sentits. I'm not even sure if they share the same philosophy on food and its presentation. But I am VERY interested in your future comparison of Alkimia and Cinc Sentits.

[Aleta]

The regulars must be out chowing so no one has responded yet. Sounds like you need to search a bit, read some of the older posts and develop a short list. Maybe this will help you get started.

Non-touristy: stay away from Las Ramblas and places like Taller de Tapas. Even on Passeig de Gracia, we saw some restaurants that only catered to tourists, like Tapa Tapa. Every time we walked by there, we had to laugh at the big poster of their food. The potato omelette (tortilla espanol?) looked more like a tamago nigiri without the rice!

Tapas/pintxos bars:
Bilbao Berri
Taktika Berri
Euskal Etxea
Cerveceria Catalana
Tapas24
Quimet i Quimet (montaditos really)
La Taverna del Clinic (larger portions, ie raciones)
many others in El Born

Modern Catalan:
Alkimia
Cinc Sentits
Gresca
Sauc?

Up and coming:
Gelonch
Cuatro
Embat

Neighborhood places:
El Vell Sarria
Kaiku
Can Joseph

Food shopping: every area will have a market but the biggest and best must be La Boqueria on Las Ramblas. Good for eating too (Pinotxo, Kiosko Universal, El Quim).

Cheese: La Boqueria has it but my favourite spot is Formatgeria La Seu. The Scottish owner is a longtime resident of Barcelona and she's opened a little bar next door. Great selection of local wines. She does cheese tasting and makes cheese ice cream.

[Aleta]

Oh and our trip report:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/7103...

[seanthree]

Thanks Aleta. That helps to shorten the list and I will research some more and respond.

[S_B_Russell]

I tried Jaica in the Barceloneta neighborhood on Friday and it was great. Lots of seafood tapas at ridiculously affordable prices. You'll be elbow to elbow with other diners, but it just adds to the experience.

http://barcelona.unlike.net/locations...