Estimar
We couldn’t have made a better choice than Estimar for our first dinner in Barcelona – even if finding it proved to be a bit of a challenge.
Picture two tourists standing in the middle of an empty medieval square staring at a phone that reads, “You’ve arrived.” Many twists, turns and re-navigating exercises later, we found it pretty much hidden in one of El Born’s teeny narrow streets.
It’s small, convivial and welcoming, and features a superlative fresh fish display case in front of an open kitchen. Accustomed to the fresh fish on offer at home – you know, endless rows of pre-cut salmon fillets in gloopy marinades – we gawped at this pescatarian heaven. I love a pristine professional kitchen and food of exceptional quality served in a warm and laid-back atmosphere. There’s no fussiness here. There are no tablecloths and servers wear jeans.
Estimar’s Executive Chef Rafa Zafra has an impressive pedigree (he worked at El Bulli alongside Ferran Adria) and excels at seafood, whether raw, marinated or cooked. Estimar was my favourite meal in Barcelona, which is saying something in this food-centric city, and I highly recommend it.
Marinated mackerel, simply seasoned and swimmingly fresh - such beautiful clean flavour and texture.
This dish was amazing: crayfish carpaccio with caramelized onion, an homage to the Chef’s days at El Bulli.
Cantabrico anchovies with tomato bread.
Deep-fried baby squid with squid-ink mayonnaise. A work of art presentation wise and perfect taste wise.
Baked sea bass with paprika, oil and garlic. On the side, the best fries in the world served with Padron peppers - oh my goodness!
Bar Canete
Very popular and hard to get a seat at, Bar Canete lives up to the hype. It’s set in the once entirely seedy, now up-and-coming Raval ‘hood (note: some seeds of seediness are still sown here). We sat on stools on the bar side; there’s a small dining room with tables and chairs on the other side but if you sat there you’d miss out on the open-kitchen action and marvelling at the precision of the staff, including ambidextrous waiter José, who, when we ate there, expertly served about 20 guests at once while belting out Shawn Mendes’ tunes. It is super fun, busy and serves the best Bomba in Barcelona.
Said best bomba in Barcelona. A deep-fried ball of spicy meat and potato topped with smoky brava sauce and aioli.
White anchovies tapas.
Open shrimp omelette. How perfect does this look? Tasted even better.
Beyond tender and sweet calamari.
Melt-in-your-mouth octopus and potato.
At the bar. That’s Jose in the background putting his hand in his pocket. Cue “Treat You Better.”
Passadis del Pep
If Estimar is hidden away, then Passidis del Pep is hidden in plain sight. The address is easy enough to find but you might scratch your head when you get there. Don’t expect restaurant frontage, rather a residential door and a long hallway that leads to the resto – it feels more like entering an apartment building than a lunch spot.
The unlikely entrance to Passadis del Pep.
The hallway that leads to the restaurant.
This is a quiet, serious place for lunch and was mostly filled with businessmen when we ate there. We spied a regular being shown an offer of still wriggling seafood options for his inspection and the largest porcini mushrooms we’ve ever seen. It’s that kind of place: serious.
Serious food requires serious accompaniments.
Chef/owner Joan Manubens, who looks like he is about 18 years old, was also on hand. He’s taken over the resto, which has been in his family for about 40 years, and only serves the freshest seafood available. And that’s not just menu copy, in fact there is no menu – the dishes change daily according to what the fishermen haul in. There’s a set price and you wait for your server to bring out the courses. We were served nine.
Tuna, tomatoes and olives. This looks so plain, almost boring, but was intense, fresh and flavourful.
I love razor clams!
Blistered shishito peppers - a healthy (sort of) green addition.
Lightly breaded and fried shrimp and baby red mullet. The squeeze of lemon, transformative.
Simply prepared baby calamari.
Rovellons mushrooms - a Spanish classic - barely touched.
Langoustine and sauteed onions.
Because we hadn’t had enough shrimp! Seriously, I rarely eat shrimp at home as wild ones with provenance are hard to come by. All of these shrimp dishes had distinctively different flavours and varying subtlety.
The last course at Passadis del Pep: lobster with a wonderfully shellfishy lobster reduction and perfectly cooked potatoes, the carb conduit to that rich liquid lobster.
Can Solé
Go here for homestyle, comfort food like seafood rice and impossibly fresh starters like just-caught shellfish. It’s in the Barceloneta neighbourhood, has been around since 1904 and is very laid-back. The waiters are knowledgeable and friendly and were very impressed with the extent of my Spanish (“vamos a la playa”) – NOT! They were old-school pros and I have yet to eat at any restaurant with monogrammed plates that isn’t fantastic.
Cod puffballs.
Our waiter recommended these messy treats and I think they might have been the best we had.
I think you can tell I’m enjoying them - sticky fingers, red wine teeth and all.
The seafood rice that they are famous for - comfort food extraordinaire.
Dudes: Evan and Can Sole super servers Vladimir and Toni.
Can Pineda
This is a traditional neighbourhood spot in the El Clot barrio and it looked like a favourite for local families when we ate there (one arrived for dinner with a newborn in tow, in true Spanish style, at 10:30pm!).
That said, tons of celebrities and dignitaries have eaten here and their pictures line the walls (I was sat next to Sean Penn’s mug). They serve Catalan specialties, including the best black rice I’ve ever had.
Traditional tomato bread.
The Catalan black rice - those light bits beside the shells are dollops of garlicky mayonnaise.
Tuna cheeks.
And these tiny but intense Molten Chocolate Puffs can also be referred to as the wafer-thin mint.
Casa Alfonso
This was around the corner from our hotel in the Eixample ’hood and we walked by it many times, even taking photos, before we went in. It’s all old-world, wood-panelled (it opened in 1934) and a perfect pit stop for a drink and snack. Again, photos of celebrities line the walls, but we sat beside locals at the bar and I loved that an elegant-looking woman came in by herself for a quick slice of potato tortilla and a glass of Estrella.
In the running for the cutest and sweetest waiter ever.
I could get used to an afternoon snack of deep-fried artichokes with a glass of cava.
El Xampanyet
It’s in the Born and just what you expect from an old-school tapas bar: colourful tiled walls, bad lighting, lots of locals and lots of tourists too. Not only is it steps from the Picasso Museum, Anthony Bourdain featured it on one of his shows so it’s pretty much a destination now. We enjoyed tapas and glasses of its namesake: Xampanyet cava.
How charming is this exterior?
The cava making process told in tiles.
What was left of my white anchovies and tomato bread.
You can’t go for tapas and not have Jamon Iberico.
Tickets
This was our only misstep in Barcelona and I am still completely perplexed as to how it has a Michelin star and is continually praised on social media.
Hmm… Is it just me?
The poster on the door alone should have given us pause for thought: a poster on the door of a Michelin-star restaurant? A beer ad featuring a scantily clad woman with a bottle of beer thrown between her spread legs? The cheap adverts continue inside too, though the focus there was on gin.
I won’t list all of the very glaring deficiencies of Tickets (including the smokers standing directly in front of the entrance) but will mention that our waitress texted during service. The open kitchen had blinds around it that were either half or fully pulled down to obstruct the view. Not that there was anything going on in the kitchen: no communication, no obvious signs of cooking, just lots of standing around. Oh, the chef did come to life when he left to pose for photos with customers. The food photos speak for themselves and I will spare you the state of the washrooms but can assure you I’ve seen cleaner ones in gas stations.
Can you tell what this greyish, fleshy bite is? I can’t even remember - that’s how bad it was.
This is mackerel like we had at Estimar, where it tasted like it jumped out of the ocean and on to your plate. At Tickets it was manhandled to no advantage. You can even tell by the colour that it’s not up to scratch.
I think you know I love shrimp. This was as gross as it looks - did not finish it. It was disturbingly warm and stuffed with beef tartare.
Have you ever seen such an unappetizing presentation of a crab leg? Manhandled and covered in breadcrumbs it was sold as being prepared over charcoal. With no charcoal grill or smoke in sight (in what we could see of the shrouded open kitchen), I asked our server about it. She assured me it was prepared over coals in another part of the restaurant, one that was separate from the open kitchen around which we sat. Again, very strange…
On top of all that, and the ridiculous expense, I’m mad at myself because I had no idea Tickets was a themed restaurant: tickets, movies, the theatre of food. Give me a break. Wow, you get to walk the red carpet to the door – how naff is that? And, wait for it, after your meal you get a ticket that gives you access to the “special” dessert room – who likes this kind of stuff? The last themed resto I went to before Tickets was Chuck E Cheese (it was a kid’s birthday don’t ask). Truth be told, it was way better.
Ca L’Estevet
I can’t end the beauty of Barcelona’s restaurants on a negative note so must sign off with the very best lunch the city offers. It is one so authentic that even our Barcelona-born-and-bred tour guide hadn’t heard of it.
As the sign over the door says, Ca l’Estevet is “tipic,” which means anything but typical here. This family-run resto serves traditional dishes and is the eatery of choice for local artists, writers and politicians. The owner led us to our table and, after asking our preferences, whisked away the menus and said, “OK, I will bring you lunch.”
A plate of Arbequina olives.
Braised leeks with shrimp.
Hake with roasted garlic, chili and potato.
The delicious main components of this classic dish - cuttle fish and meatballs - are only outshone by the gravy.
What’s more, with a bottle of wine and dessert (a beautiful light custard tart we were too busy savouring to record), it was about 50 euros. It was worth twice the price and a joy to experience. Ca l’Estevet is a special place that makes you have faith in the romanticism of an independent business and the hard work it takes to pull it off.
