Every “best restaurants in Barcelona” list is written by someone who was here for four days.
We’ve lived here since 2010, and this is the honest version: the places we take visitors, the places we eat on a normal Tuesday, and the chain restaurant at a shopping centre we go to when the children have had enough of being tourists. With what it actually costs.
It is not a list of the best food in Barcelona. It’s a list of where a family of four eats.
The short version
- Taking visitors somewhere good: Can Fisher for paella by the sea
- A normal weekday lunch: a menú del dia anywhere local, or one of the chains below
- With tired children: Foster’s Hollywood or La Tagliatella. No apologies
- Something healthy and fast: Honest Greens
- Brunch: Saona
- Best coffee: Abyss Coffee Roasters
- The thing to know: lunch is the cheap meal here. The menú del dia — starter, main, dessert, bread and a drink — is served on weekdays and costs a fraction of the same food at dinner
First, the rule that saves you the most money
Eat your big meal at lunch.
The menú del dia is a weekday fixed-price lunch, usually served between about 1pm and 4pm: starter, main, dessert, bread and a drink for one price. Nearly every normal restaurant in the city does one, and it is how people here actually eat during the week.
The same kitchen at 9pm will charge you considerably more for less food. If you do one thing with this article, do that.
It’s one of the mistakes visitors most reliably make — that, and assuming paella is Catalan. It’s Valencian.
Where we take visitors
Can Fisher — Barceloneta
Paella with the sea in front of you, which is the thing every visitor wants and most of them get badly on La Rambla instead.
This is where we take people. Full review, with prices and what we ordered.
L’Escamarla — Platja del Bogatell
The same idea one beach further along, and quieter for it. Bogatell is where locals go when Barceloneta is full.
El Nacional — Passeig de Gràcia
An enormous restored space off Passeig de Gràcia with several separate kitchens under one roof — a fish bar, a grill, a tapas counter — so everyone in a group can eat something different without a negotiation. That makes it genuinely useful with children and with visiting adults who want different things.
It is a venue as much as a restaurant, and priced accordingly. Our honest review.
Kasa Japo — Glòries
Japanese lunch, and the reason it’s in this section rather than the next one is that it’s better than it has any right to be for where it is.
Where we actually eat on a Tuesday
This is the section nobody else will write, so it’s the reason to read this page.
Every food guide to this city is tapas, vermouth and the markets. Nobody tells you that Barcelona families eat at chains, or that the restaurant floor of a shopping centre is a perfectly reasonable Saturday lunch when everyone is tired. We do both. Here they are.
Mussol — Glòries and across the city
A Catalan chain, and the one to know about if you want Catalan food without hunting for it. Calçots in season, grilled meat, pa amb tomàquet — the sort of menu a Catalan family orders from without thinking about it.
Why it’s useful: it’s reliable, it’s everywhere, and it will not frighten a child. It is not the best Catalan food in the city and it doesn’t claim to be.
Foster’s Hollywood — Glòries
An American-diner chain. Burgers, ribs, onion rings, the lot.
And I’m not going to be embarrassed about it. There is a point on the third day of any family trip — and on plenty of ordinary Saturdays — when children have had enough of being interested in things and want a plate of chips in a booth. This is where you go. Spanish families do exactly the same, which is why the chain has been here for decades.
La Tagliatella
An Italian chain with branches across the city, a very long illustrated menu, and dark wood-panelled interiors that look like a stage set of an old trattoria.
Why it works with children: pasta, pizza, generous portions and a menu with pictures. The decision-making is easy, which at the end of a long day is the whole point.
Honest Greens
Fast-casual and genuinely healthy — you order at a counter, the kitchen is open in front of you, and the food is built around vegetables, grains and a protein rather than around a sandwich.
Why it’s in this list: it solves a specific problem. After two days of paella, bread and jamón, somebody in the family will want a plate of vegetables, and Barcelona is not overflowing with places that do that quickly and well.
Saona
Mediterranean, all day, bright and plant-filled, and the one we go to for brunch.
Why it works: it serves proper food at breakfast, lunch and dinner without changing character, which makes it easy with children who want to eat at the wrong time. [ — add a line about what the branches are like, since you’ve been ]
Coffee
Abyss Coffee Roasters — Avinguda Diagonal 612
Specialty coffee, properly done, on the upper stretch of Diagonal. This is the best coffee on the list and the one worth going out of your way for.
Empanar House — Avinguda Diagonal
Empanadas and morning coffee. Different proposition from Abyss: this is breakfast rather than a coffee destination.
Sweet things
Chocolat-Box
Chocolate and churros, which in Barcelona is a specific thing with rules attached: it’s a winter afternoon snack or a breakfast, not a dessert. The chocolate is thick enough to stand a churro in — if it pours like hot chocolate, you’re in the wrong place.
If you like the sweet side of the city, the Chocolate Museum is €8 and the ticket is a chocolate bar.
Worth the trip out of the city
Casa Fuster — Sabadell
Half an hour out of Barcelona on the FGC, and a proper sit-down meal rather than a city lunch.
What we’d tell you about eating here generally
- Meal times are late and they’re not negotiable. Lunch from about 1.30 or 2pm, dinner from 9pm. A restaurant with a full dining room at 7pm is a restaurant for tourists
- The menú del dia is weekdays only. Weekend lunch is à la carte and costs more
- Paella is Valencian, not Catalan. Catalan rice dishes exist and fideuà — the same thing made with short noodles — is often the better order on the coast
- Anywhere with photographs of the food outside and a person on the pavement inviting you in is not where locals eat. One street back from any main tourist street, prices drop by a third
- Bread and aperitivos are charged for. Not a scam, just how it works
What the Catalan dishes actually are, and where to eat them.
More Barcelona: Barcelona with kids · 50 free things to do · the 25 places worth your time
Eating elsewhere: Where to eat in Chicago with kids · Traditional Moldovan food
Nothing on this list is sponsored.
Frequently asked questions
Where do locals actually eat in Barcelona?
On weekdays, wherever does a good menú del dia — a fixed-price lunch of starter, main, dessert, bread and a drink, served roughly between 1pm and 4pm. Beyond that, the honest answer is that Barcelona families eat at chains a lot: Mussol for Catalan food, La Tagliatella for Italian, Honest Greens for something fast and healthy, and Foster’s Hollywood when the children have had enough.
What is the menú del dia and why does it matter?
It is a weekday fixed-price lunch: starter, main, dessert, bread and a drink for one price, served by nearly every normal restaurant in the city. The same kitchen will charge considerably more for less food at dinner, so eating your main meal at lunch is the single biggest saving available to a family in Barcelona. It is not usually available at weekends.
What time do people eat in Barcelona?
Lunch from about 1.30 or 2pm, dinner from 9pm. Kitchens often close between those windows. A restaurant with a full dining room at 7pm is serving tourists, not locals.
Is it bad to eat at a chain restaurant in Barcelona?
No, and pretending otherwise is why most food guides are useless to families. Spanish families eat at Mussol, La Tagliatella and Foster’s Hollywood constantly, and the restaurant floor of a shopping centre is a perfectly reasonable lunch when everyone is tired. Eat the good paella by the sea on one day and the chips in a booth on another.
Where should you eat paella in Barcelona?
By the sea, not on La Rambla. Can Fisher on Barceloneta and L’Escamarla on Platja del Bogatell are the two we take visitors to. And paella is Valencian rather than Catalan — on this coast, fideuà, the same dish made with short noodles instead of rice, is frequently the better order.
How do you avoid tourist-trap restaurants in Barcelona?
Two rules. Avoid anywhere with photographs of the food displayed outside or someone on the pavement inviting you in. And walk one street back from any main tourist street — prices drop by roughly a third and the food improves.
Are there good healthy places to eat in Barcelona with kids?
Honest Greens is the one we use. You order at a counter, the kitchen is open, and the food is built around vegetables, grains and a protein. After a couple of days of bread, jamón and paella, somebody in the family will want a plate of vegetables, and there are not many places that do that quickly and well.
