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The legendary market hall of La Boquerìais without a doubt one of Barcelona’s most popular attractions for food enthusiasts, and one of the most beautiful in Europe. However, as the crowds of tourists have exceeded its capacity, currently no more than 15 people are allowed in at the same time. If you would like to escape the hustle and bustle, it’s advisable to go to another market hall.

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The recently renovated Sant Antoni fits the bill perfectly. This is also an impressive metal structure in the flamboyant Art Nouveau style from the end of the 19th century. And here too, the market stalls overflow with foodstuffs that represent the culinary wealth of Catalonia.

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Tan Jin is a Chinese-born chef who takes regional products and uses them in her own special way. At her small, simply decorated restaurant,Mikan, which only opened last year, she serves tapas made from local ingredients, but with an Asian twist. The menu includes a crispy breaded katsu of Iberian pork fillet, and a glass noodle salad with soy and spicy olive oil. Accompanying the dishes are fashionable natural wines, bento boxes – and large crowds of locals.

Xeixa © beigestellt

Opening last year, Xeixa is another one of Barcelona’s latest additions, headed by Valencia-born chef Sara Valls. The restaurant is located in the Gothic Quarter, the historic center of the old city of Barcelona, in a magnificent building which once upon a time was a brothel that inspired painter Pablo Picasso’s famous painting “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”.

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Valls has an impressive creative talent too, breathing life into classic, often forgotten Catalan dishes, which she prepares in a wood-fired oven. For example, calamares a la bruta, a dish of squid that Valls combines with black pudding and spicy sausage sobrasada.

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Also opened last year was the stylish and (so far) almost tourist-free Colmado Wilmot, from chef Eugeni de Diego. For many years, De Diego cooked alongside Ferran Adrià at the world-famous El Bulli, but at his new kitchen he doesn’t rely on the so-called molecular cuisine of earlier times, but on excellent basic ingredients that can be enjoyed either on site or to go.

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The amazing veal tripe, for example, which the chef combines with a juicy tortilla, has already made a name for itself. A particular highlight is the fact that many of the dishes at Colmado Wilmot are meant to be shared or can be ordered as half portions – allowing you to taste your way through an abundance of Spanish delicacies.