Comerç

Mentioned in the Juan Marsé novel Últimas tardes con Teresa and located at the peak of El Carmel, this restaurant allows you to disconnect from Barcelona without leaving the city. A time-honoured bar and restaurant, in the 1960s the residents of the self-built homes nearby would go there for coffee. Today, it still conserves its neighbourhood feel while also attracting tourists headed towards the Park Güell area. They offer a wide variety of dishes –like scalloped potatoes, steamed mussels, clams, baby squid, Galician-style octopus and longaniza sausage from Aragón– as well as traditional fare like codfish with ratatouille, all crafted with high-quality products and sold at affordable prices. The attentive servers cover the bar, a dining room seating 72 diners and an incredible terrace. 

This is a restaurant featuring well-kept 1970s interior design that specialises in premium fresh fish and seafood. The former owners had a fishmonger’s across from it, and at lunchtime they'd cook their own goods. In fact, the raw materials are still sourced there. They are known in the neighbourhood and beyond for their battered and fried calamari. The menu, which is short and unchanging, includes an affordable seafood platter, salads, rice dishes like soupy rice with lobster and paella (both have to be ordered in advance) and grilled fish and seafood at reasonable prices. Their dishes are simple yet well executed and served in generous portions. Given all the above, as well as their outstanding service, this restaurant is always hopping, so it's a good idea to reserve a table well in advance. It is not open for dinner. 

Serving the neighbourhood more than 20 years, this restaurant recreates the ambiance of a traditional Mexican village, even down to its ceiling, which is hung with upside-down decorations. Their cuisine is a fusion of Mexican food with local products. The menu encompasses traditional dishes from the country of the Aztec like guacamole, nachos like the Bastardos (for those brave capsaicin fans), burritos, enchiladas, tacos like Qué Onda Buey, quesadillas, fajitas, alambres, jalapeño croquettes, ceviche, mole, cochinita pibil, beef tinga and more. The extra sauces include a spicy one by the chef with a high Scoville score. And to drink, they offer imported beer, michelada, fresh fruit water and a variety of mescal, tequila and margaritas.

In Horta since 1959, it reopened in 2022 with an illustrated façade and a new menu that is attracting customers. It still retains its neighbourhood spirit and now defines itself as a gastrobar. They carefully choose the foods they purvey, like boards of Cal Rovira sausages and cheeses with a designation of origin for tapas, sobrasada made of black Iberian pork by Can Company in Mallorca and organic beef from Cal Tomàs in El Pallars. These are served alongside sandwiches, flatbreads and specialities that show their flair for surprising tastes, such as their patatas bravas made of sweet potatoes with pancetta. You can have breakfast there, have a midday snack with products from Perelló, eat lunch (they even have a set menu during the week) and have dinner. It’s a place where you can enjoy the surroundings, good company and good food. And faithful to their slogan (‘gastronomy and neighbourhood’), they host tastings and pairings to connect locals with their passion for wine. 

This restaurant materialises the concept of quick, fun fusion cuisine by presenting Mediterranean dishes in the guise of corn tacos. The menu includes tacos with xató salad, chistorra sausage, mar y montaña with squid and butifarra de perol sausage or cod with samfaina and caramelised garlic allioli. They are offered alongside emblems of Mexican cuisine like quesadillas with escalibada roasted vegetables, morcilla sausage and sweet potato, succulent organic beef and more, nachos (with fried eggs) and guacamole (with rosemary oil). And you can order flavoured margaritas (mango, lime or pomegranate), a grapefruit soda or a michelada to go with all these delectable bites. The restaurant is filled with light during the day and warm in the evening. Ideal terrace for a vermut with tacos. 

Dorotea is a Greek name that means ‘gift of the gods’, and this restaurant proffering small plates and regular dishes is name for ‘La Doro’, who was born in Horta back before the First World War, when it was famous for its washing sites. Pretty, with a clear gaze, and a good cook with ideas of her own, she represents the strong women of her period, who were capable of taking action, in Horta and everywhere, when neither wind nor tide could stop them. And the restaurant pays homage to Dorotea with market and Mediterranean cuisine inspired by the culinary tradition, apply-ing all that wisdom from a modern vantage point. The menu includes wide range of items to satisfy any craving. It has an exclusive lounge-restaurant called Santo Cielo, where groups can have lunch or dinner and stay afterwards, with music, cocktails and hookah.

Seafood, rice dishes and high-quality tapas for all in a restaurant with minimalist nautical décor composed of three rooms that will make you feel like you have been transported to coastal destinations –Cadaqués, L'Escala and Palamós– and a highly sought-after courtyard in a property dating back to 1908 and located opposite what used to be the Horta stream. The menu includes sharing dishes such as a seafood platter for two and acorn-fed ham, specialities such as soupy rice with blue crab from the Delta and fisherman's stew, meat from Girona and chocolate ‘rocks’ as the sweet finishing touch. On weekdays, it has a set lunch menu and an 'express’ quick meal option. The couple who own it are market folk (their families have been running fish and fruit stalls at the Mercat de Montserrat market for generations), so its cuisine is straight from the market: fresh, seasonal and at good prices. In 2017, after years of serving restaurant industry customers from behind the counter, María José Millán and Arturo Garzón decided to open their own restaurant, which was followed a year and a half ago by a second one in Sant Andreu: La Terrassa de Mercadal (Plaça del Mercadal, 41). As for sustainability, when preparing food, El Racó del Peix makes the most of the venue's natural ventilation resulting from its position between two streets, and the owners are thinking of installing solar panels. 

Known for its ciabatta, this restaurant was opened in 1927 by Rosita Not and Quimet Carlús, was transferred to Jaime Jalmar in 1955 and today is run by his son, Josep Lluís, who brought back to the old doors and filled the glass cases with little bottles of spirits and liqueurs from all over the world, more than 3,000, many of them gifts from customers. In the collective memory is a permanent denizen, the parrot Juanito, who, in freedom, amused the regulars by imitating the whistle of the streetcar conductor; in fact, he was often charged with announcing its exit at the stop in front of the bar. In homage to Juanito, his likeness illustrates the sugar packets and menus. In its almost 100 years of history, Quimet d’Horta has been the headquarters of the Unión Atlética de Horta football club, the Club Ciclista (cycling) Horta and the Ajedrez (chess) Alfil Club, in addition to being a place where this popular strategy game could be played until the 1980s, on marble tables that were also set up for games of parcheesi and dominoes. It has always kept its flavour as a neighbourhood bar, and since 2006 it has boasted a plaque that distinguishes its deep roots in the city. It offers 95 submarine sandwiches, 40 different omelette sandwiches, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, salads, tapes like the Huevo de Horta and options for vegans. The bar, dining room and terrace are all perfect for sipping a well-drawn draught beer or a craft vermouth. 

A family restaurant with decades of tradition and roots in Gràcia, where it is acclaimed by neighbours as a social hub and space for encouraging connections among the neighbourhood’s cultural organisations. Fish, seafood, meats and rice dishes are skilfully served alongside iconic products from the north of the Iberian Peninsula, such as anchovies from Santoña, peppers from Padrón, lettuce hearts from Tudela and white potxa beans with clams, as well as nods to local recipes, such as the cargols a la llauna escargot dish, crema catalana custard and the mel i mató honey and cheese dessert, although the dessert section also includes Santiago almond cake, served with sweet wine. Dishes are served on porcelain crockery from Sargadelos in a laid-back space featuring a collection of old radios and a curious doorway. Ideal for groups and small-scale celebrations. 

Garden Pizza, an artisanal pizzeria that opened in 2018, laid the foundation for the Sartoria Panatieri project, now with two locations in the city. Rafa Panatieri and Jorge Sastre work mainly with carefully selected organic, local and seasonal products, and with some they prepare themselves (cold meats and cheeses), applying haute cuisine techniques and expertise from different culinary traditions. A dynamic concept that pursues one goal: for the experience of eating the pizza to connect us with everything that went into it. In 2023, the 50 Top Pizza guide recognised its pizza with roasted cherry tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil hollandaise as Best Pizza of the Year, and the restaurant as Best Pizzeria in Europe and third Best Pizzeria in 
the World.