Category Archives: What to Do

Local Ingredients: The Key to Our Paella

Our local ingredients for the best paella cooking experience
Our local ingredients for the best paella cooking experience

Welcome to our Blog!

Here we are with some news about the local ingredients we use for our paella cooking experience at La Salsamenta. After years of experience and working with major partners for all the products we use at home, we have decided to make a move forward to support locals. We are switching the supermarkets partners for the local when possible.

We have made a few trips to meet people that works on the field for products we use for our paella cooking class and other culinary experiences, like rice, pimenton, saffron, etc. and that match with our philosophy. Believe it or not, it’s not much more expensive than other ingredients for making the best paella in Barcelona!

So after our finding, we are moving everything we can to those new suppliers. You can check some of them at our About Us section! Currently working on Saffron, Rice, Pimenton and Paellas.

We believe this change will be highly beneficial for our paella cooking classes and other cooking classes. By using local ingredients for our paella, we can provide a more authentic and enriching experience for our participants. Our paella cooking experience in Barcelona will showcase some of the finest paellas the city has to offer, giving our guests a taste of the city’s culinary excellence.

We will continue working to add more of them in the near future! Stay tuned and join us at La Salsamenta for an unforgettable cooking experience!

BONUS: Most of them do not send overseas (nor even for retail). So after the requests from some of our recent guests we have reserved a little space for them in our secret garden in Barcelona so you can buy their product and bring it home for you or as a present for your friends and family.

Barcelona’s Restaurant Guide

Leave a comment
Barcelona's Restaurant Guide

Hello!

This post is a Bacelona’s Restaurant Guide and is always “under construction” as we are adding new areas, new tips and new comments from our Experience from La Salsamenta Barcelona Cooking Class and from the experiences we get from our guests. So let’s move on!

Basics:

First, let’s start with one of the Basic rules in Barcelona: The NO-GO food area. Except you need to eat something quick like a sandwich, hot dog or similar we strongly suggest not to eat in following areas: Las Ramblas, Plaça Reial, Paseig de Gracia, Sagrada Familia, Avinguda Diagonal, Raval, and Gotic quarter.

That may sound like a lot of places, but those areas are tiny. As an example, Sagrada Familia. By Sagrada Familia we just mean 2 blocks from the church, a bit further it should be OK. We have to say that even in those areas there are nice places. But unless you know where you are going (we include some recommendations bellow) better not.

Quick shots:

  • Try to eat always as soon as possible. Workers are fresh, you will be able to get a table easily. As time goes by restaurants get crowded, service slow down and in trendy places it can be a little bit stressing. 
  • Ah, of course, make a reservation if possible!
  • Opening times and menus are usually up-to-date on Google and the restaurant website. Check it out so you avoid surprises

Classic Recommendations:

So, let’s move on to our recommendations in this Barcelona’s Restaurant Guide. Those are some of the oldest restaurants in town that offer a great blend of traditional cuisine and amazing environment.

  • Els 4 Gats: The café opened on 12 June 1897 in the famous Casa Martí, and served as a hostel, bar and cabaret until it eventually became a central meeting point for Barcelona’s most prominent modernist figures, such as Pablo Picasso and Ramon Casas i Carbó. Now became a restaurant that keeping that spirit in mind serves delicious traditional food.
  • 7 Portes: It was inaugurated in 1836, it was a restaurant specialized in serving different dishes of Catalan cuisine, specializing in serving fish and rice. The restaurant is located in the Xifré house in Barceloneta (near the Lonja de Barcelona) and is one of the century-old restaurants in the city. A meeting place for artists and Barcelona intellectuals.
  • Los Caracoles: Los Caracoles is one of the emblematic restaurants of Barcelona opened in 1835. It is located in the Gothic Quarter. One of its characteristic dishes has been snails served in a tapa accompanied by wines. Also, don’t forget to try it’s classic “Pollastre a l’ast” (Roasted chicken).
  • Can Culleretes: Placed in an historical building and started running in 1958. It serves good quality set menus from 20-25€ that will give you a good opportunity to taste local cuisine at a reasonable price.
  • Can Pineda: A bit outside the common touristic areas. Can Pineda started in 1902 as a food house for the factory workers in the area, but it has evolved in one of the top quality Catalan food restaurants in Barcelona.
  • Can Solé: Founded in 1903, everything started cooking for the fishermen at the Barceloneta port to become what today is an emblematic restaurant in the city. 4 generations of the family have been serving delicious meals over 100 years

Restaurants by Area:

So, apart from the city classics here we provide you with some extensive recommendations of great value for money restaurants that are not so traditional:

Hope you enjoy our Barcelona’s Restaurant Guide and please leave a comment with your new discoveries just below!

Cheers! Bye Bye!