Paella in Barcelona

Along Passeig de Joan de Borbó, you’ll encounter dozens of restaurants, some with unique style and accomplished, local cuisine… others, well, not so much. But farther down towards Barceloneta’s beach, you’ll come across a place that serves what is arguably the best paella in the city: La Mar Salada.

Being so close to the ocean, and to the daily local fish auctions, it’s no wonder La Mar Salada specializes in seafood, as do many of the restaurants in the area. With some of the best seafood around, it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd here, making it all the more impressive that they do. La Mar Salada wins praise for its good service and comfortable atmosphere, but more importantly, for the quality and presentation of its food.

The menu is varied, incuding tapas, salads, steak and grilled fish, but most people go for their rice dishes, such as arroz negro (tinted black with squid ink) or one of their famous paellas, which I can personally vouch for as utterly delicious.

The Escribà family has been baking cakes in Barcelona since 1906. In 1992, Joan Escribà opened a restaurant on Bogatell beach to sell savory food alongside the sweet – the rice and seafood turned out as good as the torrija – and Xiringuito Escribà has been there ever since, on the boardwalk between Poblenou and Vila Olímpica, a few steps from the water.

The house paella is paella de l’Escribà, a seafood pan built on a short-grain rice base and cooked over wood fires in an open kitchen – a detail worth noting in a city where most kitchens have gone to gas. The lineup also runs to arròs negre (black rice), a Catalan classic done straight; an Asian paella, the house fusion variant; fideuà with seafood; a Valencian paella with rabbit, chicken and flat green beans; a mixed meat-and-fish pan; and a fish-only one. These are not small plates. Plan on sharing.

On the non-rice side, the starters lean toward the sea: tuna tataki, grilled sardines, gambas al ajillo and patatas bravas in a hazelnut-tomato sauce with aioli. Desserts come from the family bakery, where the crema catalana alone is worth saving room for. The room is semi-open to the beach, with earth-toned walls, an open kitchen in full view, tables spaced to breathe and fairy lights strung up at night. Panoramic windows put most seats in direct view of the water.

Open every day of the year, including holidays. Reservations are essential; walk-ins are regularly turned away, especially on warm weekends. “Rice with attitude and the sea in our faces” is the house motto. They mean both parts.

Paella made with seawater is an old Valencian trick – the salt and minerals set the rice differently, or so the story goes. Arrosseria Xàtiva does 25 versions of it. The Gràcia flagship on Carrer del Torrent d’en Vidalet runs as a pure rice house: Riuet bomba rice from Pego Oliva (D.O. Valencia), cooked in seawater in individual pans, on a kitchen line that runs 365 days a year.

The menu is a working catalog of 25+ rice dishes. Paella Valenciana comes the way it’s meant to be, with rabbit, chicken and green beans. There’s a duck confit rice, an onion paella for vegetarians and arròs a banda – rice cooked in fish broth, served alongside the fish. At the center of the lineup sits the arròs negre, squid-ink black rice one regular called the best in Barcelona. Fideuà versions – the same treatments built on short pasta noodles instead of rice, a Catalan staple – fill the other half of the menu. And, rarely in this city, you can order a paella for one – no two-person minimum, no forcing a table to share.

The room is small and rustic, on a residential street in Vila de Gràcia, full of locals and off the tourist circuit. The kitchen cooks to order, so plan on a leisurely meal – each pan takes a good 25 to 40 minutes. The set lunch is considerably gentler on the wallet. Reservations are easy online and worth making on weekends.

Three other Grup Xàtiva outposts exist in town – Les Corts (the original), Sant Antoni and the sister Trenta3 next door to Les Corts.

In 1968, Barceloneta fisherman Enrique Majó and his wife Maria opened a small seafood restaurant on what was then still a working village’s waterfront. Their children Rosa and Enrique run it still. Can Majó sits on Carrer d’Emília Llorca Martín, on the beach-facing side of Barceloneta, with a terrace open to the Mediterranean – one of the few restaurants in the neighborhood with the water directly in front of it and nothing blocking the view. The village around it has changed beyond recognition; the restaurant mostly hasn’t.

The kitchen does Catalan seafood straight and the rice is the point. The paella marinera – prawns, mussels, clams, squid, a langostino – draws the most consistent praise. The arròs negre, squid-ink black rice served with allioli on the side, has its own following: “the best paella I’ve ever tasted,” one diner wrote. Order either for the socarrat – the crisp layer at the bottom of the pan the house gets right. The octopus, grilled and simple, is worth adding to the table.

The room itself is linen tablecloths, wooden beams and seafaring paintings. The terrace is the real draw – close enough to the water to hear the waves, busy by day, sweeping at night. It’s not the cheapest paella on the front – but worth it for a seat by the water. Tables fill quickly; lunch-only service on Sundays and Tuesdays narrows the dinner window to Wednesday through Saturday, and the restaurant is closed Mondays.

Go at sunset if you can. Toes in the sand, a cold bottle of white and a pan of rice from a family that used to fish these waters.

Most restaurants in Barceloneta list a paella or two, alongside the tapas, the pasta and the usual greatest hits. Maná 75 lists over a dozen. The open kitchen – which the house calls the longest paella line in Europe – runs to 19 stations, all firing rice in full view of the dining room.

The specialist menu runs from the obvious to the seasonal: seafood paella in señoret style (shelled), lobster, squid-ink black rice with mussels, a meat paella stacked with botifarra negra and pork ribs, arroz de carabinero in a deep scarlet broth. Winter brings a calçots rice; late spring, a paella of foie gras and Iberian pork. Broths are simmered for eight hours on a family recipe.

The room is big, around 800 square meters, with round tables built for sharing (which is the point of paella), an open kitchen as theater and a leafy outdoor terrace of red umbrellas and wooden benches. The place was laid out to feng shui principles, for what that’s worth. From the sidewalk it’s a minute to the beach.

The arroz de carabinero, the black rice and the señoret draw the most praise. Portions are generous; expect slower service during busy seasons. Set menus offer the gentler way in; à la carte runs higher. It’s a walk down Passeig de Joan de Borbó, the seaside strip of Barceloneta, past the fishing port and the boardwalk – the restaurant sits near the tip, where the pavement meets the marina.

Paella with the shells off was invented here in the 19th century for a regular who couldn’t be bothered to peel shrimp. They named it Arròs Parellada, for dandy Juli Maria Parellada, and still serve it – along with five other paellas – at 7 Portes, so named because the ground floor has seven doors open to Passeig Isabel II. It opened as a coffeehouse in 1836, turned restaurant in 1929, and has traded on its cuisine and its address in equal measure ever since.

The building is part of Porxos d’en Xifré, a Parisian-style arcade commissioned by shipping magnate Josep Xifré in a nod to Rue de Rivoli. Inside: checkered tile floors, timber ceilings, white-clothed tables, bow-tied waiters and brass plaques on the banquettes marking where Lorca, Orson Welles, Pelé, Che Guevara, Gorbachev and Picasso once sat. Works by Picasso, Miró and Tàpies hang on the walls. A pianist plays many nights.

Beyond the paellas, the menu reads like a greatest-hits of mid-century Catalan cooking: house canelons, bacallà fritters, pan con tomate, roasted vegetables, jamón ibérico sliced to order, anchovies in vinegar – an honest, polished version of what’s on a hundred other menus around town, served in a much better room. Many call it a high point – traditional, professional, worth the price – but some complain of slipping service and dishes that don’t always live up to the postcard. Prices sit on the higher end of €€€.

Go knowing what you’re there for. The plaques, the Parellada and a room that has hosted six generations of Barcelona – that’s worth the ticket. The space is big, with several dining rooms over two floors, so walk-ins often work on weekdays; a reservation through the website is easy when you want one.

In Barcelona, paella usually comes by the pan and for two. Casa Amàlia, opened in 1950 next to the Mercat de la Concepció, is one of the few central spots where you can order one for yourself – and not just a basic seafood version, but creative variants like mountain rice with rabbit and butifarra, wagyu beef, cocochas, or the Onyar-Merlès with duck magret, foie and figs.

The restaurant relaunched in 2020 under new ownership as Casa Amàlia 1950. Most ingredients now come from stalls inside the market next door, with the dishes traced back to their producers; a digital menu surfaces who grew what. The short-grain cristal rice – the hollow-centered kind that absorbs broth – ships in from Molí de Pals in the Empordà region.

Before the rice, warm up with croquetas (the spinach “Popeye” is as good as the meat version), a plate of torreznos, or whatever starter the server recommends. Finish with the torrija, caramelized and dense. Service is Catalan old-school: staff who remember the regulars and aim to turn first-timers into regulars. Inside, traditional hydraulic tiles and refurbished wood abound; two private rooms, Sala 1950 and Sala Rovira-Beleta, are good for small groups. Outside, tables spill onto the pedestrianized Passatge del Mercat when the weather cooperates. The feel is more neighborhood trattoria than tourist destination.

A second Casa Amàlia sits inside the Time Out Market at Port Vell offering sea views and a different experience. But the original is this one. Come alone, come as six – the pans arrive one to a person.

Pedro Ruipérez had a thing for Wild West attire. Cheriff, the nickname that stuck, has been over the door of this Barceloneta seafood house since 1959. Sixty-five years later the place sits on a quiet block of Carrer de Ginebra – inland from Port Vell, no sea view, no chiringuito lineup outside – which is exactly how the regulars want it.

A recent refresh by Mesura studio gave the small dining room terrazzo floors, warm wood and naval-blue tones; the studio’s own brief called the effect “intellectual elegance.” Fresh fish and seafood still come up the block from the boats at Moll de la Planxeta, minutes away. The menu reads more like a rice-lover’s dossier than a tourist hit parade. The paella del Cheriff stars Galician clams and espardeñas (sea cucumbers – a local delicacy). The paella de marisco pelada, the house specialty, arrives with the shells already removed so you can get on with the eating. Lobster rice varies by whatever came off the boats that morning. The arròs caldós and arròs negre both have a following.

Loyalists call it the best paella in Barcelona; detractors flag the bill. They’re both right. This isn’t cheap – lobster is market priced – and it’s not the flashiest paella on the beach. It’s where Barceloneta families bring their kids when they want them to know what good rice tastes like. It’s a small room, so book before you go.

Rice in this city tends to arrive one of two ways: the seafront pan cooked for whoever walks past, or the old-guard arrosseria where the recipe hasn’t moved in forty years. CruiX found a third. Since November 2017 chef Miquel Pardo has run this small, brick-walled room on Carrer d’Entença, a short walk up from Plaça Espanya, and it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Pardo grew up in Onda, in Castellón, and came up through serious kitchens: Jordi Cruz at Abac, Rafa Peña at Gresca, Albert Adrià out in Ibiza. Then he took over a former Galician bar and made it his own. What he runs is a tasting menu rather than an à la carte paella house – a procession of small, inventive plates that ends with a rice pan set in the middle of the table to share. The tapas are where he plays: Peking duck croquettes with a touch of mint, fuet nigiri, fish tacos under a black garlic mole.

Then the pan lands and the meal reorients around it. Pardo spreads the rice thin across a wide pan so more of it meets the fire, which is how every serving arrives with socarrat, the caramelized crust at the bottom that Valencians will argue about all afternoon. The lineup rotates: a classic Valencian paella, a baby squid black rice under aioli mousse, a rice with lágrima ibérica and eggplant. There’s reliably a vegan one too. Tasting menus start from around €45.

It’s a small room and it fills up, so plan ahead – and pace yourself through the tapas, because the pan is the part you came for.

As summer approaches, those all too familiar emails start flooding in: “I know we haven’t spoken for years, but we’re coming to Barcelona for our holiday and we’d like to catch up! Let’s meet for a paella at the beach. Any recommendations?” Don’t these people realize what kind of pressure they’re putting on you? And where can you go that serves proper paella that’s not too fancy… and with sea views? Where can you get a good paella and not have to wait an hour for a table, and another to be served, without paying through the nose?

Well, I’ll tell you where, amigos: go to Barraca. Part of the Tribu Woki group, this modern, Mediterranean-facing arrocería specializes in traditional seafood and paella, and you can afford to eat here without having to rent out your living room on Airbnb. Start with classics like bombas, croquettes and calamari before moving on to picture-perfect fish dishes and paellas for around twenty bob a head. Everyone’s a winner.

Barcelona is not short of seafood restaurants. Its seaside location and epicurean population mean that you never have to search for a local joint serving up lovingly prepared delights of the sea. On the downside, it’s not easy to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to sniffing out the best spots in town. But the good news is that healthy competition means that forward-thinking restaurateurs are finding innovative ways to draw a crustacean-hungry crowd.

In steps MariscCo, whose innovative approach has locals and tourists alike lining up in droves. You select the amount of fresh fish or seafood you desire and they will grill it or fry it up, Andalucía-style, and serve it to your table – you pay according to the weight of the product. You can also order à la carte from a reasonably priced menu. They are celebrated for their rice dishes (like lobster paella) and seafood (such as the tuna, Galician octopus or garlic prawns) but the menu also boasts steaks, salads and classic Catalan desserts.

If you’re looking for paella, locals know to head to Barceloneta. Can Solé, a family-run business, has been a good stop for the signature dish for over a hundred years. Founded in 1904, this classic, homestyle restaurant specializes in rice dishes like paella as well as “black” rice (whose appearance derives from the squid ink) and the wonderfully flavorful arroz caldoso (literally “brothy rice”). For a local delicacy, try the Catalan fideuà, a seafood dish made with vermicelli-style noodles.

The space is also known for its seafood dishes, which range from starters like sautéed prawns or grilled clams to mains such as the freshly caught lobster or baked “Can Solé” cod, served with romesco and au gratin potatoes. Meat lovers won’t go hungry with options like sirloin steak or chickpea stew with chorizo, and there are vegetarian plates too like braised lentils, onion soup and salads. There are over a dozen desserts – crema catalana would be the traditional choice, but how does one resist the black-and-white chocolate lava cake?

A meal with drinks here is no bargain, but the quality of the offering – and knowing that you’re enjoying recipes that are steeped in tradition – makes it all worthwhile.

When looking for a restaurant in the seaside neighborhood of Barceloneta, it’s good to search the side streets for places like this. Founded in 1921, this storied restaurant specializes in seafood, with a third-generation of family owners who buy daily from local suppliers – monkfish, wild sea bass, lobster, oysters, octopus, shrimp and more.

Their specialties include Seafood Paella, Arróz Negro (black rice which derives its color from squid ink), Prawns with Lemon or Garlic, and Fried Baby Squid (chipirones). They also serve traditional tapas like Iberian ham, pan con tomate and desserts such as Crema Catalana. They offer a good selection of local wines too. The rustic interior harkens back to a traditional fishermen restaurant. Private area for groups.