Where to Eat in Barcelona, According to One of the World’s Top Chefs

Welcome to The Relisher’s Barcelona edition! This week, I met with Albert Adrià — one of the most influential chefs in the world.

Albert made his name at elBulli, the legendary restaurant he ran for years before striking out on his own in Barcelona. His restaurants have included the Michelin-starred Tickets, which transformed how the world thinks about tapas, and today Enigma, which holds a Michelin star and is ranked No. 34 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

A five-time winner of The World’s Best Restaurant Award and a member of the Best of the Best Hall of Fame, Albert has also been featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table. He is widely regarded as one of the most creative and important voices in global gastronomy.

Below, he shares the Barcelona restaurants, tapas bars, vermouth bars, markets, and more that he loves most in his city. A Google Map with all of the locations is provided at the end of the interview.

What I loved most about this edition is how Albert takes you to the places chefs and locals adore, but that most travelers would never find on their own.

There’s a vermouth bar where anchovies are still cleaned and de-salted each morning, another where you can taste four different types of jamón ibérico, and a century-old breakfast café where time seems to stand still — the kind of place locals still gather for hot chocolate, churros, and the city’s original Cacaolat. And, of course, he reveals his favorite tapas spots and restaurants.

This is Barcelona seen through the eyes of one of the world’s greatest chefs.