Croquettes, like patatas bravas, are the hallmark of a bar. You can tell a bar by them. Some might say that making croquettes or patatas bravas is easy, but how many bad ones have you eaten? Exactly, many.
Trying the croquettes at a bar is like taking the pulse of its kitchen. We don’t want to sound intense, but the croquette is representative of the whole. A croquette tells you about the rest of the food served there, the love of its chefs, the enthusiasm of the team. Good croquettes are the prelude to a good experience.
Rooster&Bubbles
Source: Instagram Rooster&Bubbles
At Rooster&Bubbles, a corner of El Born where they’ve combined two winners:roast chicken and cava. And they’ve been doing it since 1962. Here, the croquette is obviously made with roast chicken, and it’s a gem. If you accompany it with their patatas bravas with mild aioli, you’ve won.
📍 Pla de Palau, 12, Ciutat Vella
💸€8 (4 pieces)
Pepa Tomate
Source: Instagram Pepa Tomate
Pepa Tomate has become a classic in Barcelona, known for its popular cuisine and somewhat creative tapas at affordable prices. At its two locations in Gràcia and Sant Antoni, the Iberian ham croquette takes center stage with its sweet filling and intense flavor.
📍Carrer de Blai, 28, 08004 Barcelona
💸€2.75
Bar Pimentel
Source: Pimentel
Pimentel opened a year ago in El Borne . It’s a good, attractive, inexpensive bar, which is what you want from a neighborhood bar and which, sadly, is an exception in El Borne. It’s a bar where they cook with passion, as they used to when they cooked for neighbors rather than tourists. With a kitchen staffed by young chefs, this means a menu where almost everything sounds familiar, but we enjoy it as if it were new.
Their “grandma’s croquettes” with flavors of acorn-fed Iberian ham, chicken a l’ast, or shrimp are a masterpiece that truly respects culinary traditions.
📍 Carrer dels Carders, 11, 08003 Barcelona
💸€2.5
Barra Alta
At Barra Alta, located in Sant Gervasi, the croquette with stew and foie gras is on another level. And Barra Alta, as its name suggests, is too. A very serious restaurant that is not talked about enough and is one of the great examples of Catalan cuisine in the city. In addition to its croquettes, the oyster bar and other dishes are equally impressive and worth trying.
📍Carrer del Penedès, 25, 08012 Barcelona
💸€2.9
Pacomeralgo
Pacomeralgo defines itself as an “Alta Taberna” (high-end tavern), and that’s exactly what it is. Don’t be fooled by the name; this place is serious business, and many chefs come here to eat when they get tired of feeding others. Barcelona . Its cuttlefish croquettes, known as Obamay, and its chicken and ham croquettes are like everything else they serve: simplicity executed to perfection. The aioli sauce that accompanies them enhances the tapa and complements the festival of flavors we’re about to enjoy.
📍 Carrer d’Aribau, 152, 08036 Barcelona
💸€3.05
El Suculent
El Suculent is chef Toni Romero’s established project: pure Catalan cuisine linked to the land. Few places cook game and meat like they do here. That’s why you can enjoy a roast duck croquette that defies traditional expectations right in the heart of Rambla del Raval.
📍Rambla del Raval, 43, 08001 Barcelona
💸€3
Casa Gaig
Casa Gaig is synonymous with traditional Catalan cuisine. It is both a restaurant and THE takeaway in the upper part of the city. In both, you will find their roast chicken croquettes, a distillation of tradition.
📍 Carrer de la Nau Santa Maria, 5-7, 08017 Barcelona
💸3.40
Polleria Fontana
Editorial credit: Pollería Fontana
Don’t be fooled by the name: Polleria Fontana is neither a poultry shop (although it used to be) nor is it located in Fontana. It is now a restaurant offering homemade dishes with a Catalan twist near Joanic. Its chicken croquettes are generous and melt-in-the-mouth, filled with roast chicken that will make you feel right at home.
📍 Carrer Gran de Gràcia, 81, 08012 Barcelona
Maitea
At Maitea, you’ll find exceptional croquettes with a firm batter that hides an interior that is more Basque or Madrilenian than Catalan, that is, a croquette with more béchamel sauce than protein. We love them, so we encourage you to try the Iberian ham and oxtail varieties and, of course, the Idiazabal cheese and txistorra sausage varieties.
📍Carrer Casanova, 155, 08036 Barcelona
💸2.65
Coure
Coure is where Albert Ventura showcases his culinary mastery without the need for Michelin stars. One of the city’s great (and first) gastrotaverns, with creative and elegant cuisine. Its croquettes are large and impressive, with exquisite fillings that stand out for their quality.
📍 Passatge Marimon, 20, 08021 Barcelona
💸3
Bodega de’n Rafel
In this Sant Antoni wine cellar, everything is as it should be: the people are friendly, the wine is good, and the food is homemade. When you order a croquette, you get a croquette (and not just any croquette, but a spectacular one), unless you’re already a regular at the best tables on Carrer Manso.
📍Carrer de Manso, 52, L’Eixample, 08015 Barcelona
Casa Güell
Located opposite Beckett, Casa Güell has quickly become a meeting place for local residents, who in less than a week discovered its Idiazabal cheese and Iberian hamcroquette, which is already one of our favorites in the city. Chef Jordi, who has extensive international experience, focuses on powerful and bold flavors. His penchant for adding egg or truffles to dishes to increase their creaminess is a sign of his style.
📍Carrer de Castella, 1, Sant Martí, 08018 Barcelona
Potstot, vegan croquettes
Source: Potstot
For starters,“sabrosada,” a relative of sobrasada made from sweet potatoes, served with teff bread, a delicious Ethiopian cereal that makes for very credible gluten-free bread. Next,Catalan-style spinach croquettes with pine nuts and pea panko, tastier than many of the milk- and bread-laden croquettes we’ve tried lately.
📍Carrer de València, 204, L’Eixample, 08011 Barcelona
Candela
Candela says it blends Mediterranean and Peruvian cuisines, and although it leans more towards the latter, there are nods to the former, such as a croquette that is not made with ají de gallina, like almost all the Spanish-Peruvian croquettes we know, but with chupe de bacalao, a traditional Peruvian soup that is made here with a very Spanish fish, cod, and turned into a croquette.
📍Pl. de Sant Pere, 12, Ciutat Vella, 08003 Barcelona
💸3.50
La Medusa 73
Located in the Ninot Market, this market food stall has been the most mentioned among our readers for its croquettes. That’s why it ranks first on the list. At La Medusa 73, specialists in seafood, they make croquettes with hake, cuttlefish in its ink, shrimp, etc.
📍Mercat del Ninot (C/ de Mallorca, 133)
Catacroquet
Another of our readers’ favorites. They have two locations. One in Poblenou, which they describe as “hip-hop, croquettes, roguish tapas, sun, laughter,” and another in El Born, which they describe as “fish market, croquettes, oysters, bubbles, jazz, love.” Two very different atmospheres where croquettes are always on the menu.
📍C/Almogàvers, 211 | C/Pescateria, 6
Senyor Vermut
We already told you about Senyor Vermut in our guide to the best patatas bravas in Barcelona, a ranking compiled by @BravasBarcelona in which, incidentally, it took first place. But we’ve also been recommended their croquettes, and we have to admit that they’re phenomenal. The person in the photo, by the way, is the owner. A true artist.
📍Carrer de Provença, 85, L’Eixample,
Bodegueta Sant Andreu
Source: Instagram Bodegueta Sant Andreu
Another one of those taverns with a great vibe. A long-standing establishment that combines traditional tapas with the best of what’s to come. And away from the center, because Barcelona is not just El Born.
📍 Rambla de Fabra i Puig, 30
Bar Romita
Bar Romita, the little brother of Bar Roma, has opened nearby with a menu based on crazy sandwiches and a similar aesthetic to its older sibling, somewhere between a traditional bar and a hipster Barcelona bar, with carefully prepared food but old-fashioned napkins that cut your lips when you wipe your mouth.
Here they respect the croquette, with recipes that make time stand still: the Parmesan croquette, crispy and melting in your mouth, and the rostit croquette, with the classic flavor of a homemade croquette. A delightful place that is worth returning to for more.
📍Carrer de Calàbria, 181, L’Eixample, 08015 Barcelona
Veracruz
The Veracruz restaurant has just opened, doing what everyone else does, but authentically. It has kept the name and aesthetics of the previous bar, but for real, complete with a TV. Although it is called a restaurant, it is a true Catalan eatery, with a dish of the day and traditional Catalan cuisine. It has truly affordable prices, and although it does not have a set menu, it has a menu where you can leave happy and full for less than 20 euros.
It also has two regular croquettes: chicken and monkfish and shrimp, which the chef has been making for years at Mercader de l’Eixample, which is where he’s from. So there are no inventions: both are spot on, and it’s definitely a place to return to just to try them again.
📍Carrer de Mallorca, 321, Eixample, 08037 Barcelona