That vegetarianism is booming and veganism is a more than confirmed trend is no surprise, and we are delighted. Even so, eating a good piece of meat in a traditional steakhouse or a contemporary steakhouse is still, for many, the expression of a celebration.
A charcoal-grilled steak, a steaming barbecue at the table, a hamburger or a stone-grilled steak made at the table of your favorite steakhouse still seduces us with its smoky smell and its bright reddish colors. Therefore, we have fallen into the most primitive temptation, that of meat, and we could not resist to elaborate this carnivorous list with the best steakhouses in Barcelona.
Carnal Steak house
The pretty girl of meat in Barcelona. It opened a year ago with force, with a huge place, tropical decoration and a fridge of matured meats at the door that screams for you to enter from the street. Like someone who changes language to think, here you think of meat, and beyond the grilled meats, starters such as the matured picaña, butter made meat or grilled edamame with steak fat break the deck at the beginning of the àpat.
Then, a classic, the steak tartar on marrow, well done, and from there to the meats, with matured steaks and entrecôte and also a section of international meats (Argentinean entraña, Uruguayan beef, wagyu…) served cooked Basque style, sealed on the outside and red on the inside, but with a hot stone on the table so that everyone can finish it to taste. An unappealable carnivorous festival.
📍 C. d’Enric Granados, 52, L’Eixample
Cabrera
Those in the know know that a barbecue is not the same as an Argentinean asado, and in Barcelona, a city where everyone knows that the Argentinean is one of the largest communities, there are several places where you can learn the difference between the two. Few, however, like La Cabrera, one of the best steakhouses in Buenos Aires, which has just opened a branch in Barcelona.
The restaurant, named best steakhouse in Buenos Aires in 2018 in one of the cities with the best steakhouses in the world, is owned by grill icon Gastón Riveiro, a chef who does not do somersaults: traditional grill, the cuts that touch and exact elaborations. Because here you do not come to experiment, but to learn the secrets of a way of cooking that has become the symbol of a country.
Brabo
Eating looking at the embers, with a freshly baked bread on them, is a privilege that we associate more with a weekend in the countryside than with a lunch in the city center. In Brabo the thing changes, and it is enough to cross its door in a small street of Gracia to feel the ample heat of the flame and the smell of freshly baked bread, and feel that few things like fire, heat and food to bring us closer to the most primitive sensations of shelter.
In a small room, with a comfortable decor reminiscent of the living room of a house, with floor lamps to illuminate dining tables, a fire presides, and at the back of the premises is framed by a kitchen that functions as a barbecue for meats, as a bakery for breads and as a pass to give the final touch to the dishes before our eyes.
📍C/ de Sèneca, 28, Gràcia
L’Entrecote
It is enough to know that it is French and to see the yellow color of the sauce to say “butter”. And… mustard? lemon? The guesses about the components of the sauce that covers the entrecote of L’Entrecôte are the entertaining game that is guessed among those who chew the meat with a face of concentration, trying to understand what is so rich that they are chewing.
There is nothing like mystery (in novels, in erotica, in food) to get you hooked, and perhaps this is part of the success of L’Entrecôte, a French restaurant that has become a chain that fills restaurants, now also in Barcelona, with an improbable proposal: a menu made up of a single dish.
📍 C/ de Pau Claris, 142, L’Eixample
Can Xurrades
Can Xurrades is one of those places where the upper class of the city goes (or those who want to feel part of it for a day) and shares with the locals of this tribe repeated features. It is alien to fashions and while other places open and close, here go those who know how to find good meat, because, maturation up or steak tartar down, Can Xurrades remains firm in its unique offer: the exclusivity in the sale of the Sayaguesa breed ox, the calf from Galicia and the cow from Avila, all made with holm oak charcoal embers.
With these same meats, apart from the embers, dishes such as osobucco or oxtail, a steak tartar on marrow or a tasting menu that allows you to try different types and cuts of meat. In short, a luxury.
📍Carrer de Casanova, 212, Eixample
Sirloin steak
A great meat is distinguished at the first bite, but in such a wide world where there are so many different meats, a place like Solomillo is appreciated , where we ourselves choose the origin of the meat we will eat based on its characteristics and, not only that, but we also choose exactly how many grams of sirloin we want to find the perfect balance in the meal.
The menu is a delight, with explanations about each meat, clues about the quantities needed depending on hunger, adjusted prices and a very attractive list of side dishes to build a combined dish to measure, with classic sauces (bearnaise, café Paris …), salads, sides such as macaroni au gratin, vegetables or potatoes in different forms. Oh, and all in a wonderful interior terrace in the Eixample.
📍 C/ de Mallorca, 251, L’Eixample (inside Hotel Alexandra)
Bardeni
The meat of the know. There are several restaurant radars in Barcelona and not all reach the same layers of depth. While the first reviews may not lead you to Bardeni, once you get to know Barcelona’s foodie circle you will begin to hear its name attached to an epithet: the best steak restaurant in the city.
And unlike others, Bardeni is not a steakhouse or brasserie, or not only, which is why it is called meatbar. Here the aesthetics and cuisine of a neotaberna, in the style of a Gresca, for example, are applied to the meat, to make great elaborations. That picanha turned into sausage that you now see everywhere has been here for years. Their steak tartar is iconic and so is their onglet (or entraña). A mecca for believers.
📍C/ de València, 454, L’Eixample
Sagardi
If pescaíto frito is Andalusian and fricandó Catalan, the Basques are undoubtedly the great defenders of meat in the country, and the chuletón its main reliquary. Eating a chuletón in a steakhouse in the Basque Country is like having a vermouth in Barcelona or a caña in Madrid, a necessity, and that is why we are happy to have in Sagardi an embassy of this tradition installed in Barcelona.
Sagardi is a Basque restaurant group that has been established in Barcelona for a long time, but has made a fortune with its traditional Basque grill format. For starters skewers, but as a main element Galician beef bought in the best slaughterhouses and Basque grill with all the artisan technology to make the steak comes out as it should, red point and almost raw inside, but well roasted and caramelized on the outside.
📍carr. de Muntaner, 72, L’Eixample
Parking Sótano
Yes, you’re right. Parking Sótano is the same, or almost, that Parking Pizza. So much so that it is, precisely, in the basement of the pizzeria that has made a fortune in Barcelona. But here, instead of masses, they serve meat, specifically, only one meat: entrecotes. Like L’Entrecote in Barcelona, this restaurant serves only one dish, a 500-gram entrecote that they nail.
Prime meat, clean, filleted and meant for two people. For the rest, garnishes such as potato and gruyere gratin, assorted salads and various sauces to accompany the great dish.
📍Passatge de Marimon, 5, Bajo, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi
Maison Carne, steak only
And we continue in the line of one-dish restaurants. Here you hardly decide anything (what a relief). When you sit down you already know that you will eat the chuletón, for about 34 euros, to enjoy alone or accompanied. Before, to wait, the pate and then, to accompany, the salad and fries.
And that’s it. The wine, by the way, works the same. There is a menu, but the star is the house wine, which is paid by centimeters consumed from the bottle. For dessert, two cheese boards and five classic desserts (crema catalana, babá…). And that’s all. By the way, if we liked it, the steak can be taken home raw.
📍 C/ de Mallorca, 204, L’Eixample, 08036 Barcelona
Lomo alto & lomo bajo
Another of the deans of high-flying meat in Barcelona, and one of the first to start introducing matured meat in the city. The establishment’s name game is replicated on the premises, with Lomo Alto, a luxury steak house, upstairs and Lomo Bajo, its more informal version, downstairs.
Upstairs is a full-fledged steak house, with luxury meats and a variety of cuts and maturations (and prices in keeping with the theme, as we are next to Passeig de Gràcia). Downstairs, the more affordable informal version, with sandwiches made with the same meats as above, obviously, focusing on steak tartar rolls, beef nuggets in various forms and, of course, burgers. Check out their formula of sandwich, side and drink for €17.5.
Tanso Izakaya
Tanso’s specialty is Wagyu beef, one of the best meats in the world, which they import directly from Japan. The other specialty is that you prepare it yourself at the table, with integrated barbecues in the middle of the tables and to your liking, thanks to a tasting menu offering different cuts of Wagyu beef for a complete experience. By the way, pay attention to their wood-fired burgers with truffle sauce.
Passeig de Sant Joan Bosco, 47
La Madurada
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La Madurada (from Carnal’s family) is quite similar to the original house, with the difference that they have chosen to open their two locations away from the center of Barcelona, specifically in Hora and Sant Andreu. But the concept, the gigantic refrigerators welcome us showing us the steaks and cuts of meat maturing that we will eat in a while.
On the table, opulence: carpaccio of matured picanha, edamama sautéed with veal fat, croquettes of galta… a carnivorous festival that is topped off with their steaks, each one more impressive, which are presented with a small griddle on the table so that everyone can finish their meat to the desired point.
📍 Carrer Gran de Sant Andreu, 255, Sant Andreu, 08030 Barcelona – Pg. Maragall, 408, Horta-Guinardó, 08031 Barcelona