Many of us have been (very young) and have bought frozen pizzas thinking that there is no bad pizza, and that any dough with stuff on top fulfills its function because pizza, that divine food, is good even when it is bad.
Little did we know that we were living in a lie, and that just as our parents filled our ears with the refrain of “you’ll understand when you grow up”, surely behind every frozen pizza we ate there was an omnipresent Italian god who looked at us with pity saying: You’ll understand when you grow up.
And so we have. We have grown up, and although fridge pizza has a place in our hearts we know that bad pizza takes us to heaven, but good pizza takes us to paradise, and that when you try a really good pizza, with its well-fermented dough, topped with authentic, well-melted mozzarella and high quality ingredients, there is no turning back.
Luckily, Barcelona has become a true capital of the Italian star dish. But beware, all that glitters is not gold, so we bring you a list of the best pizzas in the city so you can learn to distinguish the wheat from the chaff, and to see, the next time you have, that there are incredible (and homemade) pizzas a few meters from your home.
In the neighborhood of Sant Antoni, doing corner in Ronda de Sant Pau, is this Neapolitan pizzeria that, in addition to the essence in its cuisine, also seeks to maintain the prices of a Neapolitan pizzeria. Here you can order a top quality margarita for 6 euros, which in Barcelona is a rara avis. Its endless queues and unstoppable oven activity endorse it. Better call ahead to book, it will be worth it.
They started only ten years ago, but they already have six restaurants in Madrid, three in Barcelona, two in the Basque Country and one in Mallorca. But don’t be confused by their speed of expansion, which does not go against their quality, on the contrary. NAP is like a branch of the Neapolitan pizza, a safe place where, wherever you are, you know you will find good dough and quality ingredients.
We went there and met Alessandro, a genius of pizza and just about everything else who taught us how a pizza should be eaten, what consistency the dough should have and what happens every time someone pours pizza on a pineapple somewhere in the world. But to know all this you will have to watch the video we leave you at the beginning.
Av. del Paral-lel, 94 | Av. de Francesc Cambó, 30 | Carrer del Baluard, 69
Its name says it all: in Italian, madrelievito means “mother dough”. If Barcelona’s pizzas have improved substantially, it is because pizzaiolos like the ones here have brought their own sourdoughs, fed for years, from Italy, literally bringing the flavors of the country of the boot to Barcelona’s ovens. In the case of Madre Lievito, specifically, there are already four pizzerias, with their four ovens, where this dough comes from.
At Madre Lievito, its pizza maker Osvaldo prepared for us one of the most curious pizzas we have ever seen: the queen’s horn, which consists of stretching a part of the edge of the dough and making a sort of shell with it, which is filled with ricotta, ham and pistachio. Like the cheese-filled edges of those franchise pizzerias, but better.
Carrer de Mallorca, 270 | Carrer de la Llacuna 1 | Carrer Dels Almogàvers 148 | Carrer Creu Coberta 105, 08014 Barcelona
Frankie Gallo Cha Cha Cha Cha, the hipster pizza
Frankie’s pizzas are innovative and a bit more expensive than the previous ones, but they are worth it. They are the work of the Colombo brothers, also owners of Xemei, one of the top Italian restaurants in Barcelona. The Colombo’s signature in any restaurant in the city is usually a sign of quality, and with Frankie’s pizzas it is no less.
His four cheese pizza with sage and sweet potato or his carbonara pizza are a must. And now, in addition, they have just added pastas to their menu. By the way, their take-away pizza boxes come with instructions on how to reheat the product when it arrives home, to give it a final touch that leaves it just as perfect as when it left the premises, a touch that leaves it perfect.
Carrer Marquès de Barberà, 15
Gina Balmesina, the best pizza is also on the menu.
Source: La Balmesina/Instagram
Its managers define Gina as the little sister of La Balmesina (awarded as one of the 50 best pizzerias in Europe). A more informal atmosphere but with the same top quality pizzas as in their other place. Here, of course, they have excellent cocktails to start the night.
By the way, in their premises their pizza (tremendous) is included in the lunch menu, so you can’t have it easier to get the pizza craving you deserve at any time of the week.
The premises and owners of Sartoria Panatieri. Source: Sartoria Panatieri
Only a pizzeria as brilliant as Sartoria Panatieri could emerge from the union of two chefs trained in Michelin-starred restaurants. This pizzeria is another level, haute cuisine made pizza. And although we might have suspected it, now an award has come to confirm it: Sartoria Panatieri prepares the best pizza in Europe (outside Italy).
Its prices, obviously, surpass almost all the previous ones, but perhaps it is our favorite. A whim that is well worth it, and where you can go hungry to try not only their pizzas, but all the other great dishes of haute cuisine or artisan sausages they prepare. By the way, they dominate so much that they have also opened a steakhouse, Brabo, where we went to try the food that, according to them, they like to eat when they leave their pizzeria.
Carrer de l’Encarnació, 51 | Carrer de Provença, 330
Can Pizza, the Sagrada Familia’s anti-tourist refuge.
Source: Can Pizza
It may seem impossible, but if you manage to poke your head through the hordes of tourists that surround the Sagrada Familia you can see the light at Can Pizza, a haven of great pizza prepared in a small alley next to the basilica. Can Pizza Sagrada Familia is, like Frankie Gallo Cha Cha Cha, the work of the Colombo brothers, in this case allied with Isaac Aliaga, with whom they have arrived here after colonizing the outskirts of Barcelona with local Can Pizza in El Prat, Vilanoca y la Geltrú and Molins de Rei.
In Barcelona they also have premises in Poblenou, and their slogan says it all: Respect the Pizza. 72 hours of fermentation for the dough and an award in 2021 for the best pizza in the country with their Jerry Tometo (with burrata and cherrys) are enough of a letter of introduction to make you run to look at their menu and start salivating.
📍Ptge. de Simó, 21
<shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” 0=”” class=”c-link” href=”https://barcelonasecreta.com/buon-appetito/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener noreferrer” data-stringify-link=”https://barcelonasecreta.com/buon-appetito/” 1=”data-sk=”tooltip_parent”>https://barcelonasecreta.com/buon-appetito/</a>””>Buon Appetito</shortcode>, Italian vero and Appellation of Origin</h2><br /> <shortcode data-tag=”caption” id=”attachment_51637″ align=”alignnone” width=”1200″><a href=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/08084103/buon-appetito-pizza-1.jpg”><img class=”size-full wp-image-51637″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/08084103/buon-appetito-pizza-1.jpg” alt=”” width=”1200″ height=”800″ /></a> Photo courtesy of Buon Appetito</shortcode><br /> <br /> <br /> Market products with Denomination of Origin are the secret of Buon Appetito’s recipes. Although they have all kinds of dishes with D.OP from Mantua or Parma, dipping into their<b data-stringify-type=”bold”> long list of pizzas is a real pleasure.</b><br /> As soon as you enter the premises you can see the stone oven where their artisan pizzas are cooked such as the exquisite and simple Marinara, <b data-stringify-type=”bold”>the Roberto, with Parmesan cheese and gorgonzola D.O.P</b> and its special Buon Appetito with smoked salmon and dried tomato.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin>Av. Marqués de Argentera, 19<br /> <h2><shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://thehoxton.com/en/poblenou/four-corners-restaurant/”>Four Corners</shortcode>, Detroit pizza comes to Barcelona</h2><br /> <a href=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/08092723/pizza-detroit-four-corners.jpg”><img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-39308″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/08092723/pizza-detroit-four-corners.jpg” alt=”” width=”1920″ height=”1281″ /></a><br /> <br /> <br /> <shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://barcelonasecreta.com/pizzas-estilo-detroit-barcelona-four-corners/”>We’ve already told you about it</shortcode>, but we do it again here. Four Corners is located on the first floor of a hotel in Glòries, and is<strong> the first Detroit-style pizzeria in the city.</strong> What does Detroit style mean? Well, American style, that is, big.<br /> <br /> <br /> Forget the subtlety of a thin Neapolitan dough or a melted burrata.<strong> The Detroit pizza is thick and square, with a focaccia-like dough that is an ingredient of the pizza</strong>, and where every bite fills your mouth with flavor and enjoyment. The pizzas, made by Anthony Falco, prophet of this type of dough in the United States, give you what they promise, a square (that is, <em>four corners</em>) and three fingers high of pure pizza pleasure.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin> Av. Diagonal, 205<br /> <h2><shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”http://www.sportsbaritalianfood.it/ristoranti/”>Sports bar</shortcode>, sports is the excuse</h2><br /> <shortcode data-tag=”caption” id=”attachment_52555″ align=”alignnone” width=”1200″><a href=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/08083729/sports-bar.jpg”><img class=”size-full wp-image-52555″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/08083729/sports-bar.jpg” alt=”” width=”1200″ height=”1200″ /></a> The Sports Bar Oven. Source: Sports Bar</shortcode><br /> <br /> <br />The name doesn’t do it justice. <strong>Sports Bar is not an Irish pub where you go to watch rugby and Premier League games, but a hideaway where they prepare authentic pizza</strong> and where yes, you can watch sports on the TV screens, but, above all, you can try one of the quality Neapolitan pizzas that have been spreading love in the city for the longest time.<br /> <br /> They started in the <shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://barcelonasecreta.com/barrio-gotico/”>Gothic Quarter</shortcode> and have been growing, and in their menu there are classics of Italian cuisine, such as cottoletta a la milanesa (what in Argentina they call milanesa) or grilled fish, but their classics are the pizzas that come out of those wood ovens painted as if it were a football</strong>. Classic pizzas not to fail with any.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin> C/ Ample, 51 | Av/ Diagonal, 123 | C/ Marina, 290 | C/ De la Boqueria, 26 | C/ D’en Tantarantana, 20<br /> <h2><shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://www.grossonapoletano.com/encuentra-tu-grosso/”>Grosso Napoletano</shortcode>, the good pizza (gluten-free)</h2><br /> <a href=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/07135510/grosso-texto.jpg”><img class=”alignnone wp-image-29593″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/07135510/grosso-texto.jpg” alt=”” width=”1200″ height=”900″ /></a><br /> <br /> <br /> Good gluten-free pizzas do exist. Grosso Napoletano and its mammoth growth prove it. So do its awards.<strong> Its third place in the “First World Pizza Summit 2022″ of 50 TOP Pizza prove that great pizza for celiacs is a reality. </strong><br /> <br /> But they are not just that,<strong> there is Grosso Napoletano and <shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://barcelonasecreta.com/primera-pizza-napolitana-sin-gluten/”>Grosso Napoletano senza glutine</shortcode></strong>. With 3 locations in Barcelona and about 20 throughout Spain, they are already a consolidated chain that does not fail. By the way, for dessert, their nutella pizza is also famous.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin> <shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://www.grossonapoletano.com/encuentra-tu-grosso/”>Various locations</shortcode><br /> <h2><shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://www.parkingpizza.com/”>Parking Pizza/ Pita</shortcode>, pizzas in a former parking lot</h2><br /> <a href=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/09111513/parkingpizza2.jpg”><img class=”alignnone wp-image-11388″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/09111513/parkingpizza2.jpg” alt=”Parking Pizza” width=”1200″ height=”699″ /></a><br /> <br /> Yes, that’s right, a former parking lot. Perhaps one of the coolest places to eat in Barcelona. <strong>An old parking lot that has been preserved (almost) as it is</strong>, in Paseo San Juan has given way to a restaurant split in three: a pizzeria, a pita place and, since this year, in the basement, a place of sirloins.<br /> <br /> <br /> But the pizzas, which are what we are interested in, they nail it. <strong>Wood oven, artisan pizzas with thin dough and mixtures somewhat more daring than the classics</strong> and a menu of starters short but fine. A sure hit to enjoy a <em>pizzaza</em> in a local to the height.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin> Av. Diagonal 421<br /> <h2>Trafalgar cocktail & pizza club</h2><br /> <shortcode data-tag=”smn_responsive_embed” type=”adaptable_width” src=”https://www.instagram.com/p/CuuVOUkOC1d/” height=”500″></shortcode><br /> <br /> <br /> Yes, pizza, cocktails and, ultimately, partying. The Trafalgar pizza club has the aesthetics of a cocktail bar but pizzeria kitchen, and in its<strong> spacious premises with industrial decor hides a great oven that makes Neapolitan style pizzas</strong> that, to warn the tone, are numbered on the menu in the form of songs which record ready to play.<br /> <br /> <br /> In the background, electronic music, which accompanies pizzas with great dough and great product, which, frankly, are made short of how rich they are. To accompany<strong>, a menu next door with as many cocktails as pizzas</strong> (of course, several spritz) that serve to mark a round night without leaving the premises.<br /> <br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin>C/ de Trafalgar, 19, L’Eixample, 08010 Barcelona<br /> <h2><shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://pizzeriadanannibcn.com/”>Da Nanni</shortcode>, journey to the origin of the margherita pizza</h2><br /> <shortcode data-tag=”caption” id=”attachment_20219″ align=”alignnone” width=”1200″><a href=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/09105150/pizzeria-da-nanni-1.jpg”><img class=”wp-image-20219″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/09105150/pizzeria-da-nanni-1.jpg” alt=”” width=”1200″ height=”699″ /></a> Pizza from Da Nanni, one of the participants in laPizza Week. Source. Da Nanni</shortcode><br /> <br /> Da Nanni smells like Naples. Aroma of street pizza, authenticity and fritanga. For something its colors are the blue of the Napoli soccer club and, apart from pizzeria, is also defined as frigitoria, ie frying. A<strong>here you can find authentic Neapolitan food and a secret, one of the cheapest pizzas in the city.</strong><br /> <br /> Their pizzas also come out, as in few places, in individual format, so <strong>you can put on a tremendous margarita for just three euros,</strong> or another with sausage and friarelli for five. An apparent joke that hides a very serious pizza. With three locations in Barcelona, you’re spoilt for choice.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin> c/Rec, 30 | C/ Llibreteria,10 | Rambla del Poblenou, 20<br /> <h2>Antica pizzeria Da Michele, the embassy of the best margarita in the world</h2><br /> <shortcode data-tag=”smn_responsive_embed” type=”adaptable_width” src=”C/ del Consell de Cent, 336,”></shortcode><br /> <br /> <br /> If the name of this pizzeria rings a bell from a trip, you’re right: <shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://barcelonasecreta.com/da-michele/”>La Antica Pizzeria Da Michele BCN is the branch in Barcelona of the <strong>Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Naples</strong></strong></shortcode><strong>, a pizzeria that has been in operation since 1870 and that, they say, makes the best margarita in the world</strong>, the canonical and original one.<br /> <br /> Therefore, if you approach the Da Michele Barcelona we recommend that you try at least a basic margarita so you understand what it has to taste like, and then you get to experiment. <strong>You’ll be grateful to have the good fortune that one of the world’s great pizzerias has opened a branch</strong> right in your own city.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin> C/ del Consell de Cent, 336,<br /> <h2>Fel-la Pizza, secret Roman pizza in the Borne</h2><br /> <shortcode data-tag=”caption” id=”attachment_52553″ align=”alignnone” width=”1200″><a href=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/08083730/fella.jpg”><img class=”size-full wp-image-52553″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/08083730/fella.jpg” alt=”” width=”1200″ height=”1200″ /></a> Source: Fella</shortcode><br /> <br /> <br />In a neighborhood that doesn’t seem to know how to keep secrets, there are still a few left. <strong><shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://www.fellapizza.es/form.php?source=home”>Fel-la Pizza</shortcode> has just won the city’s first vegan pizza contest</strong> with a special proposal: Roman pizzas with crispy, honeycombed dough, which disappear at the first bite in your mouth. Top ingredients to try a different pizza in this small local Borne.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin>Fel-la Pizza, C/ de Sant Pere Més Baix, 69<br /> <h2>El Vato Loco, the vegan pizzeria</h2><br /> <a href=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/09112251/366138444_596976629182165_363761958293257435_n.jpg”><img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-61432″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/09112251/366138444_596976629182165_363761958293257435_n.jpg” alt=”” width=”1200″ height=”1200″ /></a><br /> <br /> <br /> In the Borne hides a pizzeria with a Mexican name and animal-free pizzas that, despite being so far from the canonical pizzeria tradition, makes great pizzas. Neapolitan vegan pizzas that are a pleasure to try</strong> and where you want to go without any need to wear the Go Vegan! tattooed. High-end pizzeria free of any living thing.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin> <span class=”w8qArf”> </span>Carrer d’en Tantarantana, 20<br /> <h2><shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://barcelonasecreta.com/eric-ayala-pizzero-instagram-restaurant-pizzeria-sabadell/”>Il Filgio di Emiliano</shortcode></h2><br /> <shortcode data-tag=”smn_responsive_embed” type=”adaptable_width” src=”https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy5Vv4iI2iQ/” height=”500″></shortcode><br /> <br /> Of Eric Ayala we told you about at the time, because of the phenomenon that meant that a pizza maker who only had an oven at home, an Instagram account and a lot of personality had become the most popular pizza maker in Catalonia. We went to interview him shortly before he opened his pizzeria, Il Figlio di Emiliano, a traditional Neapolitan pizzeria in Sabadell where he makes the pizzas we tried at home, very good, and with <strong>a menu with half a dozen different margheritas so that true lovers of stripped-down pizza</strong> can indulge in <em>true Neapolitan pizza</strong>.</em><br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin><span class=”w8qArf”> </span>Carrer Mare de Déu de les Neus, 6, 08202 Sabadell<br /> <h2>Brothers Pizza</h2><br /> <img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-72263″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/14103052/BROTHERS-17-1-1.jpg” alt=”” width=”1200″ height=”1804″ /><br /> <br /> <br /> Pizza in teglia is a neophyte in Barcelona. Full of Neapolitan pizza, we forget the other great representative of pizza in Italy. This type of pizza, which is cooked that, in a <em>teglia</em> (something like a griddle, or the <em>llauna</em> of the Catalan snails), now has a wonderful representative e<strong>n Brother’s Pizza, a subsidiary of Madre Lievito that dares with a different pizza:</strong> served in large, square portions, thin and crispy dough, and with unthinkable but tasty combinations, like its great hamburger pizza.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin><span class=”w8qArf”> </span>Rambla del Poblenou 26 – Plaça Sant Pere 10, BCN<br /> <h2>Bonus track: Chicago Pizza Factory, Barcelona’s first deep dish style pizza</h2><br /> <img class=”alignnone wp-image-72262″ src=”https://offloadmedia.feverup.com/barcelonasecreta.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/14101249/chicago-pizza-factory.jpg” alt=”” width=”1200″ height=”1200″ /><br /> <br /> <br /> The <strong>Chicago Deep Dish Pizza is one of the sweetest pizzas out there</strong> because, more than a pizza, it’s almost a pie. Its name says it all: a fluffy dough sinks into a deep dish that hosts layers of cheese and meat until it has two or three fingers thick of fucking melted cheese, overflowing tomato and meats or sausages that give it the final touch.<br /> <br /> <br /> This pizza, until now unknown in Barcelona, now has a representative in<strong> Chicago Pizza Factory, a pizza that nails the pepperoni</strong> Chicago style to offer a different way to try the usual pizza.<br /> <br /> <e-location-pin></e-location-pin> Carrer d’Alfons XII, 15, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi<br /> <div class=”smn-tracklink-cta”>Maybe you’re interested in: <shortcode data-tag=”trackLink” link_url=”https://barcelonasecreta.com/los-mejores-restaurantes-vegetarianos-de-barcelona/”>The best vegetarian restaurants in Barcelona</shortcode></div>.
Carrer de la Granada del Penedès, 25
