Perhaps veganism can still bring, still, some controversy, but vegetarianism is fully installed among the usual diets. No one is surprised when someone does not eat meat, and restaurants with an exclusively vegetarian offer have grown exponentially in the city. From the lunch menu to haute cuisine, more and more places offer an exclusively green offer, and that is why a list like this one is needed to help us find the best vegetarian restaurants in the city and delve into a type of cuisine whose complexity has long ceased to be a surprise.
Table Of Contents
- 1. Bio Center, a downtown classic
- 2. Rasoterra, green delicacy
- 3. Sésamo, the beautiful vegetarian Italy
- 4. Teresa Carles, traditional cuisine... vegetarian
- 5. Xavier Pellicer, the forest-colored haute cuisine
- 6. Fat Veggies, the fats that left meat behind
- 7. Cat Bar, the vegan burger bar
- 8. Virens, Michelin-starred vegetarian cuisine.
- 9. Pötstot
- 10. Mad Mad Vegan
- Fronda Pasaje, the vegetarian restaurant that doesn't say it's vegetarian.
1. Bio Center, a downtown classic
A list of the best cannot be without the pioneers. Biocenter is one of them, a place that has been offering vegetarian food for decades in the depths of Raval, for the avant la lettre vegetarians of the city. Before covid it offered a free buffet of salads for starters and stews for mains that made you shudder. And although now the buffet has disappeared, its offer is still outrageous, with a menu at a ridiculous price and a menu that is still vegetarian, vegan and ovo vegetarian.
The green hamburgers, dishes with names like “la cabra siempre tira al monte” or “me tienes frita” -which are leek and brie croquettes- and also their desserts stand out: the chocolate almond sponge cake and the carrot cake are worth a stop on the way.
📍 C/ Pintor Fortuny, 25
2. Rasoterra, green delicacy
A beautiful restaurant in a discreet location and a discreet way of doing things, but a carat (vegetable) cuisine. Rasoterra is another pioneer of vegetarian cuisine in Barcelona. In their case, however, they were among the first to elevate this type of gastronomy, turning it into a truly surprising delicacy.
In the heart of the Gothic Quarter, where there only seems to be fodder for distracted tourists, Rasoterra offers a short, slow-food menu, with local ingredients, natural wines and surprising elaborations. Its lunch menu is priced as a lunch menu but it offers much more than a lunch menu, and the restaurant has long been a benchmark for vegan and vegetarian cuisine in the city.
📍 C/ Palau, 5
3. Sésamo, the beautiful vegetarian Italy
Italians have a thing for vegetables. The owners of Rasoterra are from the transalpine country and so is the founder of the slow-food movement, Carlo Petrini. At Sésamo the owners also offer an Italian-vegetarian menu, if there is such a thing, in a cute corner on the border between Raval and Sant Antoni. In fact, we already told you that it is one of the most popular restaurants in the Raval and we confirm it. In its menu there is stuffed provolone, its arancinis, its pasta stuffed with goat cheese and caramelized onion with trumpet of death butter or its Indian curry. It also offers two tasting menus: one vegetarian and one vegan. Or as they say: Food without beasts.
📍 Sant Antoni Abat, 52
4. Teresa Carles, traditional cuisine… vegetarian
Although vegetarian cuisine is something relatively new in the West, there are restaurants like Teresa Carles that have managed to rethink tradition to adapt it to this new trend. The restaurant, open since 2011, does something halfway between creative vegetarian cuisine and traditional Catalan recipes, with the pride of making dishes that do not seek to imitate carnivorous counterparts, but to create new categories. They were pioneers in introducing products such as kombucha or jackfruit. Their menu, at 15 euros all-inclusive (a little less if we pass on dessert), is a treat in the center of the city.
📍Jovellanos, 2
5. Xavier Pellicer, the forest-colored haute cuisine
Pellicer had a revelation at one point in his life. After many years dedicated to the most traditional cuisine in places like Abac or Can Fabes, he realized the wear and tear he was suffering, and began to look at other options. He discovered Ayurveda and began to cook taking into account the energies that go through the body and well-being. From there came his current cuisine, which has led him to win the award for Best Vegetable Restaurant in the World in 2018. Here he makes biodynamic creative cuisine, with eco, proximity and healthy products: what he calls Healthy Kitchen.
It has two proposals, the formula 55 euros with dishes like fennel foam with fennel sponge and sprouts, and a tasting menu of 79 euros that is offered in its vegan, vegetarian and omvivore versions.
6. Fat Veggies, the fats that left meat behind
Fat Barbies has made a place for itself in Barcelona’s gastro agenda with its grilled meats, so much so that they have decided to give birth to a little vegetarian brother. Fat Veggies does the same as its big brother but with meat vetoed at the entrance. They have a tasting menu for 30 euros, but you can also order tapas and dishes that explore very interesting and complex combinations thanks to the smoke of the grill: pecorino leek galettes, a three-cooked cauliflower or grilled asparagus with pickled emulsion. Vegetarian food treated comme il faut.
📍 Paris, 168.
7. Cat Bar, the vegan burger bar
I still remember the surprise of walking into a new punk-looking burger bar next to Plaça Sant Jaume and finding only strange meatless burgers on the menu. The concept was new, and therefore surprising, but Cat Bar has survived, being one of the first to offer something as common as a burger and a beer but in its vegan version. Now, they have moved to Carrer de la Mercè, and continue to serve, apart from the burgers, the real protagonists are the beers, with a variety of Catalan craft brands and the legendary Scottish punk beer Brew Dog at the head.
📍 Carrer de la Mercè, 29, Ciutat Vella, 08002 Barcelona
8. Virens, Michelin-starred vegetarian cuisine.
Virens is the Barcelona restaurant of Michelin-starred chef Rodrigo de la Calle, who was recently ranked 22nd on the list of the 100 best vegetarian restaurants in the world. His restaurant is a true fantasy, with completely vegetarian menus (but with flexitarian options) that make us forget any animal protein and discover all the magic that can be done with a simple carrot.
📍Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 619, L’Eixample, 08007 Barcelona
9. Pötstot
Catalan gastronomy, as rich as it is, has a small handicap: it is not very thought for vegans. From fricandó to peus de porc, through a trinxat with cansalada, a butifarra, a rice with seafood … Catalan food is delicious, but somewhat restrictive for those who do not eat animal products.
The same goes for gluten. From a picada with dry bread to the ubiquitous pa amb tomaquet, the menu for coeliacs is reduced. Escalivada, bravas … and so on. Hence the birth of places like Pöstot, a place of vegan and gluten-free Catalan cuisine that is holy water for those who, either by choice or by medical prescription, have to look at the menus with a magnifying glass before ordering.
Can there be fricandó, cannelloni, trinxat or a vegan Russian salad? Here they seem to say yes, and faced with the simplicity of flavoring a meat, fish or egg, Pötstot reveals a range of techniques to create vegan and gluten-free dishes that make you forget, or at least not miss, your original carnivores.
C/ de València, 204
20-30€
10. Mad Mad Vegan
Mad Mad Vegan is a newcomer to the city, but its previous successes in the capital have led us to try it as soon as we could. Their burgers are juicy, tender and plentiful, and the best thing is that their size, bun and topping combinations allow you to eat them comfortably and without being a challenge to bite (something that, in the world of burgers, is appreciated).
The most varied starters, such as cauliflower buffalo wings or fried ‘calamari’ with aioli, some side fries that do not go unnoticed and a selection of beers and kombuchas own. In short, a veggie fast food feast that you can’t miss.
Fronda Pasaje, the vegetarian restaurant that doesn’t say it’s vegetarian.
Fronda Pasaje needs no frills: its open kitchen and simple atmosphere immediately immerse you in the universe of Máximo Cabrera, a biologist turned chef who turns each dish into a brilliant experiment. Tempeh foie gras, watermelon tiradito… His is not a typical vegetarian cuisine, but a laboratory of ideas served in tasting format. We tell you all about it in our chronicle.
These are some of the best vegetarian restaurants in Barcelona to get our fill of eating green. Obviously they are not the only ones, so if you want to recommend any other vegetarian secret of the city we will be happy to hear it.