Eating calçots in Barcelona is an experience always associated with friends and popularity. And the evil tongues say that the friendships of a person in this city are measured in the number of times you are invited to a calçotada in the spring months. Or what is the same, the more calçots, the more popularity. In a country where the calçot is religion, the red of the flag is painted in romescu color and the number of friends is counted in onions gobbled.
The calçots and its derivative, the calçotades, are perhaps, together with the Tió and the sardanes, the most Catalan tradition and, undoubtedly, the most social and fun. Around a humble elongated onion Catalonia has built a way of socializing that goes beyond eating, to become an authentic identity event. If the Argentinians have the asado, the Catalans have the calçotada.
And just as an asado can also be made for one, it is not necessary to be a crowd or to have barbecues or free Sundays to enjoy a good calçotada. Barcelona and its surroundings are full of farmhouses and restaurants where to eat calçots inside a complete menu of ember where the romescu is the protagonist.
A ceremony that will not jeopardize your diet (depending on what you accompany it with), because the calçots are very rich in fiber and water, vitamins and minerals, and have a low energy intake, only 35 kcal per 100 grams, approximately.
The season of calçots in Catalonia runs between early January and early April, although the best time to enjoy them is usually during the months of January, February and March.
We show you some of the best ones to help you on your way to happiness. Because, although we don’t know if calçots bring popularity, we do know that they bring happiness. Like notches on a revolver or stripes counting the days in a prison, the number of straight calçot stalks we have eaten in the coming months will determine, with a high degree of certainty, how happy we have been.
Bodega Joan, where to eat calçots from November to April.
In the heart of Eixample, the calçots at Bodega Joan are cooked on a real ember, as they should be. They have more than 80 years of tradition, which ensures a calçotada at the height of its fame. To accompany your calçots, you have to try their artichokes, Galician octopus and snails.
📍 Av. de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, 13
💸 Menu at 33,50€.
La Foixarda, the unexpected brasserie behind MNAC
In calçots season, enjoying a Mediterranean meal on the terrace is a luxury. Not because you forget you’re in Barcelona and feel like you’re in the countryside, but because it overlooks the equestrian center court .
📍 Av. de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, 13
💸 Menu at 32’50€ with 15 calçots tile
Can Punyetes, eating calçots in the heart of Gràcia neighborhood
In Barcelona, Can Punyetes is one of the most famous restaurants where to eat calçots. They have several places: one in Gràcia, two in Sarrià and one in Sabadell. We choose the one in Gràcia because we think it is more authentic.
Since 1981, three friends put the essence in this neighborhood local with the purpose of working with top quality products and a distinctive touch at that time: the grill open to customers.
📍 Several locations
💸 Seasonal menu prices
Can Vador, calçotades de Eixample
Can Vador is one of the discreet classics that one turns to when looking to eat calçots in Barcelona. They dominate the classic recipe book passed through the grill, and their daily menus at 20 euros and weekend menus at 30 are quite unbeatable. But today we are concerned with the adventure of eating calçots, and as a good traditional Catalan brasserie, Can Vador does not fail in its appointment with the elongated onion.
The two restaurants of the chain offer a calçotada menu where, for 35 euros, we have calçots of the DO Valls with its romescu sauce and a grilled meats also with DO that will allow us to enjoy, in the heart of Eixample, a lunch of those of a drink, coffee and cigar.
📍 C/ de la Diputació, 367
💸 Calçotada menu, 20€ weekdays, 30€ weekends
Unlimited calçotada in Belbo Terrenal
45 euros, abundant starters and side dishes and, best of all, unlimited calçots. Belbo Terrenal, the restaurant located in the Hotel ME Barcelona, also offers an appetizer consisting of vermouth, olives and chips, pa amb tomàquet, grilled lamb and botifarra sausage, grilled artichokes and allioli. For dessert, crema catalana, and for pairing porrón of wine or water.
Price: 45 euros, all included.
📍Location: Carrer de Casp, 1-13
Can Borrell, for country urbanites.
For those looking for countryside, but not too much of it either, Can Borrell is the place you’d expect to find. After a short fifteen-minute walk through the forest from Sant Cugat (and a 20-minute drive from Barcelona), the smoky fireplace of this farmhouse announces the desired stop-and-go for those for whom going out to the countryside is an excuse to eat well.
The menu offers different menus of traditional Catalan cuisine, and also, for 41 euros, a calçotada menu, with calçots as a starter (up to 25 per person, for the very brave) and grilled meat as a main course. At the end, 15 minutes walk back to bring down the food and you can say that you have spent a full day in the countryside.
📍 Carretera d’Horta a Cerdanyola BV-1415, Km 3, 08171 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona
💸 Calçotada menu, 41€.
Can Travi Nou, the city farmhouse.
In the urban density of Barcelona it is easy to forget that much of what is now a city was once countryside, and that the territory was full of farmhouses of peasants who worked the land that are now buildings. Fortunately,some farmhouses survive in the form of a restaurant, allowing us to imagine, albeit distantly, what life was like in the Barcelona countryside some time ago.
This is the case of Can Travi Nou, a beautiful 17th century farmhouse, owned by the Soler and Ribatallada family, who a few decades ago converted this house into a restaurant that allows you to eat calçots in a farmhouse, but in the heart of Barcelona and in a place with a very careful cuisine and details.
For 43€ or 56,5€ (already with snails, ham and cod fritters to nibble), Can Travi offers a calçotada menu with grilled meat as main course and Catalan cream for dessert, in a very traditional sequence, but cooked by chef Salva Zurano, who has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants.
📍 c/ Jorge Manrique s/n
💸 Calçotada menu, 43€/56,50€.
Can Jané, a farmhouse just 10 minutes from Barcelona.
Its specialty is Catalan cuisine and grilled meats, and what a grill! In addition, the vegetables are from their own garden and seasonal. All this in a natural environment, in a family farmhouse of the eighteenth century located in the Serra de Collserola and only 10 minutes from Barcelona. In the middle of nature, next to the Ermita de Sant Medir, it is the perfect setting to disconnect from the city without having to go far away. It is also the perfect excuse to take advantage and climb Tibidabo.
📍 Camí de Can Jané s/n 08196 Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona)
💸 Calçotada menu, from 39,50€.
El Pintor, grilled calçots in the heart of the Gothic quarter.
The roots of a farmhouse like Can Travi Nou go deep and reach all corners of Barcelona. The owners of the restaurant also have, just 10 minutes away, Can Cortada, a similar space that also offers calçotadas in the middle of the city. But if you want to enjoy the pleasure of grilled onions without leaving the city center, this group has a third option just 20 meters from Plaza Sant Jaume.
El Pintor occupies the former workshop of an artist in Sant Honorat street. In a beautiful place, with arches and exposed bricks, the same calçots of Can Travi Nou can be eaten looking, literally, to one of the sides of the City Hall. For 41 euros, a menu similar to the previous ones, with calçots and grilled meat or bacallà a la llauna. There are few better plans for those who want to exercise the catalanness of the calçotada without leaving the natural habitat of the Barcelonian.
📍 c/ Sant Honorat, 7
💸 Calçotada menu, 41€.
Cal Ganxo | Restaurant i calçotades, calçots in the place of origin of the calçot.
Going to eat calçots to Valls is a tradition that does not go out of fashion. Going down to the city of calçots par excellence is practically a ritual; the perfect excuse to escape from Barcelona and savor other territories.
Although there are several restaurants known for their calçots, one of the most famous is Cal Ganxo. In fact, it is the only one in Catalonia that only serves calçotades. In addition to them, they serve yearling meats, llonganissa, black botifarra sausage from Valls, fesols de ganxet and typical Catalan products.
Cal Ganxo is located in Masmolets, a small town surrounded by fields, vineyards, roads and mountains. An old house of the 18th century converted into a restaurant and full of history, but above all of delicious food.
📍 Carrer de la Font F, 14, 43813 Masmolets, Tarragona
💸 Calçotada menu, 45€.
Belbo terrenal, embers on the terrace of a hotel.
Always in the center of Barcelona, but now with a more modern air. Belbo Terrenal is one of those hotel restaurants that are becoming so fashionable in the city, and that seek to attract an audience that goes beyond the tourists staying in the building.
For this reason, the restaurant is now organizing a calçotada that, throughout the season, will make the beautiful interior courtyard of the Eixample that occupies this restaurant smoke. From February, every Saturday and Sunday Belbo Terrenal will offer a menu where, for 45 euros, you will be served a full menu with unlimited calçots, grilled meat, Catalan cream and a glass of wine and the whole Eixample sky to look at while you raise your head to drink it.
📍 Carrer de Casp, 1-13, 08010 Barcelona
Calçotada menu, Sundays from February to April, 45 €.
Unlimited calçotada at the Renaissance Hotel (Goja Rooftop)
On the Goja terrace of this 5-star hotel in Barcelona an unlimited menu is served for 46 euros that we can’t miss.
Until March 31 you can enjoy unlimited calçots from Valls, accompanied by a low temperature rib, potatoes, beans and meat. As a starter, pa amb tomàquet and for dessert, crema catalana. Pairing, wine or cava from Cordoniu.
📍Location: Pau Claris, 122.
💸 Price: 46 euros, all inclusive.
Taverna La Parra, an old school mesón.
This former mesón transformed into an urban tavern is a classic in the Sants neighborhood. Mushrooms are an indispensable element of its menu, but what brings us to the case today is the primordial ingredient of social gatherings in spring: calçots.
The ration is about 14 euros, and the pity is that there is no calçotada menu, but that’s okay! Because for two, between the coca del Maresme toast with tomato and olive oil, snails (8 euros), scrambled mushrooms (16 euros), sausage Garriga and drink, you plant with the stomach full and happy for less about 45 euros .
📍 Carrer de Joanot Martorell, 3 (Sants)
💸 Seasonal prices on the menu
Casa Masana, Catalan embers in the middle of Eixample
Casa Masana is the Catalan food house you are looking for in the mountains, but in the middle of Eixample. What’s more, in the middle of Balmes street. A small oasis that at this time of the year offers a calçotada menu with everything you need. For 38 euros you get grilled artichokes and calçots in their tile, with romesco sauce, of course.
For the second course, grilled meat (sausage, lamb or pork rib) with potatoes and dried beans (or mongetes, ja ensenem) and , obviously, allioli. Plus dessert, wine and coffee. Another day you will try the classic dishes of the menu, but today is to inflate to calçots and return with the belt untied walking home and without worrying about the car.
📍 C/Balmes nº 129 bis
💸 38€ calçotada menu
Mamut, calçotadas with your feet in the sand of the beach.
The best of both worlds? Yes sir. Mamut, a beach bar in Prat de Llobregat, organizes this year calçotadas completísimas for 25 euros that allow you to make a mar i muntaya com Déu mana taking calçots with your feet stuck in the sand. A real luxury.