Finding the best Italian restaurant in Barcelona is no easy task. In a city where the Italian has become the largest migrant community it is not surprising that there are plenty of places to enjoy good food from one of the countries with the most important gastronomy in the world.
Forget the bad pizza and stale macaroni of your childhood. In Barcelona, authentic Italian cuisine has been cooked for a long time. Ragu, rissottos, fresh pasta and homemade sauces. Obviously we have already visited the best pizzerias in the city or the best ice cream. But today we propose you to sit at a table with tablecloths, take knife and fork, and enjoy the search in this list of the best Italian restaurant in Barcelona.
Al Grano
So delicious that some time ago we went to celebrate with them the world pasta day. Papardelle with homemade tomato sauce and pecorino cheese, carbonara with truffle, osobucco ravioli and saffron or even arancini stuffed with pasta. Al Grano is a great Italian tasca in Sant Antoni where they work with homemade pasta. A short menu where this elaboration rules and where you can leave happy for having tried new varieties such as tagliolini or pacheri made at the highest level.
By the way, they have a lunch menu among the best in the city, which for 16.9 euros takes this restaurant to the top of the searches of the city, and that leaves us no excuses to try the authentic homemade Italian pasta.
📍Carrer de Tamarit, 104 (Sant Antoni).
💸 Average ticket: 25-30 euros. 16,90€ lunch menu.
Xemei
By now, any foodie with a bit of Barcelona knowledge knows that Xemei means twins, in the Venetian dialect of Italy, and that it is so called because it is run by the Colombo twins, two Italians who are very active in Barcelona’s gastronomic scene with several restaurants around the city.
Xemei is their flagship, a restaurant in a beautiful location in Poble Sec (among the favorites of Rosalía or Dua Lipa, by the way) that raises the Italian restaurant to another level, without necessarily reaching gastronomic restaurant prices. Of course, the restaurant is not cheap, but its products and elaborations based on Venetian cuisine, such as its spaghetti al nero di sepia, its Venetian preserves and salted fish or its tiramisu, are well worth the exception.
Le Cucine Mandarosso
Few things are richer than discoveries. Le Cucine Mandarosso is just that, a place hidden in the corner of an alley in the Borne that you either look for or discover, and that houses homemade Italian cuisine like few others. By the way, just around the corner they have the Emporio Mandarosso, where they sell authentic Italian products (and some of the dishes already prepared) that they serve in the restaurant.
Garvin
Source: Gravin/Instagram
Located in one of the most culturally diverse neighborhoods of Barcelona, the Borne, Ristorante Gravin was born with the intention of bringing authentic Italian cuisine to Barcelona. Its dishes are 100% handmade, especially the homemade pasta, of which you can taste from pappardelle to linguini, accompanied by traditional Italian sauces.
The daily menu changes seasonally, but there will never be a lack of spaghetti, rigatoni or a good risotto among the main courses.
Carrer Rera Palau, 3
Blau Cucina e Caffé
Blau is another of those Italian restaurants in the Borne (that’s three,embassy neighborhood?) that have made a flag of simplicity and have become a must in the neighborhood. Blau is linked to the neighborhood thanks, among others, to its simple formula, with a homemade lunch menu that always includes some of its simple and delicious handmade pizzas, and other traditional Italian homemade dishes.
But Blau is open all day . In Italian this is called “tavola calda”: morning breakfasts (with tremendous hot sandwiches that are like pizzas between breads), the lunch menu and at night, a la carte dishes. In short, Italian cinnamon food at any time of the day.
Because not all that glitters is pizza, today we bring you one of the oldest Italian restaurants in Barcelona, Piazze d’Italia, with more than 30 years of experience and these great dishes. Pure spectacle, pure Mediterranean diet. This Italian is one of those where you don’t come to order pizza, but one of the other specialties they prepare.
From the asparagus with pecorino and truffle sauce or the focaccia of cacio e pepe ice, a salmon and prosecco risotto or the vitello tonatto with focaccia, all the dishes of this classic Italian restaurant are of height. So forget the pizza for a moment, and take a trip to Italy for the country’s other dishes.
📍 C/ de Casanova, 94
💸 Average ticket: 20-35 euros.
Pappa e Citti
There are so many Italian (restaurants) in Barcelona, that today it is possible to make a real trip around the peninsula reviewing its different cuisines, and going from one to region to another changing restaurant but without leaving Barcelona. Today’s restaurant is specialized in Sardinian cuisine, that is to say, from Sardinia, which allows us to jump to the island with just a walk through Gracia.
Quietly , Pappa e citti has a neighborhood solete, the awards that recognize good neighborhood food, and they themselves recommend us to try the ragù or fregola (a type of Sardinian pasta), you can share a table of typical products of the island.
📍Carrer de Moliné, 11, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi
💸 Average ticket: 20-35 euros.
Breera Gnocchi bar
Little is said about gnohcchi (or gnocchi, if you will), often the forgotten brother of the untouchable pasta duo of spaghetti and macaroni. But gnocchi (like all Italian food) is another art that Brera has set out to master, opening the only restaurant in Barcelona dedicated exclusively to the only pasta made with potato instead of wheat.
This cozy corner of the Sants district has a short and economical menu, with some starters (burrata, parmigiana…) and half a dozen gnocchi dishes (carbonara, ragu, pesto…) that allow you to rediscover the forgotten pasta. If in doubt, ask for the chef’s suggestion.
📍Carrer de l’Àliga, 25
Bacaro
Like Xemei, Bacaro is a Venetian tasca. Like the Xemei, it is hidden in an old place, at the back door of the Mercat de la Boqueria. And as Venetians, people with their feet in the sea, its cuisine is based on water and fish, with a refined and moving menu, with seasonal produce and homemade pastas that authentically recreates the atmosphere of an Italian tasca in the heart of Barcelona.
📍 Carrer de Jerusalem, 6
Rafaelli
There are places that we don’t understand why they don’t make more noise in Barcelona. Rafaelli is a place that, with 9 years in Barcelona and with a Solete Repsol we can already say that it is starting to be a classic in Barcelona. However, it is not one of those that appears in all the lists. And yet, we do not understand it: a refined trattoria with homemade treatment, cozy appearance but food a point above average.
Homemade pastas like the cacio e pepe with shrimp tartar or the tortelli with homemade ragu (very deep flavor) and parmesan foam (looking for that elevation). Homemade bread that they use in their focaccia on the side or their brioche for the tartar. Or their fried bread for the panzanella, a salad with bread that here is elevated again with squid and shrimp.
Very pleasant service and white tablecloths on the tables to round off the feeling of “eating well”, with the good things of a Barcelona restaurant and the good things of an Italian trattoria. A small jewel of Gracia.
📍 C/ de Luis Antúnez, 11, Gràcia
Maggiorata
The best thing about Maggiorata is the pasta. And although it may seem obvious, sometimes you just ask an Italian restaurant to serve you a “proper” pasta. The menu is not very extensive, but there is no shortage of classics. All the recipes are made with Italian products and without surprises, in the traditional way.
For us, the star of the table was the Raviolone Maggiorata. It was difficult to decide whether to go for the fresh pasta, prepared by a local Italian bakery, for the lobster and red shrimp filling with oil and ricotta cheese, or for the sauce, a kind of creamy shrimp soup. In short, an option that is not to be missed in the area (and beware! with a set menu).
📍 Carrer de Enrique Granados, 14
Gloria Osteria
In the iconic premises that once housed Messi’s failed restaurant, Gloria Osteria lands with all the weight of the Big Mamma group and a clear mission: to be the most spectacular Italian restaurant in Barcelona. Located in Enric Granados, this new gastronomic temple bets on excess without complexes: marble, crystal chandeliers, nods to Raffaella Carrà and an atmosphere that mixes dolce vita with baroque theatricality. A stroll around the premises already justifies a visit, with rooms that look like something out of a pop palace.
On the culinary side, Gloria goes straight for luxury: burrata brought from Italian artisans, fresh pasta with lobster, pizzas with caviar and meats weighing more than a kilo, all topped off with generous doses of truffle. Here, there is no skimping on spectacle or intensity of flavor. More than a trattoria, this is a tribute to the most glamorous Italy, designed to impress both the palate and the staging.
You may be interested in: The 37 best restaurants in Barcelona: the definitive guide.