Finding the best Italian restaurant in Barcelona is no easy task. In a city where the Italian has become the largest immigrant 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. Authentic Italian cuisine has been cooked in Barcelona for some time now. Ragu, risottos, fresh pasta and homemade sauces. Evidently we have already visited the best pizzerias of the city o the best ice creams. But today we propose you to sit at a table with tablecloths, take a knife and fork, and enjoy the search in this list of the best Italian restaurant in Barcelona
To the Grain
So delicious that a while ago we went to celebrate World Pasta Day with them. Papardelle with homemade tomato sauce and pecorino cheese, carbonara with truffle, osobucco and saffron ravioli or even arancini stuffed with pasta. Al Grano is a great Italian tasca in Sant Antoni where they work homemade pasta. A short menu where this elaboration rules and where you can leave happy for having tasted new varieties such as tagliolini or pacheri made at the highest level.
By the way, has a lunch menu among the best in the city 16.9 euros takes this restaurant to the top of the searches of the city, and leaves us with no excuses to try authentic homemade Italian pasta.
📍Carrer de Tamarit, 104 (Sant Antoni)
💸 Medium ticket: 25-30 euros. 16,90€ lunch menu.
Xemei
By now, any foodie with an interest in Barcelona 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 several locations throughout the city.
Xemei is its flagship, a restaurant in a beautiful location in Poble Sec (among the favorites of Rosalia o Dua Lip a, by the way) that elevates 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
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 one of those Italians in the Borne (that’s three already, ¿?embassy district?) that have made a banner 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 homemade Italian dishes.
But the Blau is open all day . In Italian this is called “tavola calda”: in the morning breakfasts (with tremendous hot sandwiches that are like pizzas between breads), the lunch menu and in the evening, 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 over 30 years of experience and these great dishes. Pure spectacle, pure Mediterráneo diet. This Italian restaurant is one of those where you don’t come to order pizza, but one of the other specialties they prepare.
From asparagus with pecorino and truffle sauce or cacio e pepe ice focaccia, a salmon and prosecco risotto or vitello tonatto with focaccia, all the dishes at this classic Italian restaurant are top notch. So forget the pizza for a moment, and go from trip to Italy for the other dishes of the country.
📍 C/ de Casanova, 94
💸 Medium ticket: 20-35 euros
Pappa e Citti
There are so many Italian (restaurants) in Barcelona, that nowadays it is possible to make a real trip around the peninsula reviewing its different cuisines, and going from one region to another changing restaurants but without leaving Barcelona. Today’s is specialized in Sardinian cuisine, that is to say, from Sardinia, which allows us to jump to the island with only a walk through Gracia.
Quietly, Pappa e citti has a neighborhood solete, 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.
Breera Gnocchi bar
Little is said about gnohcchi (or gnocchi, if you like), 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 neighborhood has a short and inexpensive menu, with a few 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 the Xemei, the Bacaro is a Venetian tasca. Like the Xemei, it is hidden in an old shop, at the back door of the Boqueria Market. And as Venetians, people with their feet in the sea, its cuisine is based on water and fish, with a refined menu, with seasonal products and homemade pastas that authentically recreates the atmosphere of an Italian tasca in the heart of Barcelona.
📍 Carrer de Jerusalem, 6