Japanese cuisine is much more than sushi and maki and Barcelona is full of places to try the range of flavors offered. If you want to travel to the country of the Rising Sun with your stomach and without spending money on plane tickets, we recommend you to take a look at the Japanese restaurants in Barcelona that we recommend below.
Shunka, the Japanese restaurant with Michelin Star
Although perhaps it is strong to start with the Michelin star on the list, Shunka is a benchmark for Japanese food in Barcelona and one of the oldest in the city, making it one of the best Japanese restaurants in Barcelona. It is located in a corner of the Gothic, next to the cathedral, in a place where, although they have a normal restaurant, you can not miss the sushi bar that they prepare in front of you, a spectacle.
We always recommend sitting at the bar to see how they cook everything you can taste. Their nigiris are famous for not needing sauce to eat them because of how good they are.
📍 Carrer dels Sagristans, 5.
Kamikaze Tavern, in true Japanese sauciness.
Taberna Kamikaze is a Mediterranean restaurant with Asian touches in every dish. Its creators, who met at the bi-starred Disfrutar, were clear about the concept they wanted to develop: Japanese sauciness. Mediterranean cuisine with “eye bites in Korea or China”.
“The idea is to merge traditional Japanese dishes with the cuisine and products from here. To unite cultures through sauces, techniques or products“.
They do it this way because they are passionate about the Japanese world, because of “how they take care of the product in Japan. We had to find a middle ground and do something different, something personal,” explains Enric Buendia, one of its creators. And they have achieved it in a Japanese tasca format, European gastronomic, with tables but without tablecloth, with the light directed.
📍 Rosello, 197.
Akashi Gallery, sushi bar, gallery and tea shop.
Right next door (but sharing the same number) we find an authentic Japanese Japanese restaurant. Far from fusion and fantasy, Akashi Gallery has been serving authentic traditional sushi for 12 years in the city.
It is a sushi bar, a photo gallery, one of the most original tea shops in Barcelona and a hidden corner where you can practice Japanese-style modernity.
Here you also come to eat sitting on the floor, so you’d better leave your tomato socks at home. You can’t leave without trying the gyoukuro tea and without visiting one of the origami workshops they organize.
📍 Carrer del Rosselló, 197.
Nakashita, contemporary Brazilian fusion sushi.
Nakashita, in the heart of Born, is one of the best value for money restaurants on our list. It also offers something extra: its menu is Japanese and Brazilian fusion.
As an example of a dish more out of the ordinary, we recommend their oysters in tempura or their selection of fusion sushi that you can see how they prepare live.
📍 Carrer del Rec Comtal, 15.
Sensato, the most exclusive (and difficult to book) Japanese restaurant.
Perhaps the most exclusive place on the list, only for true lovers and foodies deep in this universe. Sensato is the experience you would expect to live in Tokyo, but perhaps it is easier to fly to Japan to live it because its bar only has room for 8 people and it is not easy to get a reservation. Although it opened relatively recently, it is already on its way to being one of the top 3 best Japanese restaurants in Barcelona.
Sensato’s formula is simple: a unique 3-hour tasting menu composed of a succession of sushi pieces, which can vary according to the season of the ingredients and the availability of the market.
📍 Carrer de Septimània, 36
Ikoya Izakaya, by Hideki Matsuhisa
Ikoya Izakaya is the last son of Michelin-starred chef Hideki Matsuhisa, a Japanese restaurateur of reference in Barcelona with restaurants such as Shunka, Koy Shunka, Kat Koy, Majide and Kokoy. It is the most relaxed of the group, and its spirit allows it to rely less on sushi and more on other Japanese traditions such as fresh fish and sake .
📍 Al davant del Mercat de, Av. de Francesc Cambó, 23.
Japonés Escondido, an open secret
El Japonés Escondido belongs to the Tragaluz Group and is an authentic Izacaya Bar, that is, a Tokyo-style afterwork tapas bar that is becoming very fashionable all over the world.
The bar is hidden in the heart of the Old Town of Barceloneta and has an interior design by Lekuona (the studio in charge of most of the group’s establishments) that will transport you to Kyoto thanks to its Japanese tavern spirit.
📍 Carrer de Llauder, 1.
Carlota Akaneya, one of the first to make sumiyaki.
The restaurant Carlota Akaneya was the first place to offer sumiyaki in the country. Sumiyaki is a traditional Japanese method of cooking meat over charcoal, and at Carlota Akaneya they can boast the jewel in the crown, grade 5 Kobe beef, the highest grade awarded by the association that issues the official certificate for this type of meat in Japan.
📍 Carrer del Pintor Fortuny, 32.
Sato i Tanaka, authentic Japanese cuisine at affordable prices.
Contrary to what one might think, it is not necessary to pawn your medallion to try their menu. The prices at Sato i Tanaka are affordable. Depending on what you want, of course. You can have lunch at noon for 15€. You can also try the tasting menu for 55.
Finding a place is another matter. Its limited seating capacity makes those who want to go without a reservation candid.
Artisans of a kitchen in expansion, luthiers of sushi or virtuosos of the kitchen. Sato i Tanaka is the closest you can get to Japan without taking a plane.
📍 Carrer del Bruc, 49.
Yuku Barcelona, first class quality in a secret bar.
What they do at Yuku is something that plays in another league. There, the raw material is of excellent quality; so much so that it is hard to believe that something like this could exist. Their philosophy is summarized under the concept of omakase, which means trusting and leaving the menu in the chef’s hands. This is a type of menu that is normally served in Japanese sushiya, that is, in establishments that have a bar with 4 to 10 seats.
Yuku’s proposal is more than clear: to generate a magical atmosphere inspired by Japanese culture within a closed-door space. All this makes it one of the most unique Japanese restaurants in the city.
📍 Secret location.
Bouzu, Japanese-style tapas in a gastro pub.
If you’re curious about what Japanese-style tapas are like, this is the place to check it out. Izakaya is the name given to Japanese gastro pubs, where people go to enjoy an afterwork or simply drink. Following this philosophy, here they serve local tapas such as steamed salmon and mushrooms with seaweed, octopus bomb or vegetable tartar.
📍 Carrer Ronda de Sant Antoni, 26.
Ikibana Sarrià, Japanese and Brazilian gastronomy.
If you are interested in fusion cuisine, Ikibana is an interesting combination of Japanese and Brazilian gastronomy. Its overloaded and cheerful appearance could give the impression that they only focus on the latter, but what it lacks in zen, it has plenty of quality. Here you can try gyozas with beef and coriander, foie gras and truffle nigiri or tuna maki with jalapeño.
📍 Carrer del Dr. Fleming, 11.
Monster Sushi / Robata, Japanese flavor with a Western touch.
They belong to the same brand and perfectly combine the most Japanese flavor with a Western touch. The sushi at both places is incredible, needless to say. Their handmade desserts are not far behind either, and are a guarantee of flavor and the best finishing touch to a good experience of intercultural mix in the kitchen.
📍 Sushi: Plaça de Gal-la Placídia, 25.
📍 Robata: Carrer d’Enric Granados, 55.
Suto, the intimate experience
How does a restaurant with only 16 seats earn a Michelin star? You’ll have to visit it to find out. An intimate restaurant that looks like a private home, where it is obviously difficult to find a seat, with just a bar and a few tables. In the kitchen, Yoshikazu Suto, with extensive experience in renowned kitchens such as Azurmendi, Quique Dacosta, Enigma and Disfrutar.
The idea is an omakase, where the chef prepares what he considers best for each customer at the time, but there is always a menu where you will find, for example, great dishes like Tamaki tuna belly with caviar, the Nambanzuke (a pickled mackerel with seven Japanese spices) or the sequence of nigiris.
📍 C. de Violant d’Hongria Reina d’Aragó, 134, Sants-Montjuïc
💸 Tasting menu 98€.
Alapar, the Mediterranean iazakaya.
The rush of the times forces us to summarize complex concepts and yes, Alapar is a Mediterranean izakaya because it is a Japanese tapas bar with owners in the kitchen and in the dining room and Mediterranean touches in some of the dishes. But a restaurant is a complex gear and in Alapar we liked that it was that, a restaurant in capital letters where the proposal takes care of all the corners because it oozes the love that Vicky Macarone and Jaume Marambio have put in each of those corners, who remember very easily how they sanded with their hands (and the help of Vicky’s father), the woods that now give a Japanese touch to the place.
The same wood frames the sushi bar that presides over the Alapar, where Jaume prepares, one by one, the nigiris, with the hypnotic technique that crushes the rice balls with wet fingers. Seven movements at a time to leave the rice ready to be topped with, for example, toro and ponzu or eel and teriyaki sauce.
The grace of the menu, what makes it an izakaya, is that cadence between classic or contemporary nigiris alternating with “tapas” with a Mediterranean flair, such as the grilled portobello with miso and ceps black pepper sauce or the Sea and mountain pork with scallop and pork broth with a tremendous maki de peu de porc. Two things to watch out for, by the way: their sakes and their Mushipan of tuna tartar and wasabi emulsion, which is one bite on the menu, and of which we would eat seven.
📍 C/ Lleida 5, 08004 Barcelona
💸 Tasting menu 89€.