
Louro is, perhaps, the only good surprise that Las Ramblas de Barcelona still has to offer to the locals. The old people of the city will remember that on the second floor of this street, near Colón and far from the eyes of the passers-by, is the Centro Galego, the embassy that the Galician immigrants had in the city and that historically kept a bar where to eat well and cheaply in the middle of the Rambla.
That embassy has been losing functions, although it is still a small Galician refuge in the center, but a few years ago its restaurant was given a facelift by the group of Galicians from Arume (and Batea, and Cera 23, Besta…), who gave the place a makeover to turn it into Louro, a great new Galician that is probably the last good restaurant on Las Ramblas.
Eating at Eusebi Güell’s house
Louro’s charm is as simple as its definition: “Galician restaurant in Barcelona”. Traditional Galician cuisine, cleanly presented, somewhat renovated (lightened stews, shorter cooking time…) and well priced. Quality seafood, some caldeiradas, rice dishes and their beef stews. Everything simple, like that smoked sardine toast with Cebreiro cheese (perhaps the most successful dish), the octopus (very well cooked here, it could not fail), the clams with seafood or the sea bass stew. All faultless, all delicious and all, very important, with a taste of home and love.
But food is not the only attraction. Louro occupies the site of the former Casa Galega restaurant, which in turn is in the former home of Eusebi Güell, the man who had the Palau Güell built right next to his house. Hence, from the restaurant you can see the back façade of Gaudí’s beautiful modernist building and one of the rooms is the beginning of the passage that still remains and that connected Eusebi’s old house with the new Palau that was being built in Nou de la Rambla.
If we add to that the beautiful renovation they have done, which gives the restaurant an air of a place where Alice in Wonderland would eat, the experience is round. So you leave thinking that, perhaps, without knowing it, Las Ramblas can still give good surprises to the locals.
Louro
📍 Rambla de los Capuchinos, 37, Principal, 08002 Barcelona
💸30-40€
You may be interested in: The best restaurants in Barcelona: the definitive guide.