La Mercè is the festival of festivals, and there is no celebration that makes us more excited to live every year in Barcelona. From concerts to the Piromusical, through popular culture or open doors, the city is full of activities and we all have an excuse for a few days to go out.
Of course, also to eat. The festival is a perfect opportunity to get to know the gastronomy of the city and many locals jump on the bandwagon offering exclusive proposals for the holidays. From La Mercè cakes to special menus or gastronomic markets.
Therefore, we tell you all the special gastro plans of La Mercè to set up your own gastronomic festival.
Special La Mercè menu at Molino de Pez
Molino de Pez, perhaps the most Madrid-style restaurant in Barcelona, dresses up in Barcelona for a few weeks to offer its La Mercè menu. And it does so with a menu that collects and interprets with admiration the tradition of the hits of the modern tradition of the city. For example, with dishes like the bomba Molino de Pez de presa ibérica, black pudding and chorizo, a tribute to the famous tapa invented by La Cova Fumada in La Barceloneta, and with the tomato, cod and onion salad cop de puny, an interesting (and succulent) version of the traditional esqueixada.
Available from September 16 until the end of the month, this menu consists of two starters, a main course, pre-dessert and dessert for 75€, with wine pairing included.
📍Molino de Pez
💸75€
Terra i Gust, the sustainable gastronomic festival of La Mercè
The Mercè 2023 festivities will host the third edition of Terra i Gust, the sustainable food festival, from September 22 to 24, a festival organized by the Association of Gastronomy and Tourism of Baix Llobregat and Slow Food Barcelona, which seeks to provide a meeting point between sustainable and proximity gastronomy of Barcelona and its great Festa Major.
Nobu: how to see the Piromusical from the highest terrace in Barcelona
TheRooftop of the Nobu Hotel Barcelona, the highest in the city becomes a perfect (and exclusive) place to enjoy the pyromusical show of La Mercè on September 24. Located near Plaça Espanya, it will offer live music, a special cocktail (€16) and even an Omakase Barcelona tasting menu (€145) with dishes like.
📍Av. Roma, 4
💸16€ cocktail, €140 tasting menu
📅23 September
Jon Cake and La Colmena: the return of the Barcelona dessert
The encasadas are a traditional Barcelona sweet that, although it is so much of Barcelona’s DNA that even Einstein praised in a tribute dinner in 1923 (after tasting it), is a real unknown and in recession: in fact, it is only found in Pastisseria La Colmena. Made with shortcrust pastry, which in turn is prepared with flour, butter, sugar and salt, it has a traditional filling of cottage cheese, egg, sugar and lemon.
Now, for the Mercè 2024, Jon Cake, author of the most famous cheesecakes in Barcelona, has been inspired by this traditional recipe to offer the city his own version of encasada. He is accompanied by Toni Roig, fifth generation pastry chef at the helm of La Colmena: based on the family recipe book, which is over a hundred years old, together they have given a new impulse to this Barcelona sweet. Now, in La Colmena you can find the original recipe and in Jon cake their own version: encasada filled with cheesecake cream.
📍 Jon Cake & Wines, c/ Gelabert 42 – La Colmena, Plaça de l’Àngel, 12, Ciutat Vella
💸3€
📅From September 20 to 27, both included.
La Mercè cake and ice cream by Oriol Carrió and Delacrem
In 2023, the renowned pastry chef of Puerto Rican origin Antonio Bachour, created together with Jordi Vilà (and under the auspices of the Gremi de Pastisseria de Barcelona) a cake to give to the city. A cake that, in its recipe, would capture the essence of the territory and the seasonality of the products, portraying the festive character of Barcelona’s main popular festival: an almond sablée pastry tartlet, which is filled with almond and fig cream and finished with a layer of honey cream and fresh fig segments.
Now, there will not only be a cake, but also a Mercè ice cream. A conversation between master pastry chef Oriol Carrió and master ice cream maker Massimo Pignata, from the artisan ice cream shop DelaCrem, has led to an almond, fig and honey ice cream version of (and inspired by) Carrió’s cake.
📍Oriol Carrió (Bailén 216)- Obrador DelaCrem (Passeig de Sant Joan 59)- DelaCrem (Enric Granados, 15).
Ice cream from 3,4€, cake from 21€, for 4 pax….
📅 Ice cream from 16 September until the end of the month, cake from 16 to 20 September, on request: from 21 to 24, available at the store.
Born Street Food
Barcelona welcomes for La Mercè a veteran, the Born Street Food gastronomic festival that lights its stoves waiting for about 20 thousand people to go down to Pla de Palau to taste the best of the gastronomy of the medieval district of the city.
Throughout the weekend visitors can enjoy a gastronomic itinerary marked by the presence of 16 restaurants and chefs of reference of the city, many of which we have recommended on other occasions.
📍 Pla de Palau
💸3€
📅From September 20 to 27, both included.
San Miguel Biergarten
DuringLa Mercè the Poble Espanyol will celebrate a new edition of the San Miguel Biergarten, which will be held from 20 to 24 and from 27 to 29 September, during which 16,000 liters of beer will be served to more than 13,000 people.
In addition, the public will also be able to enjoy workshops, tastings, live music, DJ sessions, contests with succulent prizes and a quality gastronomic offer. Attendees will be able to choose from 21 different beer varieties, including gluten-free and alcohol-free options. There will be draft beers such as San Miguel Magna, Selecta de San Miguel, San Miguel 0.0, Stella Artois, All Day IPA, or Franziskaner, as well as bottled beers.
📍 Poble Espanyol
💸Free admission
📅From 20 to 24 and 27 to 29 September
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