There was a time when the Gothic Quarter was the center of the city. From its City Hall to its Rambla, the neighborhood was the official and symbolic center of the city. After doing errands and strolling, people always ate, and from the Agut de Avinyó to Can Culleretes, passing through Los Caracoles, Casa Leopoldo, el Set Portes or els Quatre Gats (some closed, others open and others sold to tourism), Ciutat Vella was also the gastronomic center of the city.
With the sale of the center to tourism this has been lost, but as all social and urban phenomena go back and forth, now a new current of restaurateurs is opening restaurants that attract attention not only for the goodness of their food, but for their efforts to prepare authentic Catalan food in a city center that is no longer very Catalan. First it was La Sosenga, then Xeixa and now La Palma de Bellafilla, a restaurant hidden in the streets behind the city hall that is, right now, one of the best Catalan cuisine restaurants in Barcelona.
It is because it does very well something that seems very simple but is very difficult: to recover the traditional Catalan recipe book. But not the one that everybody recovers, the combo croquette, cap i pota and cannelloni, but the one that asks for research and creativity: from the snacks of ear or the cervellets de xai a la romana to some sardines with grapes that make us remember with nostalgia or stews like the chickpeas with clams.
All of them are superb because they are all guided by Jordi Parramon, a chef with the appearance of a shepherd of few words but the soft voice and the conversation of what he is, a passionate cook who is a reference for those who know (and architect of one of the historic restaurants in Barcelona), and here he prepares everything, even his own vinegars, to give a distinctive touch to his dishes, always with the idea of being based on the Catalan recipe, but lightening it or raising it from the respect.
This is the origin of the dessert Pijama, a historical Catalan dessert that unites five elements (cream, custard, peach, ice cream…) and that here they make by hand one by one, from the ice cream to the neula. It is rarely worth visiting a restaurant just for a dessert, but here it is.
The whole menu is tempting, so going to the Gòtic district to get lost in its alleys and find La Palma is once again synonymous with eating well in the center. If there is no room, you can go to Bodega La Palma, a historic neighboring winery that also cooks very well and has been responsible for taking the place where the legendary Bar del Pla was to turn it into La Palma by the hand of Parramon, the chef who is, as I said, living history of food in our country. A luxury place.
📍C/ de Bellafila, 5, Ciutat Vella, 08002 Barcelona
💸30-50€