Time Out Barcelona launches its own food tour through Barcelona's Gothic Quarter

The tour begins at the venerable, beautifully restored Librería Sant Jordi, where –amid restored late-19th-century furniture– you'll find a culinary corner quietly championing local produce right on the tourist frontlines. Here, we try a smoked sardine brioche with cream cheese –buttery, warm, a delicate and exquisite bite– and a piece of Pastor secallona, paired with a glass of cava.

Native Barcelonan Alexandra Ferreiro is guiding the tour, and she manages to extract gold from the simplest facts. This includes giving a fun explanation of the difference between fuet and secallona.

Our next stop is at Bodega La Palma, a longtime local gathering spot for Gòtic residents and workers (owned by Judit Giménez since 2026, though open for nearly a century). Waiting for us there are the house-special spicy potatoes: these patatas bravas are crispy, well-fried potato chunks topped with a rich, slow-cooked dried tomato and sweet paprika sauce, paired with a generous dollop of garlic mayonnaise. They’ve set a benchmark in Barcelona, and Alejandra reminds us that "often people write them off; they’ve had really bad ones, but this is the exact opposite." It’s paired with a glass of the house vermouth blend and triangles of genuine Manchego cheese (all enjoyed in a delightfully cool cellar atmosphere that climate change has yet to conquer). 

The third stop also boasts plenty of pedigree, heritage, and symbolic weight. We are at Bar La Plata, a legendary local bodega in the Gòtic quarter that has been serving just four tapas since 1945. Here, we get to enjoy two of them: the ultra-fresh fried small fish, cooked using the exact same recipe since the mid-20th century, and botifarra sausage skewers. The Majanet-Pascual family has owned the business since its founding, while the iconic Pepe Gómez has been running the dining room and bar... since 1974! Gómez could have retired many years ago, but his warmth infuses the whole experience of enjoying the oily fish paired with a porró of white wine from Gandesa. La Plata’s true value lies in having kept its food accessible to every budget a quality appreciated by locals, regulars like Ferran Adrià, and even Bono from U2, a surprise visitor brought along by local actor Daniel Brühl. 

By now full and feeling a bit tipsy (having packed away six tapas, cava, vermouth, and a porronet between our bellies and our heads), we head up the stairs of Time Out Market Barcelona. There, the tour reaches its finale with two rice dishes from Can Ros and haute-cuisine croquettes from Croquetelle –shrimp suquet and roasted eggplant!–alongside unbeatable views of the Barceloneta Clock Tower. We share a vegetable rice and a seafood one, served in traditional clay pots with that dry yet creamy grain that sets Catalan arròs a la cassola apart from a Valencian paella (besides the obvious fact that it’s cooked in a pot, not a paella pan!). 

Much like La Plata, Can Ros in Barceloneta is a restaurant that has remained in the same family –the Cids– ever since it opened as a tavern back in 1908. It has expertly evolved into a refined, modern kitchen without losing its welcoming, neighborhood warmth. And to top it off, a sweet churro from Carmen Atelier de Xurros: rest assured, it’s an artisanal treat backed by one of Barcelona’s historic workshops, and in its dessert incarnation, it can come filled with custard and topped with wild berries (or Nutella and sliced banana, if you have an even sweeter tooth).