The 20 best restaurants in Spain

Bilbao

This intimate, light-filled riverside spot seats just 25 people, but if you get a chance to pull up a chair, jump at it. Chef Álvaro Garrido is an absolute master of seasonal ingredients and flavour.

Jaén

Singlehandedly putting Jaén on Spain’s gastronomic map, Bagá is an essential destination: a small dining room dedicated to reinterpreting local products, with plenty of surprising-but-harmonious combinations along the way.

Valencia

Young chef Vicky Sevilla has converted a fifteenth-century stable into a truly great restaurant. Her veg-heavy take on affordable haute cuisine is firmly plugged into the land that surrounds the ancient town of Sagunto, just north of Valencia.

Getaria

It’s worth a trip to the Basque coast just to eat Aitor Arregi’s turbot, cooked to perfection on the traditional parilla grill. And while you’re here, don’t miss the kokotxas: fish stew made from the tender throats of fish.

Cádiz

The sea has shaped the history of Cádiz, and it remains the biggest influence at the city’s best restaurant. Seafood sausages, salt-water cooking, seaweed desserts, fish-skin latticework: there isn’t another restaurant like it.

Madrid

Rafa Zafra is one of the world’s great seafood chefs, cooking the finest fish in a thousand ways – fried, steamed, grilled, salted and stuffed – and always to millimetre precision. Make sure you leave room for the egg flan: it’ll be the best you’ve ever had.

Madrid

The Chamberí neighbourhood of Madrid is known for top-end dining, but Lakasa trumps everyone one of its esteemed neighbours. Proprietor César Martín is a a true chef’s chef, famous for his sensibility, knowledge of produce, and sense of balance and seasonality.

Málaga

Whatever the market brings, that’s what they cook at this backstreet spot in Málaga’s old town. Sit back and go with it: the stews are legendary and the Russian salad storied.

Madrid

A veritable maestro of raw fish, chef Ugo Chan wields his knives to stitch together Japanese cuisine with cañí – Spanish Gypsy – influences. 

Barcelona

Martin Berasategui achieved the huge feat of becoming the first restaurant in Barcelona to win three Michelin stars. His tasting menu at the Monument hotel is a proper bucket-list treat.

Barcelona

A gang of three former sous-chefs from Elbulli – the legendary Catalan restaurant that inspired practically every Michelin wannabe of the last 20 years – opened Disfrutar in 2014. It has got bigger and better each year, pushing boundaries with every new tasting menu. 

Calldetenes

Equidistant from Barcelona and Girona, the rustic Can Jubany serves an elevated take on the cuisine of Catalonia’s heartland, made by a cook – Nandu Jubany – who has become one of the most popular and beloved kitchen personalities in Spain. 

San Sebastián

Run by the same family since the late nineteenth century, Arzak has evolved from a roadside tavern into a three Michelin-star extravaganza focused on the more avant-garde side of Basque cooking.

Sagàs

Farm-to-table doesn’t come much more direct than at this spot in the heart of Catalonia. Pretty much everything on the menu (cattle, eggs, most of the vegetables) has been born and raised on the land you can see through the windows of the farmhouse dining room. The pork here is pretty much the best in the world.

Girona

Since Elbulli closed down, El Celler de Can Roca has inherited the honour of being regularly named the best restaurant in Catalonia, Spain and the world. Keep an eye out for one of the three Roca brothers: chef Joan, pasty maestro Jordi and sommelier Josep

Barcelona

It’s widely known in Barcelona’s food circles that Gresca is the city’s most historically underrated restaurant when it comes to the Michelin guides. Head to the main restaurant for the tasting menu of classic Spanish cooking, or the next-door bar for top-drawer tapas and natural wines.

The oldest restaurant in Bilbao, opened in 1878, combines an impeccable array of northern Spanish produce with a light but effective creative touch.

Oviedo

Chef Vicente Cabal elevates the already extraordinary quality of produce from Asturias and the rest of northern Spain. His restaurant is the best place on earth to try the hearty and delicious Asturian fabada (bean stew).

Santiago de Compostela

With a reputation forged in culinary temples such as El Celler de Can Roca and Mugaritz, Lucía Freitas has won herself a well-deserved Michelin star by applying her creativity to a radical ‘0km cuisine’: many of the vegetables she serves come from her own garden.

Almandoz

Located in an old palace in the beautiful Baztán valley, this is a popular restaurant in the area for celebrations. If you’re passing through this part of Navarre, it’s an essential stop to taste the great classics of Spanish cuisine at an extremely reasonable price.