Hey friends!
Today I’m back with another recap from my trip to Spain a few months ago. A few weeks ago I talked about some of my favorite sightseeing in Barcelona, and today I want to share where I ate vegetarian in the city. In addition to my favorite Barcelona eats, you’ll also find some suggestions of other veg-friendly places that I had scoped out but didn’t have a chance to dine at.
Even though I was only in Barcelona for a couple of days, I did a lot of research beforehand to take note of some restaurants that I definitely wanted to try. I had heard that there were a good amount of options to eat meat-free in Barcelona – yippee! – so I had high expectations for food there. After all, the food is a big part of a trip for me. I know that all of you fellow foodies can relate! ♥ Let’s get to it:
Flax & Kale. Describing itself as the first flexitarian restaurant in Barcelona with “dishes that are designed thinking not only of gastronomic pleasure, but also of its nutritional value,” Flax & Kale’s menu is mostly plant-based but also includes some fish items.
The restaurant was buzzing with people when I visited for brunch. The menu includes everything from breakfast dishes, tacos and juices, to house-made bakery items, avocado toast and paleo bread. I ordered the above pancakes, along with the below fruit smoothie.
At this point in the trip, I was craving a healthy smoothie like the ones I make at home, and it totally hit the spot.
♥ A few other Barcelona brunch spot ideas:
Rasoterra. This vegetarian bistro focuses on local and organic ingredients, and after researching it online, quickly wound up high on my list of places to have dinner.
Rasoterra suggests ordering a bunch of tapas for the table, so after settling on a bottle of local wine, we picked out some items to share. The bistro has some of the more common Spanish tapas, like veggie croquettes, but they also offer some more unique dishes, such as beetroot carpaccio and “surf and turf” black rice.
One of my favorite tapas of the night was the above potato tacos. I also really enjoyed the below pumpkin ravioli with parmesan and sage butter.
The ambiance of Rasoterra was lovely, and I’d highly suggest grabbing lunch or dinner there!
Boqueria Market. I just love roaming local markets, and La Boqueria is Barcelona’s famous market in La Rambla. It’s a great place to roam around, chat with local vendors, and snack on anything from local bread, nuts and pastries to fruits and veggies.
I wish that we had time to pick up some goodies like cheese, crackers & honey to go hang out at a nearby park & have a picnic lunch. Next time!
There are lots of little restaurants to pop into when walking around Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, and Puglia in Tavola was a pizzeria that we happened to stumble upon when hungry for lunch one day.
Their display featured delicious looking Italian fare, so we popped in for a bite. We each ordered an arancini ball and slice of pizza. My spinach rice ball was delicious, and Puglia in Tavola proved to be a great spot for a quick, cheap lunch.
A note to vegans: Although most items had cheese in them, the restaurant claimed that my spinach ball had no dairy in it, so you may be able to find vegan grub there.
♥ A few other ideas for where to grab a vegetarian lunch:
- La Vitamínica d’Horta
- Aguaribay
- BioCenter (dinner too!)
Teresa Carles. In business since 1979, Teresa Carles offers tons of healthy options for lunch and dinner, and is owned by the same people as Flax & Kale.
With a large plant-based menu that offers tapas, salads, burgers, soup, pasta, and specialities like veggie risottos & crepes, I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the yummy sounding options to choose from.
My hubby and I started off with the above pictured tomato bread – such a good example of simple ingredients making something delicious – and then I enjoyed a tofu & veggie pad Thai, while he had a seitan burger that was also delicious.
Teresa Carles’ dessert menu is also difficult to choose from, with options like an apple crumble + vegan snowflake cake with caramelized pears, macadamia nuts & white chocolate fudge. In the end, we went with the coulant – a chocolate lava cake with Madagascar vanilla ice cream.
Teresa Carles also makes a variety of to-go cold-pressed juices, and I grabbed one to boost my immunity on our flights the next day.
We left the restaurant with full, happy bellies!
♥ A few other dinner options:
Barcelona has no shortage of chocolate shops – xocolaterias as they’re called. My friend Laura had vacationed in Barcelona just before I did, and recommended stopping at Xocolateria Fargas for a taste of cava chocolates.
As if the allure of cava chocolates wasn’t enough, I found out that Fargas has been operating in the same location since the early 1800s. Pretty neat! We popped into the shop while strolling around the Gothic Quarter of the city one day.
It’s a chocolate lovers’ paradise in there! It was kind of funny because there was a language barrier between the woman working and us, so I just kept trying things but was unsure of exactly what I was eating.
If you’re looking for a place to buy some edible souvenirs for loved ones, Fargas is a definitely worth a stop. I bought a bunch of stuff as gifts for family but wasn’t exactly sure what goodies we left with due to the language barrier, which was hilarious when we gifted them to people over Christmas. All I would say was, “This is some sort of delicious chocolate from Barcelona!”
There also is no shortage of bakeries throughout Barcelona, and we randomly visited a few, including one conveniently located in La Rambla called Pastisseria Escribà. They also have two other locations in Barcelona. It’s the perfect place to stop for a coffee and to get your sugar fix, and they also make things like croissants and waffles.
I definitely did more than my fair share of good eating in Barcelona! While it may be more vegetarian friendly than other European cities, I still was glad to have done my research, because a few of the restaurants we tried to randomly stop into had little to no meat-free options.
Check out my other recaps from this trip:
Tell me… Do you typically do food research before you travel? Which of these meals are you drooling over the most?
I’d like to have some tomato bread, a spinach arancini ball, and a few chocolates in front of me right about now!
OK…now I want to hop a plane and go to Barcelona! This is such a great guide and all of the food looks AMAZING!
Thanks, Marcie! Barcelona is awesome.
I’m loving all of the veg options in Barcelona! Everything looks amazing. It’s crazy how much harder it is to travel as a vegan compared to vegetarian. Almost everywhere offers a meatless option now but there’s usually dairy in it. Hopefully we will see more entirely plant-based options come available soon!
I know, you’re so right… I eat vegan probably 95% of the time at home, but when I’m traveling that all goes out the window because it’s SO much harder to find vegan food vs vegetarian. That sneaky dairy gets put into everything! But, there was a time when vegetarian wasn’t as popular, so with time we’ll hopefully get there with vegan options 😉 Several of the dishes I shared in here – including the smoothie, pad Thai, potato tacos & tomato bread – are dairy free, so I think it’d be doable in Barcelona. As usual, it just takes some planning/researching ahead!
BRB, on my way to Barcelona! You nearly lost me after the photo of those pancakes.
Haha, your comment made me laugh! Pancake food porn is the best.. 🙂
I could have stayed in that city forever!!! I was really impressed with the fresh, healthy options we found. We ate at Brunch & Cake and El Arbol – both are also great options!
Your brunches looked amazing!!
Well, I live in Barcelona and work here too! When somebody suggest you la Boqueria which is good but damn overpriced and made for silly tourism to get their money. Whatever is on La Rambla and city center it has the same concept-get tourist and strip them off! And one big important thing, many food pics looking amazing but in reality the taste=0 as it is many times done by amateurs.
I would suggest you guys choose carefully where you gonna spend your £$€¥¢ if vegeterian or meateaters.
Well, having eaten the food & taken all of the photos in this post, I can tell you that everything I’ve included here is delicious! I totally understand that La Rambla is a touristy area & that locals don’t hang out here as much, which I’ve noted in my Barcelona recaps, but when people are visiting and don’t have a ton of time to sightsee – which was the case for me – staying closer to the city center makes the most sense. This post simply shares the vegetarian food that I enjoyed while in Barcelona & I did my fair share of research in finding places to eat 🙂