If you’re visiting Barcelona then a visit to La Boqueria Market is a must. As well as enjoying the incredible produce on sale, the market is a fantastic place to eat. On a visit, we had lunch at Bar Boqueria. It’s just one of a number of cafes, bars and eateries inside. Cooking up fresh produce from the market, it’s a fab place for a spot of lunch.
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Eating at La Boqueria Market
As well as an amazing selection of produce for sale at La Boqueria Market, you can also dine here. There are a number of cafes and bars dotted around outer ring of stalls. Wandering from stall to stall, our mouths were already salivating. So when we decided we couldn’t hold out any longer, we set about looking for a place for lunch.
La Boqueria Market
The smell of seafood being grilled coming from Bar Boqueria caught our attention first. The place was pretty busy, however, so we decided to wander a little more. We didn’t get very far before thinking the smell of the food from Bar Boqueria would be worth the wait. And it was!
Bar Boqueria
Bar Boqueria specialises in meat, seafood and tapas. It has a full drinks bar and display cabinets on the counter show a selection of some of the food on offer. The signage features a mosaic glass effect, which seemed in keeping with the market’s look. I thought it was a nice touch. Mostly though, the food being served looked and smelt amazing!
Like other eateries in the market, customers sit around the bar on stools so it has a very communal feel. Having spotted a couple preparing to leave, we decide to stand near them and give other people spotting it the evil eye so they knew the spots were taken.
After sitting, we were handed a menu by the friendly and chatty staff who straight away asked what we’d like to drink. I asked for a glass of vino tinto and got a nice glass of rioja. You’ve got to love a place where the house red is a tasty rioja!
Seafood fest
I’d already taken note of the fresh seafood on the bar so we ordered the combinado de pescado (mixed seafood plate) for one. This included: giant prawns, mussels, clams, cuttlefish, octopus, squid, a sardine and razor clams. They were pan fried in olive oil and herbs. And they were absolutely delicious!
We also got a couple of tapas to share: patatas bravas (potatoes chopped in chunks, fried and served with a spicy tomato sauce) and pimiento verde (grilled padron peppers seasoned with salt and olive oil).
As you can see from our seafood plate below, there was enough for the both of us even if it was meant to be for just one person!
Seafood platter at Bar Boqueria
And here’s our padron peppers
Finding Bar Boqueria in La Boqueria Market
Bar Boqueria is at stand 218 in the market. It’s located in the north corner at the far end of the market from the entrance at Las Ramblas. For more information, visit: barboqueria.com.
Something sweet for the road
After eating, we took our full stomachs for a wander over to a couple of last stops before leaving the market…
One all natural fruit juice. I went for two of my favourite fruits – mango and coconut. It was the perfect drink to wash down all that savoury goodness as well as giving my system a good wake-up boost before a I fell asleep from the delicious food fest I’d just had.
And for later on, we picked out a couple of chocolates that just kept staring at us and making us pick them. Rich and velvety, they tasted pretty good too. I’d like to say I then went off to hike up a really big mountain to work some of that off but when food is this good, I’m quite happy for it to stay with me.
Fresh fruit juices
Chocolates