Places to eat in Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon & Porto.

Within Barcelona, I feel like it is getting harder and harder to find good places to eat inside the city. 10-15 years ago there were quite a few places I could recommend, but with the increased popularity of the city comes a drop in overall food quality and increase in cost. One place that is still, for the most part, consistently good is Bar Celta Pulperia they specialize in Galician Octopus (Pulpo a la Gallega) and they also have some classic Spanish tapas that are good too. They have two locations, in the Gothic Quarter and one in El Born. There will be tourists but also a good amount of locals.

Depending on how much time you have in Barcelona, I would say the best places to eat are actually outside of the city, in the smaller towns like Girona and Tarragona.

In Girona, I would recommend Casa Marieta try the Canelones de Ceps, which are pasta tubes stuffed with Ceps, which are local mushrooms from the area, you are lucky they will be in season in October (they are so good and taste like the forest!).

In Tarragona I would recommend Restaurant Antic, try the Arroz Caldoso de Bogavante which is a rice dish made with a fumet or broth of fish and lobster (this one tastes like the sea!).

Hopefully that is along the lines of what you are thinking :)

We visited Barcelona and Madrid last year. For foodies, there are a couple of recommendations.

• Barcelona:
• if you have time, consider taking a cooking class. Each country I visit, I take a class. It is the fastest way to understand the culture. In Spain, we chose Barcelona for the class. We took a market tour and class with cook and taste: http://www.cookandtaste.net. I would recommend if you take the class to take the Boqueria market tour. We went early, the chef knew the proveyeurs and we had the added bonus of shopping for our ingredients. If you don’t take the market tour. Go early in the morning, otherwise it is a zoo.
• As for restaurants, its is really challenging to find anything near the major tourist areas. I wanted to take my husband to a good seafood and paella restaurant near the beach, we loved Xiringuitoescriba, excellent paella, great view of the ocean, and a nice mix of locals and tourists. https://xiringuitoescriba.com/#
• Disfrutar is from the veterans of the El Bulli kitchen, and currently holds one Michelin star. The modern Mediterranean cuisine and elegant service make for an unmissable experience. [$$$$]. This came highly recommended from a blogger friend of mine, but we could not get reservations while we were there. You may want to check this out: http://www.disfrutarbarcelona.com

Madrid:

• We took a tapas tour from Devour—amazing few hours to taste little bites. We liked the tour so much, we took the tours in Granada and Sevilla. Not only do you find little gems on your tour, but our guide, Joy recommended some great local restaurants and clued us into the cloistered nuns to buy local cookies. Here is the link: https://madridfoodtour.com.
• Joy recommended some local restaurants, including one not far from Plaza Mayor, but a world away from the tourist scene. This place is so busy (and only speaks Spanish) that we could not get them not he phone to make reservations, we had to walk there in the afternoon. The food is Gallacian (octopus is out of this world). We were the only English people in the restaurant, small, local, and memorable. Be careful when you order, portions are HUGE, but everything is delicious and reasonably priced.
• For food souvenirs try El Corte Engles. My friend who studied in Madrid, recommended that I purchase there before my flight. Good selection of local food, reasonable prices, and saved me from carting it all over Spain. While you are there, they have a great “food court” with everything you can imagine from Spanish tapa to pizza (delicious by the way) and outdoor patio to have a glass a Cava.
• Last recommendation is the WineBus: https://www.winebus.es/en/. I wanted to go wine tasting, see Segovia and not have big groups and found this little gem. Ignacio the owner is a wonderful man (not the best marketing person in the world, but generous, knows wine, and good food). We went to a small family owned winery Ribera del Duero, ate lunch at the most amazing little restaurant in a small town. The restaurant (sorry can’t remember name), had a wine cellar over 150 years old. We ended in Segovia with a view on the bluff, drinking wine and viewing the castle. We were so taken with Ignacio, we gave him some advice on how to market his services better and my husband even did a video montage of our visit that is not he website (not an advertisement of any services, just a testimate on how much we liked this humble, passionate owner. The video is not the one exploring food & wine of Spain.

There is so much more to explore in Barcelona and Spain. I look forward to seeing the other recommendations.

Have a great trip,
Sandy

We stumbled upon this place in Madrid looking for tapas and loved it! This was... a couple years ago.
http://www.rte-esteban.com/

It is family owned, and the mom and dad were eating right next to us and shared some of their tapas. It helped that one person in our party (not me!) spoke Spanish. We had a great time, met some of the daughters... it was super fun. They were so kind!

Kim

We have taken RS tours to both countries and spent additional time in both. We almost always rely on recommendations that are contained in his guide books. You might want to check out these two guide books for recommendations with the possibility of purchasing them to take on your trip.

Thanks for your food tips.
We have the RS books for both countries.
Sandy

In Madrid, we loved Rick's tapas crawls.
In Barcelona, Euskal Extra Basque Taberna, near the terrific Picasso museum.

Yes, these were in the RS Spain bk, but best advice always is to temper past recommendations with following your nose/instincts/the locals. We zeroed in on Euskal before finding it was in The Bk.

For Barcelona check out ATM Cafe

We enjoyed Taps, a bar/restaurant in Poble Sec neighborhood.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187497-d7707574-Reviews-Taps-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

We also enjoyed Onofre Vinos y Viandas which is a restaurant Rick recommends.

I didn't eat out much in Madrid but for history and a pastry for breakfast, I'd recommend La Mallorquina on Plaza del Sol..