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Seafood, baby octopus

Seafood lovers, go to Paradeta!

Are you a seafood lover? Then La Paradeta is the perfect place for you! I had brought friends and family here and everytime the food was a hit among them.

That shellfish bar…

Razor shell and gambas at La Paradeta

Razor shell and gambas at La Paradeta

So what is so special about La Paradeta? The whole eating concept is unusual: first, the entire place is dedicated to seafood and fish. You can also order a basic salad. Then you place your order at a shellfish bar like at the fishmonger. The fish and the seafood presented are raw. The choice is wide: baby octopus, baby cuttlefish, whitebait, lobsters, tuna, monkfish, mussels, oysters etc…For each type of fish and seafood, a price is displayed. The customer then makes a choice which is weighted and priced. The fishmonger asks for your preferred cooking method (fried, a la plancha or with a marinara sauce) then sends you to pay at the till.

At the till, you can orders drinks, sauces and bread. You pay before you seat. Don’t forget the receipt because the kitchen staff will use it to follow up on your order.

Sit at a table, wait for your seafood dish and…enjoy!

Once the food paid, you get a seat and wait for your table number to be called out. The kitchen staff calls out each table number everytime one dish is ready. As there is no waiter, you then have to pick it up at a kitchen window yourself. They strike each dish they serve out of the receipt. You got it…La Paradeta is entirely self service.  As a matter of fact, there is also a second window where you can drop dirty plates at the end of your lunch or dinner.

There are 7 restaurants in Barcelona and Sitges: Sants, Born, Sagrada Familia, Sitges, Meridiana, Passeig de Gracia and Parallel. Despite the number of restaurants having increased, there is always a queue outside – you cannot also book a table.  But I can understand why: the food in La Paradeta is simple but tasty. My favourite is the baby octopus dish a la plancha with olive oil, parsley and garlic sauce. The choice of wine is quite good too. I have never been disappointed by a bottle of white here.

Restaurant adresses:

La Paradeta Sants -C/ Riego 27, 08010 Barcelona – Tel. 934 319 059

La Paradeta Born – C/ Comercial 7, 08003 Barcelona – Tel. 932 681 939 – Access: Metro Arc de Triomf (L1), Barceloneta (L4), França station (Renfe)

La Paradeta Sagrada Família – Passatge Simó 18, 08025 Barcelona – Tel. 934 500 191 – Access: Metro Sagrada Familia (L2, L5)

La Paradeta Sitges – C/ Sant Pere 24-26, 08870 Sitges – Tel. 938 949 323 – Access: Sitges station (Renfe)

La Paradeta Meridiana – C/ Pacífic 74, 08027 Barcelona – Tel. 935 346 557 – Access: Fabra i Puig (L1) | Sagrera (L1, L5, L9, L10, Renfe).

La Paradeta Passeig de Gràcia – C/ Consell de Cent 318, 08007 Barcelona – Tel. +34 930 181 164 – Access: Metro Passeig de Gràcia (L3, L5, Renfe) | Plaça Catalunya (L1, L3, Renfe)

La Paradeta Paral·lel – Avda. Paral·lel, 46, 08001 Barcelona – Tel. +34 936 314 278 – Access: Metro Drassanes (L3) | Paral·lel (L3, L4)

For more info, click on their website.

 

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Seafood at la Boqueria

Barcelona experience: eating at la Boqueria market

Today, I want to talk about a Barcelona experience I had: eating at the Boqueria market.

This is one thing I had on my Barcelona bucket list. I do have several bucket lists organized by categories: must-do trips, must-do experiences, must-go-to places, must-do in Barcelona. And this is where we are at!

A landmark and a must-visit here in Barcelona, the Boqueria is famous for being “the” place where you can find almost anything from the food department. Are you looking for cassava leaves? La Boqueria. Bull testicules? La Boqueria. Exotic fruits? La Boqueria… The whole market offers a rich choice of fruit, vegetable, fish, meat and local specialties.

The market does not only sell food. It also hosts a good number of market stalls well renowned for the quality and freshness of their products. And this is what I planned to try out. Luckily for me, my parents went on a first exploration and found a place they raved about. So we headed there for lunch two Saturdays ago.

Eating fresh seafood at la Boqueria

The place we went to was called Kiosko Universal. It was mainly serving seafood. There is a counter where you can observe the cooks while they grill fish and shells.

All the seats at the counter were taken so we waited for a free table. We gave our name to the waiter and waited until he cleaned up. Tables are given on a first come, first serve basis. We did not have to wait much though. The turnover was quite fast although the place was always busy. But we did have to wait a while before our order was taken and before being served.

The whole staff was very nice. So the wait was the only minus. There were locals and tourists alike enjoying the food. For me, the presence of locals in a touristy area means that the food is good. Don’t you think the same? While sitting, we could observe passer-bys, hear the echo of the noise from the market and the happy chatters, smell the food cooking. The atmosphere was very nice and happy.

The menu was simple. Some Spanish specialties like pimientos del padron. But we came for seafood so seafood we will have! We ordered oysters, a parrillada de mariscos (a platter of grilled seafood with mussels, cockles, crawfish, calamari, prawns and razor clams) and a mixed mushroom dish.

To accompany the whole lot, a bottle of white wine, Afortunado, which I never heard of before but was very good. In fact, everything was delicious and really fresh. These were the perks of having supplies at hand.

All in all, eating at la Boqueria was a great experience: the food, the wine, the atmosphere and of course the company were unmatched. A market stall to revisit or a new one to try out, this experience is definitely to repeat!!!

 

 

 

 

 

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    Are you a seafood lover? Then La Paradeta is the perfect place for you! I had brought friends and family here and everytime the food was a hit among them. That shellfish bar... So what is so special about La Paradeta? The whole eating concept is unusual: first, the entire place is dedicated to…
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