The Best Seafood in Barcelona, by the Record
The best seafood in Barcelona, by the professional record: Michelin Guide, The Infatuation, and Eater have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Batea comes out on top.
Amar Barcelona and Martínez hold the next two places. Eater shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with The Infatuation next.
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Rank 1. Batea
Seafood, Farm to table
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Rank 2. Amar Barcelona
Contemporary, Catalan
The chandeliers in the Palace hotel have been watching over formal dinners since before your grandparents were born, and Amar leans into every inch of that history. Rafa Zafra, who made his name at El Bulli before becoming Barcelona's seafood obsessive at Estimar, shifts registers here into full-dress fine dining: ornate plating, caviar runs deep on the menu, and a section of dishes pays explicit tribute to the old Ritz kitchen.
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Rank 2. Martínez
Seafood
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Rank 4. Casa Maians
Catalan Seafood
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Rank 4. El Camarote de Tomás
Catalan Seafood
The day's catch arrives on heaps of bar ice before you've even sat down, which tells you everything about where this marisqueria's priorities lie. Just off Plaça d'Espanya, El Camarote de Tomás is a traditional Catalan seafood restaurant, intimate and unfussy, where wild-caught fish comes roasted whole and the esqueixada de bacallà alone is reason enough to show up. An old-school institution with no apparent interest in modernizing, and no reason to start.
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Rank 4. La Plata
Seafood
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Rank 4. Taberna Nardi
Seafood
A wave-like mirrored ceiling does most of the decorating at this self-described "irreverent seafood tavern" in Ciutat Vella, where the day's catch sits on ice at an open bar and a robata grill does the heavy lifting. The menu runs from cured horse mackerel to braised tuna cheek, and the oyster-infused dry martini has developed its own small reputation. A handful of tables keeps it intimate, which is a polite way of saying book ahead.