Santa Gula

Santa Gula is an ode to eating well, and delighting your taste buds to the fullest extent. No matter how hungry you are when you show up, you’ll find yourself eating long after you’ve satisfied your appetite. This small restaurant is located on the edge of Gràcia, just a few blocks from the border with Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, and is well worth a trip, whether you’re exploring Barcelona for the first time, or working in the area. Its menu changes to suit the season, offering whatever’s freshest at the local markets, and transforming seasonal ingredients into scrumptious Mediterranean classics with nods to other cuisines, in recipes carefully crafted by artisanal chefs in a constant search for a new spin on traditional, everyday fare.

For that very reason, the menu at this restaurant changes every 15 days, adapting its offerings to the products available at the market. Despite the constant variation, Santa Gula still manages to offer an extensive menu, full of the kinds of nuances that make it one of those places you need to discover in phases; after all, you won’t be able to judge after just one visit. The restaurant’s most popular dishes are its tapas and small plates, delivered in portions that are ideal for sharing, and excellent for exploring new and innovative recipes like prawns in kataifi with mango and red chilies, or zucchini carpaccio, goat cheese, cashews, and mint. And for the meat-lovers out there, Santa Gula cooks up an amazing steak tartar with parmesan and capers, egg yolk, and rocket, as well as lamb meatballs and Thai-style Iberian ham with plantains.

One of its distinguishing characteristics is that it’s open every day of the year, all day long, so you can enjoy breakfast, lunch, drinks, and even dinner in the same restaurant without needing to get up from your table. That’s largely because everything cooking at Santa Gula invites you to give into temptation, and not kick yourself too much for doing so. In the end, all you have to do is take a look around the bar and other tables, and witness the gustatory enjoyment being had by other diners gleefully sharing plates and tapas, proving the chefs right by demonstrating the deep and primal love for food that we all share.