Can Boneta | Restaurant Balmes Barcelona — Restaurant in Barcelona

On our trip to Barcelona, we ate at many different places over our two week stay. But the best experience yet was at Can Boneta.

If you read my other Barcelona reviews, you might find that I was often greatly disappointed in these "highly recommended" restaurants we tried on our trip. Places that received mentions in blogs or had high ratings in online reviews like Yelp and others. They always turned out to be expensive and mediocre. Can Boneta was the exception.

We went for lunch, which is considered the "largest" meal of the 5 meal day (largest meaning, this is where you fill up for the day). And like many restaurants in Barcelona, they offer what is know as "Menú del día". This is the only thing that is offered, and on this day there was only 2 choices (brilliant idea). We had both, duck, eggplant and BBQ pork & cod with potatoes in cream sauce.

The cod was absolutely amazing, the cream sauce was the star of the show, but it didn't detract from the tender flaky cod in any way. The duck was great, and in any other situation, might have been the spotlight meal, but next to the cod, it's brilliance felt dimmed.

They fill up with reservations every day, but sometimes you can score a walk-in. Still, I would reserve a table, what they give the walk-ins is not the greatest seats.

This was one recommendation that did...

Each return trip to Barcelona is not complete unless I have lunch at least once at Can Boneta. This local restaurant offers a set menu for lunch that costs €15 and changes daily. The starter consists of three tapas (smaller plates) followed by a main and dessert. The menu also includes a beverage and bread, which comes in handy to soak up the sauces from first two courses. Recommend making reservations lunch as the secret is out about Can Boneta - locals and visitors alike know to go there for quality Catalan cooking at a very reasonable price. The last visit there, the cream of mushroom soup and the poached egg with chorizo (two of the tapas to start) really stood out due to the flavor. The tuna tartare (main course) was incredibly refreshing and complemented well with the avocado. My lunch guest had the duck with fries, which was a substantial portion (to be read as very generous / a lot of food). We both were glad that the dessert, strawberries topped with chocolate, was a bit smaller so we left full and very happy. The daily changing lunch menu, quality of the food and relaxed atmosphere make Can Boneta one of my favorites. It’s reliably consistent each time....

He vivido en Barcelona durante muchos años, y hoy tuve lo que tenía que ser la interacción más extraña y desagradable en cualquier restaurante de todo mi tiempo en esta ciudad. -- I've lived in Barcelona for many years, and today I had what had to be the strangest and most unpleasant interactions at any restaurant of all my time in this city.

My friend and I came for lunch at this restaurant. We had a reservation for 13h. The entire meal the waiter was really rushing us, taking away dishes before we were done, etc. The waiter asked us to pay even while we were still eating. He then told us that we needed to leave by 14.30h. This was fine -- I needed to leave at that time anyway in order to return to work. But at around 14.25h he came over to our table and started screaming loudly at us that we needed to leave, because he needed our table. It was bizarre! We were very polite (and speaking in Spanish), we weren't lingering, clearly I was about to eat my final bite of food, and it wasn't yet the "deadline" that he had given us. The other waiter seemed embarrassed. It was truly strange, and after that experience I would never recommend...