Granja Dulcinea — Restaurant in Barcelona

When I came to Barcelona from Marseille, I already was in love with churros. I already had some everytime I could. I even had my Mom buy us a tool to make them at home... Of course, during my first few months here, I took every opportunity. But it's not everyday you can have churros, even here. Well, you can, but most of the time you need to buy them from trucks, which are not always open, or go to a "granja", which is a special type of café where people mainly go to have hot chocolate with... churros. But I didn't know that at that time... Nevertheless, I had a routine: every Sunday, for breakfast, I would go and buy a huge bag of churros or porras (that's another fritter) and have them alone, under the sun, on the rooftop of my building. At that time I was able to eat a lot... and a lot of churros. Nowadays, with 1 or 2, I'm happy; with more, I get sick, unfortunately 😥 When I started meeting locals, they introduced me to the concept of granjas and, most of all, they took me to the Mecque of the granjas: Carrer Petritxol. It's a very narrow and dark street in Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, where people traditionally and specifically go for art or... granjas. There, during the week-end, you can see entire families gathering for hot chocolate with churros, chuchos, Catalan cream or ensaimadas. Now that I'm older and my stomach is not as strong as it used to be, I prefer ensaimadas, which are snail-shaped pastries filled with Catalan cream or pumpkin marmalade (or nothing). I never know which granja to pick but yesterday that choice was made easy because only one was open when I arrived with my son: Granja Dulcinea. We decided to share 2 ensaimadas: 1 with cream, the other 1 with pumpkin marmalade. The latter was better than the former but both were ok, neither too fat nor too sweet. My son has a broken leg and we were lucky to find a table downstairs because the place was packed, even 10 minutes after the opening. The prices are more than fair: a bit more than €2 per item. What I didn't like is that nobody talked to me in Catalan... Even though I ordered in Catalan, I was never answered in anything other than Spanish, and that's unacceptable. 😤 This is not the first time I notice this in these granjas and, to my opinion, that really spoils the experience.

Quality & taste: 8/10 Quantities: 9/10 Atmosphere: 9/10 Originality: 7/10 Ratio price / quality: 9/10 Service: 4/10 How I felt afterwards: 7/10

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Walking into this place is like stepping back in time. I wonder if any of the recipes or decor have dramatically changed since Granja Dulcinea opened 70+ years ago. But one bite of their signature churros, dipped in their drinking chocolate, will speak volumes more than I ever could about why this place has endured for so long.

For some, the chocolate may take a little bit of "getting used to": unlike the cloyingly sweet drinking chocolate found in other places, this is just as rich but full of cocoa flavour and a more subtle sweetness than I was expecting. Of note is the chocolate's texture: this was THICK, almost like a very light chocolate pudding instead of a drinkable liquid. (It's served with a spoon for a reason!) The churros - light, crispy, and delicious - perfectly complement the drinking chocolate, and I was tempted to get extras after finishing our initial batch! Immense satisfaction can be found in simple (or seemingly-simple) things done very well, and the churros and chocolate we had at Granja Dulcinea are perfect examples of this notion.

Again, my review doesn't do this place justice. It's been a Barcelona staple among locals and tourists alike for a long time, and for good reason. I say this in the best way possible: may this place...

The place was pretty crowded at 7pm when we went there. We had to queue the line outside, until service appeared and asked everyone for table sizes/amount of seats needed. As we were only two, service told us to skip the line and directly assigned us a table... so don‘t fear the queue, it was not that bad!

Finally inside we recognized it as a small place (not wondering anymore why people have to wait outside) with small tables and a myriad of service personell. There is a first floor that you can reach from the back of the cafe and that is a superb place to take a foto from the bar beneath. Upstairs you do get a feeling of how old the building must be due to the slightly shaking wooden ground.

Let’s get to the core and why people come here - the sweets: Personally I don‘t get the hype - it is churros with hot chocolate. The churros were fresh/hot and the chocolate was sweet and hot though a little watery. Of course they also offer other treats sich as chocolate-dipped puff pastry or madeleines.

The whole thing is working as a well set machine, but nothing too personal or cosy. Due to the mass of people coming and going the place seems a little hectic - I guess people don‘t spend more than 15-20...