Best Cheap Eats
Barcelona has a different relationship with cheap eating than most European cities: the market-lunch culture, the immigrant-kitchen tradition, and a neighbourhood bistro system that has never abandoned the €12 menu del día all mean that eating well for under €20 is not the exception — it is the baseline. The trap is not bad food; it is mediocre food dressed up in the right neighbourhood. Every restaurant in this collection has earned professional critical recognition at the budget end of the market, which is a harder test than it sounds. The best cheap eat in Barcelona is often the place with the handwritten board and twelve tables that the locals booked three days ago.