Soluna
Japanese / Mediterranean Tasting · Eixample, Barcelona · €€€
Awards: Michelin Selection
Open since 2019
The Delekta Review
Teppei Nii spent eight years as Hideki Matsuhisa's right hand at Koy Shunka — by way of Keisuke Matsushima in Nice. Before opening his own room at Casanova 157 in late 2019 with his wife Diana Chen. Soluna is not a sushi bar: it is a tasting-menu kitchen that runs Japanese technique through Mediterranean product. Two menus rotate every couple of months, the shorter Soluna and the longer Festival; six seats at the marble bar face the kitchen, with a handful of tables behind. The signature is the cod-kokotxa 'pizza' — an Osaka okonomiyaki Nii reinterprets with Catalan cheek and pil-pil. Pau Arenós came to write it up in El Periódico last autumn.
What works
A studied, technically precise Japanese-Mediterranean kitchen where Nii's Koy Shunka years show in the rigor of the cooking and the calm of the room. Two menus rotate often enough to keep regulars curious; product runs from Gillardeau oyster and A5 Miyazaki to Ebro Delta eel and Maresme peas, all filtered through an Osaka sensibility. The cod-kokotxa okonomiyaki is the dish reviewers keep returning to — emblem and demonstration at once. The short Soluna menu around €69 is unusually generous value for the product tier; Pau Arenós's recent El Periódico visit underscored that the project has settled into one of Barcelona's reference Japanese rooms.
Before you go
Tasting-menu only — no walk-in flexibility and no à la carte; come for the room, not the spontaneity. Six counter seats sell first and quickly; book the bar, not a table, if the kitchen is the point. The Festival/Premium menu jumps to €100+ and the wine list runs expensive — Restaurants Cat noted fewer affordable options than the food deserves. Not a sushi-bar: one self-rolled temaki is the entire sushi quotient. The entrance on Casanova is understated to the point of forgettable.
What the critics say
- Menús japoneses de degustación top junto a Hospital Clínic
- Soluna | Macarfi
- Crítica del restaurante japonés Soluna en Barcelona
- Soluna, enero 2024 (Barcelona)
- Soluna, la kokotxa hecha pizza
- Soluna, una conjunción de cocinas
- Soluna — restaurant Barcelona 2023
- Restaurante Soluna — Muy Japones
- Soluna — ComerJapones
Visit
- Address
- Carrer de Casanova, 157, L'Antiga Esquerra de l'Eixample, 08036 Barcelona, Spain
- Phone
- +34 930 10 01 39
- Website
- solunabcn.com
- Reservations
- Book a table
Nearby restaurants in Eixample
- Batea — Seafood, €€€
- Besta — Seasonal Seafood Bistro, €€€
- Mordisco — Modern Mediterranean, €€€
- Embat — Bistronomic Mediterranean, €€
- Topik — Japanese-Catalan Fusion Tapas, €€€
More Tasting in Barcelona
- Ona — Hyper-local Tasting Experience, Poblenou, €€€€
- Passadís del Pep — Seafood Tasting, El Born, €€€€
- Caelis — Fine Dining Tasting Menu, Barri Gòtic, €€€€
- Enigma — Avant-garde Tasting, Sant Antoni, €€€€
- Slow & Low — Creative Tasting Menu, Sant Antoni, €€€€