Gaig

Came here for lunch on a weekday and ordered one of their tasting menus. The service was very professional and the atmosphere is lovely and very spacious. There was one large family at a table with a child watching a show on his iPad with the speakers on, but otherwise it was a peaceful meal. They were prompt with the bread delivery and replenishment.
Appetizer — goat cheese filled puffs, parmesan crispies
Can’t go wrong with crispy cheese! ⁵⁄₅
Salmon Tartare (not listed on the tasting menu)
refreshing and well seasoned with dill ⁵⁄₅
«Surf and Turf» — pig trotters, razor clams, octopus over a frisee salad in romesco sauce
Frisee would not have been my choice of greens as it is bitter, but the meats were absolutely delicious and clean in flavor. ⁵⁄₅
Canneloni
Not the most pretty presentation (a white roll, browned on top, in a white sauce with truffle specks, all in a white bowl), but this was one of my favorite things I ate in Spain. I mean, come on… cheese + truffles + pasta + tasty, tender meat? ⁵⁄₅
Squid with artichoke cream sauce
The squid was topped with kind of a one-​note soy sauce tasting sauce. The artichoke cream sauce was fine, but I thought the dish was a little blah overall. ²⁄₅
Sea bass in a cream sauce with ratatouille and a dollop of spinach purée
Spinach purée was very bold and tasted great with the sea bass. I didn’t care for the cream sauce on the seabass, as it was not aesthetically pleasing (brilliant white sauce over a white fish), nor did it have any sort of distinct flavor to it. The fish would have been better paired with just the ratatouille and spinach purée alone. 3.5÷5
Suckling Pig with strawberries
There was a small curly hair in my pork (likely/​hopefully a chest hair) but they replaced it within minutes. The pork skin was crispy and the cut had more meat in it than in other ways suckling pig has been served to me in Spain. I was happy to see it was not all one block of fat. Loved having fresh strawberries with the pork, and a pretty green (maybe kiwi) purée to make the red of the strawberries really pop.
Crema Catalan
The top of the whipped custard was bruleed, followed by a layer of toffee ice cream, and lemon curd on the bottom. You wouldn’t think it’d work, but this was quite tasty! 4.5÷5
Chocolate Soufflé
The chocolate soufflé type dessert was served in a tiny red Le Creuset — so cute! — with a mini scoop of hazelnut ice cream. It was a pleasant surprise to find pop rocks under this ice cream.
Tray of Sweets — fruit jelly, chocolate bonbon glazed in bronze, cake bite with hazelnut cream
These were a pretty final treat to the meal. The bonbon was the highlight — very rich and delicious.
Overall a fairly priced (65 euros each) and well thought out tasting menu.

Un clásico de Barcelona con estrella Michelin que ha cambiado de ubicación en los últimos años.
Es una apuesta segura, cocina catalana tradicional de perfecta ejecución con toques innovadores.
Hicimos uno de los menús degustación pero hubo algún plato que hubiera comido una ración entera. Extensa carta de vinos con buenas recomendaciones por parte del sommelier, servicio muy atento pero sin agobiar.
Todo me gustó, muy muy recomendable!

Five star food and service at Gaig. The staff is extremely attentive. The wine list is extensive and Spain heavy. The food is unreal and presented along the Michelin guidelines. Everything was amazing. If you want a real fine dining experience in Barcelona, got to Gaig

Food was very nice, but to be honest, not worth the high price. No exceptionally memorable dishes and the atmosphere was painfully boring and boring, especially when compared to all of the many options around Barcelona.

Solid meal and a Michelin star restaurant. Overall a very fairly priced tasting menu. The food was of a good quality and presented well. The flavors were quite straightforward and although we enjoyed, not somewhere I would go twice. Seems the restaurant wasn’t full Wednesday when we went, we dined from 8:30 — 11:30 and only about 5 tables came in for dinner.

Amazing food and very friendly and polite service. You must try if you are a real foodie.

Clean lines… modern feel… the décor sets the stage for traditional Catalonian flavors with a modern twist. Staff is wonderfully professional — as they are in lovely restaurants in Europe — knowledgeable, and charming. On to the food…
You can choose from a couple of tasting menus or do as we did — build your own! Tasting menus offer local/​traditional options as well as a more robust modern option. Both looked lovely but we wanted to taste other item on the menu so we did our own thing… starting with a traditional Catalan soup.
Chicken stock with some pasta pieces and a meat ball may not sound very interesting but take it from me: there was a lot of flavor packed into this simple amuse bouche. That was followed by perfectly grilled calamari foiled with grilled artichoke — simple, elegant, flavorful. The cod croquette — simple small but perfectly cooked — packed a punch of flavor while offset by amazing texture… in just one bite! Our next course brought tastes of trotters and octopus (both beautiful done) and cannelloni stuffed with beef/​pork and staged on a rich truffled sauce. Sea bass with aubergine 3 ways brought a full, earthy set of flavors to the table and finally a grilled sole with romanesco, sundried tomato and spinach purée — beautiful! Desert preceded by a cheese course completed a very memorable meal!
Impeccable service… beautiful food… and a charming staff — not much more you can ask for! Find this little spot and enjoy the journey they entice you to join. Cheers!

Sorry. Es war nicht schlecht. Aber woher kommen denn die zwei Michelin Sterne? Die finde ich mehr als übertrieben. Ich hatte das große Menü für 95 EUR. Für den Preis schon ungewöhnlich aber nachdem ich gegessen habe muss ich sagen mehr was es wirklich nicht wert eher schon zu viel. Alles in allem es war ok teilweise schon fragwürdig und gewöhnungsbedürftig. Ich bin der Meinung tolles Ambiente und normales Essen. Wer aber zwei Sterne und was außergewöhnliches erwartet wird enttäuscht sein.

The seasonal tasting menu costs 65 € per person. This was one of the best meals I ever had in Europe and probably within my top ten anywhere.
It all started with delightful amuse bouches. First, a small plate with 3 bites: a hint of curry in a shortbread-​type cookie, a seaweed type chip, and a cheese chip. Then came a small plate with 3 more bites: a blistered Padrón pepper, a raw mussel and raw clam on a chip, and caviar on raw mackerel on another savory crumble cookie-​type base. Thirdly came a small serving of an excellent asparagus custard with little pieces of asparagus integrated within the custard. The excellent bread was served with sea salt (quite briny) and the best olive oil.
As to the menu, comments in [brackets] below:
(1) Fine puff pastry with oven-​cooked vegetables and prawn from Palamós, outbreaks and endive [The prawn came head on (all the better to suck), hot to the touch, perfectly cooked, and sweet as the west wind. Great.]
(2) Traditional cannelloni with truffled sauce [Simple, perfect.]
(3) Confited cod with emulsion and sweet chili [My least favorite dish because the flavors were not as fulfilling to my palate as everything else; but it was perfectly cooked protein and very good.]
(4) Trawled baby calamari filled with its meat and morels [Another simple and perfectly executed stunner. There was so much natural umami in this dish that it tasted like it could have been seasoned with soy sauce — which it was not.]
(5) Crispy boned suckling pig with strawberries and soft onion [The protein was a flattened, crispy, deboned, and picked/​pressed square of delight. I was dubious of the strawberries when I saw it on the menu but it worked exceptionally.]
(6) Gaig’s Catalan crème brûlée foam, ice-​cream, and toffee [Maybe one of the most extraordinary desserts that I have ever had — as the foam disappeared instantly in my mouth I dug deeper and deeper into bright, refreshing explosions of citrus, sweetness, and satisfaction.]
(7) ‘Fake Sacher’ cake with passion fruit sorbet [Fake because the cake was made with something I never quite identified but suspect was beet infused — I never tasted the dirt of beet, but it was the color of beet and tasted like nothing I’ve tasted before. The sorbet was incredibly bracing and tart — just fantastic.]

Perfect. Great ambiance. Great service and delicious. Wine list extensive. Price very reasonable

Wonderful quiet high class restaurant. About $ 60 per person. Best to dress up. A real special treat.

Dress business smart if you are going to have lunch here. This elegant, smarty decorated place has all the makings of a good meal and there was no disappointment. We ordered a la carte, but there was a lunch tasting menu. Every dish came out perfectly… although my only complaint was the parmesan cheese «cracker» topping on the green bean, gamba salad was a bit too done. The service was professional and quick. My buttifara negra with peas was spectacular, but you better like peas in you order this dish; it’s a whole plate a peas with about 1 tablespoon of blood sausage mousse deliciousness. Most of my lunch was spent craning my neck to see what was on all the plates going out to other customers… they all looked and smelled great. I will certainly be coming back here, along with Rais de Galicia. Two stand outs on our Barcelona trip.

Happened upon this wonderful restaurant via searching Unilocal reviews. Have to say this place overwhelmed with their cuisine and our day of touristic activities was only heightened with such a fantastic lunch! We felt a tad underdressed as the crowd was a smartly dressed business bunch. but the food… fantastico!

This is Carles Gaig’s more affordable offshoot, near Hospital Clinic. He has 2 other restaurants in the city, one of which has been awarded a Michelin star. Fonda Gaig focuses on traditional Catalan dishes and simple, fresh ingredients. I knew I probably couldn’t score a table at Restaurant Gaig, but tried my luck showing up early (they open at 1:30pm) for lunch at Fonda Gaig. I was able to get a table!
The restaurant looks pretty fancy with spotless cream furniture, dim warm lighting and red accents. There were no other foreigners in sight and more than half the room was wearing a suit! Service is über-​attentive. Like, you take a sip of your water and someone immediate comes and pours some more. They didn’t give me an English menu, but helped explain the dishes that I didn’t recognize.
I started with the sopa de galets i mandonguilles de l’olla, which is a light broth with pasta shells and the most delicious and juicy stewed meatballs I’ve ever had… For my main, I had the bacalla (salt cod) grilled with olive oil and chives, served with artichokes. The dish was light, yet really flavourful. Finally, I had this cake/​pastry dessert served with lots of vanilla sauce and dusted in icing sugar. It was nice and crispy, although the cake was super dense and I couldn’t finish. They also charge you 2.50 euro for ‘bread service’. For lunch, you can get the 3 course menu del dia for 25 euros which is really a steal when you look at the individual costs of each item.
One of the best meals I had in Barcelona… Highly recommended!

La Fonda Gaig es el restaurante con el que Carles Gaig (uno de nuestros chefs con estrella Michelin) pretende recuperar los sabores de la cocina tradicional catalana.
Si eliges este restaurante estarás comiendo en uno de los mejores sitios de Barcelona a un precio mucho mejor que en la mayoría de los restaurantes «de moda» de la ciudad.
Tengo que decir que están muy buenos los canelones. No sé cómo los hacen, pero es de esos platos que por más que los intentes hacer en casa no te van a salir.
Los vinos son algo caros comparado con la comida, el trato es muy cercano, el propio Gaig se acerca para comprobar que tu experiencia en su casa haya sido satisfactoria y se está realmente tranquilo en sus salones.
Quizás no lo parezca, pero este es uno de los grandes restaurantes de Barcelona.

En este mismo local, antes había otro restaurante que se llamaba Gargantua y Pantagruel. Si, como los personajes de la novela de Rabelais. Solo que si pretendían dar a entender es que allí los banquetes eran fastuosos e inacabables… pues no acertaron con el nombre.
Y no se yo si han acertado ahora con que tiene.
Con el restaurante que se ha instalado ahí desde hace ya unos años: la Fonda Gaig. Obviamente se llama así para recordar los orígenes de la familia, que abrió «fonda» o casa de comidas, en Horta, en 1869.
Era un local con sabor antiguo. Con desayunos pantagruélicos (esos sí) y comidas sencillas pero sabrosísimas. Con un comedor en el que te podían pasar las horas sentado tranquilamente, riendo y charlando con el dueño…
Ahora, la Fonda no tiene ese encanto. Estéticamente es mucho más elegante. Más de diseño. No ostentoso, pero si cuidadísimo hasta el detalle. Que no está mal en absoluto, pero no es de «fonda».
Lo que sin se mantiene son los platos. Siguen siendo tradicionales y «de toda la vida» –macarrones, canelones, buñuelos, escudella, etc– y están igual de buenos.
Solo que ahora son muchísimo más caros.
Una pena. Antes podía ir más a la Fonda… ahora una vez al año y pare usted de contar.
Es lo que tiene estar en la Guía Michelin.