El Quim de La Boqueria
Mercado de La Boqueria
La Rambla 91
08002 Barcelona, Spain

Doing the food research for Barcelona was a daunting task. It is a city with no shortage of FANTASTIC eats. One week seemed like a sufficient amount of time to hit up most of the big tourist attractions, but would only allow us to merely scratch the surface when it came to the food. I painstakingly researched every restaurant we eventually ate it to make sure we wouldn’t be wasting any time at any average spots. I certainly wanted to avoid any tourist traps.

El Mercado de La Boqueria, the city’s largest marketplace, was our first stop. Not only does it have multiple stalls selling everything from fresh and dried fruits, vegetables, nuts, spices, meat, seafood, but there are also quite a few stalls offering a sit down meal.

El Quim de la Boqueria is one of the more popular ones. We came fairly early for lunch by Spanish standards ~11:30am so didn’t have to wait at all. All the seats are setup around the kitchen for a counter style dining experience. This allowed us to see all the action, which is always fun for me.  The menu was extensive and everything sounded simply mouthwatering.

Pan con Tomate
No meal in Barcelona is complete without crusty bread drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and rubbed down with tomatoes. While fairly simple, it can really wow with the finest quality ingredients. The olive oil in Spain is something to write home about. While I enjoyed this dish, it was hard for The Annoyer and I to tackle this by ourselves and enjoy other tapas. This would be one of the few times we actually ate this during our trip.

Iberico Ham
The pan con tomate is best enjoyed with Spain’s famous iberico ham. I don’t care what any Italian says. Spainish Iberico ham beats Italian prosciutto any day. There’s a certain nutty funkiness to this cured ham that you just have to taste for yourself to understand.

Baby Squid with Two Fried Eggs
Our server recommended the baby octopus with fried eggs. TripAdvisor had many pictures of this so I figured it must be one of their specialities. I was a bit disappointed by the watery dish we had. The customers next to us had something that looked more fried and flavorful. My egg yolk could have be runnier as well.

Razor Clams
I’ve had razor clams a handful of times before back home and never was too impressed by them. They always seemed a bit chewy for my liking. After this trip to Barcelona, I will never see razor clams the same way. After Iberico ham, they are probably the next best thing you have to try if you ever visit this beautiful city. Simply grilled, they are perfect.

Miso Scallops
Interestingly, we did not encounter many scallops on our trip. These were very tasty on a bed of eggplant and shredded cabbage. The smidgen of sweet miso was a bit of a departure from the usual Spanish flavor profile.

Garlic Shrimp
The shrimps were fresh, delicate and sweet. The garlic and white wine could not be missed.

Our meal came out to about 100€ which is probably a lot for lunch, but we were stuffed and happy so we flinched for like 3 seconds.  If any of the dishes aren’t your thing, they have a plethora of options.  I’m not sure how they are able to produce so much from that little kitchen, but they do it successfully.  El Quim should surely make it to your Barcelona bucket list.

10 – You NEED to eat here
9 – Awesome
8 – Very good 
7 – Good
6 – OK
5 – Average
4 – Not bad
3 – Not good
2 – Terrible
1 – Do NOT eat here