La Paradeta
Passatge de Simó 18
08025 Barcelona
Spain
TripAdvisor

As much as people like to believe, I’m not actually a slave to the Michelin guide.  I love all foods.  The blog may skew towards fancier foods because 1) it photographs beautifully and 2) it just seems like something to write home about versus a great, but everyday burger, at a chain eatery.  Once in a while, I’ll come across something really casual, affordable, and everyday that is really blog worthy.  La Paradeta is such a place.

Barcelona has to have one of the best seafood scenes.  I cannot highlight that enough.  La Paradeta serves up some the freshest and no frills seafood in a fast casual atmosphere.  They offer over 20 types of fish and shellfish that you order by the kilo.  The seafood isn’t necessarily the cheapest, ranging from $15-40/kilo, but it is DAMN fresh.  The preparations are kept simple; it’s either grilled or fried.

We felt like kids in the candy store.

While the seafood is plenty awesome on its own, you can purchase extra sauces. 

Salad
Of course, here I am starving for vegetables.  The salad was as unimaginative as it could get, especially with the olive oil/balsamic dressing, but I still dug in.

Fried Calamari
Barely remembered to take a picture of these lightly battered and fried guys.  We were pretty hungry when these arrived and demolished it.

Grilled Prawns 40 euro/kg
So juicy.  Those heads were exploding with brainy flavor.  The Annoyer does not enjoy sucking on shrimp brains the same way I do, so all 4 were left to me.  To be honest, I could only do about 2 before calling it quits.  It was a bit “too juicy” and raw for my tastes.  Overall, fantastic!

Grilled Cockles and Razor Clams
It looks like a lot, but we could have certainly eaten more.  When something is delicious and fresh, you just want to eat more of it.  In America, seafood is dressed up in butter, but in Spain it’s all about the olive oil.  It complements the seafood better and allows its natural sweetness and freshness to shine through better.

We could have eaten at La Paradeta a couple more times during our trip, but alas, this was our last meal in Barcelona.  What a way to go out.  Be sure to come early because there will most certainly be a line out of the door.  Don’t fret because the line moves quickly.  Tourists are most certainly well accommodated with English menus and servers/cashiers with basic English skills.  Really though, you just need your fingers to point and what you want.

10 – You NEED to eat here (possibly biased by the freshness and no frills concept)
9 – Awesome
8 – Very good
7 – Good
6 – OK
5 – Average
4 – Not bad
3 – Not good
2 – Terrible
1 – Do NOT eat here