Barcelona Restaurants & Barcelona Italian Restaurants

Sincarne has been in somewhat of a limbo state for the past year - work commitments have meant that it hasn't had the attention it needs. This has changed tho and we are now in the process of making lots of interesting changes. There is a new section for vegetarians who like pizza and pasta on Italian restaurants in Barcelona and also a new Barcelona restaurants section for non-vegetarians who would like an honest opinion on which are the best restaurants to visit in Barcelona.

Barcelona Vegetarian Restaurant Guide Update

Barcelona vegetarian restaurants are popping up all over the place. The best place to look for all this information is Sincarne, the number one Barcelona Vegetarian Restaurant guide in Barcelona.

If you have any information you think they are missing, contact them and they will add this to the site. They also accept reviews written on vegetarian establishments which don't currently have reviews written.

Organic & Vegetarian Food Prices in Barcelona

I went to Veritas in Barcelona yestarday on via Laeitana and was looking for some tasty vegetarian food to buy for the week. They have done the place up nicely, although it now looks rather more like your average brightly-lit supermarket, and less like the inviting and homely cavern of veggie and organic goodies of the past.

So as they are now more like a supermarket, can we expect cheaper prices? Can we hell.

My girlfriend asked me for the money to buy an apple. I gave her a euro. We both discussed how much we thought this single apple would cost. My girlfriend said 70c and I said 90c.

We were both wrong. One single apple cost 1 euro!!!!! We were absolutely disgusted with this outrage. How they can have the nerve to charge the prices they do is totally beyond me. Ok, I understand that organic techniques are a little more expensive than non-organic ones, but who buys this stuff?

Often, the profile of your average vegetarian is someone with a social conscience - perhaps a little crusty, hippie, animal-loving in nature and maybe a hint of socially-aware, anti-capitalist ethics thrown in for free. This group has never been in the high-income bracket and probably never will be. So how on earth are they going to afford to pay the prices that the likes of Veritas charge? 2 veggie burgers - 5€. 400g of tofu - 3.50€. 1 chunk of 350g seitan - nearly 4€.

These products are what they are: vegetables, with a few spices, served up in plastic packet. There is no justification whatsoever for the elevated prices, except to rip off the paying public. How comes you can buy 500g of tofu for 90c in the chinese supermarkets? How comes you can go to India and buy a veggie burger for a few pence? (200 veggie burgers bought at Veritas, and you've even got your flight to New Delhi). Why does it cost about a euro to make 30 veggie burgers at home?

Someone needs to start asking these questions, because for many of us, being a veggie is not about a trendy fad which looks good to our mates. It's about a response to the abhorrent treatment of animals and an industry which is in desperate need of a total ban. So let's come together. Let's refuse to pay these ridiculous prices. Let's buy all our products at the places that don't rip us off. Or let's make our substitutes at home.

Enough is enough.

Pizza Marzano Barcelona

I had the Rúcula (rocket) pizza today, and when it arrived I was rather suspicious of the green stuff on top, because it looked more like somthing you find at the bottom of the garden than Rocket.

I took some off, removed the cheese and put it in my mouth. It tasted more like common or garden grass than the salad ingredient which has become so popular these days. In fact, it didn't taste like rocket at all. I mentioned it to the Italian waiter, who admitted it was definitely NOT the unique-tasting salad leaf.

So, the big boss came over and although he wouldn't admit it wasn't rocket, he said that it was the rocket that THEY had, and that he would change my pizza if I so wished - an admission of guilt, perhaps?. He fell a little short of actually tasting it, but what can you do? I felt cheated - I can't believe an Italian-based restaurant (albeit a chain) could be so devious as to try and fobb us off with some cheap imitation of the unmistakeably, spicy-tasting Rocket.

So my advice is this - take some rocket in with you when you go, and get them to do the test. Unless of course, they've read this and made the appropriate changes. Either that, or go for the Margarita.

Gente de Pasta

Just as important as the vegetarian-friendly restaurants in Barcelona, are the vegetarian non-friendly ones.

Today I went to Gente de Pasta for the lunchtime menu del dia. Now as it is just round the corner from my house and the fact that I have visited on many occasion, I didn't expect any problems. However, as I arrived outside and quickly scanned the menu, expecting a salad for starters and a pasta dish for main course, I soon realised there was no vegetarian option for first course.

Now I have to say that even in the most non-vegetarian restaurants in Barcelona, they are nearly always more than happy to make an exception for vegetarians and if no option exists, they will quickly knock you up a green salad to start followed by the ubiquitous tortilla con patatas.

So I thought I'd better check and asked the lady. It soon became apparent that I was in for a struggle. I was informed that if I wanted to have a green salad for starters, I'd have to choose from the 'carta' (main menu).

The whole object of a menu del dia (lunchtime menu) is that they prepare a number of starters and main courses, which due to economies of scale, provide a fast and easy way to feed the masses without having to get into the minor details of a cacophony of choices from the carta. The outcome of this is a cheap lunch.

So when it was suggested that I have a salad from the main menu, I looked at the prices and found that the starter would have cost the same as the entire menu del dia price. So I tried to appeal to the waitress's good nature to make an exception out of the kindness of her heart and just knock me up a simple green salad - I'm sure it can't be that much hassle. I was wrong, and ended up eating elsewhere.

All I am saying is that if a restaurant has no veggie option, don't assume they will be as kind and giving as they often are - check first, so you don't have to sit down, get comfy, start ordering, only to either find out you'll be paying double the price of everyone else, or that you have to get up and go some place else.

So, for the price of making a simple green salad, they lost 2 peoples' business. Perhaps that's why they call it Gente de pasta.

Juicy Jones

After a long Barcelona weekend, there's nothing quite like cleansing your body and soul with a fully vegan 3-course meal accompanied by a deliciously fresh, multi-fruit juice packed with all the vitamins and minerals your body seems to be aching for.

That's why Juicy Jones is so much the ticket when you're in need of a pick-me-up. I usually opt for the soup and Thali, while my girlfriend goes for the salad and 'plato'. This time I changed my mind when I saw there was vegetarian lasaña on the menu. Now I've had many vegetarian lasañas in Barcelona, and most of them are pretty tasteless stacks of pasta sheets and vegetables, topped with a bland bechamel and even blander cheese. But I've sampled the Juicy Jones version on more than just the one occasion, so my tastebuds were beginning to show signs of expectancy. This was allayed somewhat, by the arrival of our starters.

Mine was a very warming, thick carrot soup which hardly touched the sides. The salad was ok, but they seemed to be short of ingredients, as was confirmed by the fact they had run out of oranges (probably the only place in the whole of the Iberian peninsula to have none that day). But our juices arrived too and mine, which included mango and strawberries (the strawberry season is upon us again), made me start to feel human once more.

Unfortunately, that's when the 'hiccups', which for some reason (complacency?), have started to become customary at this place, began.

My vegetarian lasaña (fully vegan, just like everything else at Juicy Jones) arrived and it was barely warm. We then had to wait until I had practically finished before the other main course arrived. This also seemed to us sub-standard, for Juicy Jones. It was all wrapped off by waiting for an eternity to receive our second juice and the postre, by which time, it - the lemon cake - had run out.

Now I regard Juicy Jones very highly - they repeatedly manage to serve up some of the tastiest veg*an dishes in Barcelona and have done so for many years. But I wish they would try and make more effort with the customers. I appreciate the time it takes to elaborate the hand-prepared food and juices, but often it seems that either they're under-staffed, or it's not just me who's suffering the effects of a long Barcelona weekend.

Sucursal

Last week I went to the reasonably new Sucursal on C/ Comercio with a friend. I have been there a few times before and this time it was the usual visit with someone who's not a veggie.
They put on their blackboard outside that they have a vegetarian option, so that's what I had. First course was some vegetarian tallarines (fideo), stir fried in soy sauce with vegetables. The pasta was very stodgy and seemed like it had been cooked (overly) many hours before. I was hungry however, and it went down a treat as it was full of flavour. Next was the only vegetarian option for main course, which was a vegetarian cous-cous. I'm not the best fan of cous-cous as I find it's often prepared without any regard towards the flavour and just as an after-thought for veggies who have no taste buds. This did little to change my opinion and I ate less than 1/4 of the dish. As the menu includes coffee or dessert, I opted for the former. You get a drink included in the menu and I can't honestly remember the exact price, but it was around 10€.
Verdict? If you're starving, live next door and are eating with a non-veg friend, it's ok. But otherwise, stay at home or make the effort to look elsewhere.