My Barcelona vegan experience

Would you like to join me on my food journey in Barcelona? It's not only new cultures, people, history and architecture that make me want to travel. It is also my passion for food and new flavors.

I was a little worried because Spaniards are known for their meat eating culture but to be honest there are many veggie options and you won't be starving during your stay.

Ready for my vegan experience?

It became my tradition that when I visit a new city I don't usually have my breakfast at the hotel but I try to find a nice cafe where I keep returning for the rest of my stay.

This was also the case with cafe Santoni. It is located on Ronda de Sant Antoni, 63. You can easily get there by taking the metro to Universitat. Follow the signs to get to exit Sant Antoni and the cafe will be on your right hand side after you walk up the stairs.

It is a very small place with a few tables and waiter/owner who speaks very bad English. They however have English menu so you can choose and point out what you would like to have. This is a 100% vegan cafe.

They serve different types of pastry including croissants (EUR 1.30 - 1.85), donuts (EUR 2), cakes and empanadas (EUR 2). I tried their chocolate croissant. You can choose if you wish to have it warm or cold. I asked for a warm croissant and I really liked it. The taste was very good but it was just a bit chewy. You cannot compare it to French croissants.

I also ordered a cup of cappuccino. You can choose from various milk options. I asked for almond milk. I liked the coffee but the foam was not perfect. I know it's difficult to create perfect foam with almond milk so one day I get a good one and the other day it's not that good so I don't mind anymore.

Their menu contains so many options that it will take you a while to choose.

You will find there variations of cold and hot tapas each for EUR 3.00 - 5.00 or you can order a plate with 7 different tapas for EUR 15.50. They also have various salads (EUR 6.50 - 7.25), burgers (EUR 4.75 - 6.50), sandwiches and omelettes (they were in the display window with no price tag attached).

They also have different smoothies, juices and milk shakes. All of these are reasonably priced. I have tried different juices during my stay and they were all super delicious!

As it was already almost lunchtime I also ordered a menu with veggie burger and I expected to get a normal burger in a bun.

Well, this is not the case there. You get a patty with salad, boiled potatoes and some sauce (EUR 9.20 including a bottle of water and coffee of your choice). The burger was really tasty however the sauce was too salty so it was not very well balanced. The sauce on potatoes was amazing. I could have eaten a few more portions. There were also some tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers in my salad.

I can highly recommend you this place if you don't look for something fancy but you feel better in a nice cozy place with delicious food and drinks and good prices.

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Before I came to Barcelona I did some usual research about restaurants and Veggie garden was the one that had very good reviews.

It is located on Carrer dels Àngels, 3 and as it was nearby my hotel I had a nice walk to get there. However if you are staying outside of the city center there are a few metro stations nearby so you can check the map and see which one works the best for you.

It is quite a big restaurant with two floors and a terrace. I was not able to make a reservation but it was not really needed as there are many available tables.

The interior is very funky with interesting decoration and a lot of colors. There are many waiters and it doesn't take long to get served. I believe they don't serve your food in any particular order. I think they bring it as soon as it's ready. I only had tapas but I saw people next to me ordered special meals and tapas and they got all their dishes at the same time.

Their menu is multicultural. There are meals from Nepal, India, Mexico and Japan. I think that the chefs are from different countries and each of them prepares some local specialty. These special meals are EUR 6.95 - 13.50. I ordered 3 different tapas - grilled tofu, edamame and potatoes with canary islands sauce.

Potatoes were amazing. I must admit that I'm a potato junkie and I love potatoes in any form but the ones boiled in the skin are my favorite. The sauce was also delicious. It was kind of spicy but not too much.

I have never had edamame with any sauce. But what a great idea it is! It was so good! I'm used to warm edamame and these were cold but it didn't bother me much. The sauce was so good! So far all the sauces that I've tried in Spain were yummy!

Grilled tofu was covered in some peanut sauce. It was on a bed of lettuce and there were some sprouts on top of the meal. The sauce went really well with tofu. Tofu was crunchy on top but not dry in the middle. Very good!

I was almost done when they brought me my papad masala. I was already full and I have even forgotten that I ordered it. It is a papadam with tomatoes, onion, chili, cilantro, olive oil, lemon juice and some spices.

It looked quite good but let me tell you this meal was very bizarre. It was just some soaked bread (papadam) with pickled vegetables. I would have preferred if there would be no bread inside but this is partly my fault. I didn't understand what the waiter was explaining and thought I would give it a try anyway. I'm sure there are people who would love it but it was not my favorite.

They also serve various salads (EUR 6.50 - 7.25), tapas (EUR 3.00 - 6.00), raw meals (EUR 6.95 - 9.50), soups (EUR 4), burgers and sandwiches (EUR 4.75 - 6.50) and sweets (EUR 2.25 - 4.00). You can also try one of their delicious juices or smoothies (up to EUR 6.00)

I think this place is worth a visit. Next time I will try some of their curry as people next to me were delighted with the flavor. When you're in Barcelona you should try this place.

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If you feel like you want to spend a nice romantic evening or just enjoy a nice place as a solo traveler and you don't mind going to a vegetarian restaurant then The Green Spot is going to be the right choice for you. It is located on Carrer de la Reina Cristina, 12 and you can reach it from the metro station Barceloneta.

The restaurant looks very good. You can enter from two sides. There is a long hall from one side with nice wooden walls and spot lights. Behind the bar there is a small 'garden' and I think this is how the place got its name. It creates a really cozy atmosphere.

The kitchen is open and you can see the chefs preparing your meals. They offer a few nice vegan options with V next to the meal on the menu so it's easy to see which meals are vegan. The menu has meals from all over the world. There is for example muhammara, edamame, halloumi, Asian wok, curry, Indonesian gado gado, Ethiopian meal with Injera bread, tempeh schnitzel, pizza, pasta or salads and many more.

It was very difficult for me to choose as I am very indecisive if I have so many meals that sound delicious in front of me. At the end I went for muhammara. It came with pita bread and fresh veggies - carrots and celery. Muhammara was very good, just a bit on the sweeter side. I would have liked if it would be a little bit spicy. But it tasted great with celery.

And I of course ordered a glass of wine as well 😊

For the main I decided to try Asian wok with tempeh. It looks small but it wasn't. It was noodles with bell peppers, onions, carrots, zucchini, mung bean sprouts, cilantro, chili and tempeh covered with dressing on basis of soy sauce. I'm sure I forgot some ingredients but this is what I could recognize. It was delicious and I finished it all. Tempeh tasted like bacon! It was a strange sensation as I haven't had bacon in ages!

When I came to the restaurant I was alone there. I guess the reason is that I came at 7.30 PM which can be a bit too early for Spain. But later there were many people coming for dinner. It was nice to see that the restaurat was getting full. I like to see people making conscious choices.

As a dessert I wanted to try Activated carbon vegan 'coca' with coconut whipped cream and red fruits. I was expecting some kind of a pudding so I was surprised by what I got. It was some sort of a strange looking hard crisp but well, let's give it a try. It was a little bit difficult to eat it as it was very hard but it was so good! I love the combination of whipped cream and berries. And of course coconut whipped cream is the best so it was a perfect dessert for me! I must however say that the crisp didn't have any particular taste.

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Another place that I want to introduce to you is Enjoy vegan. It is located in El Born district on Plaça de Sant Agustí Vell, 10 . Even though it was not falling in love at the first sight I still wanted to try it.

At first sight the place looked a bit old, decoration was not that beautiful and food in the display window didn't look that fresh. I want to be honest here. I only ordered safe options (in my opinion) and tried veggie risotto and baked potatoes with homemade mayo.

The food was really good! Rice was cooked perfectly and potatoes were very tasty. Risotto was a bit blend but I fixed it with a bit of salt and pepper. I ate it all! It doesn't look like big portions on the pictures but it was a lot of food.

Later I talked to the lady working there and she told me she was preparing all food herself with help of her friends. She was just baking some brownie and it smelled so delicious that I waited until it was finished and took a piece with me.

I said at the beginning that the food didn't look that fresh. While I was there I saw her working and now I think everything was fresh. It might be just the light that is used there is not that good for food presentation. You can see that there was not enough money to invest. I will definitely go there as I love to support small businesses especially when they are 100% vegan!

You can choose from different snacks and sandwiches (EUR 3.90 - 7.80), salad from the buffet (EUR 6.50) and soups (EUR 4.00 - 4.50). They also have lasagna, couscous, rice noodles, burger, falafel, vegan chicken and escalope (all EUR 6.50 - 8.00). There are also many desserts to choose from.

If you want to quickly grab some homemade food and support the small bistro I would recommend you go there and try it.

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I have heard so much about place called Barceloneta Sangria Bar. It is located on Carrer de Sevilla, 70 very close to the beach so it should be the best dining option if you spend your day swimming, sunbathing and enjoying the sea. But is it really?

It looks like most places in Barcelona are quite small. This one is no exception. But it is very cozy. The menu consists of tapas. They also have large and original variety of Sangria with a unique selection of local organic wines.

You can choose from hummus (EUR 7.50), gazpacho (EUR 5.00), grilled potatoes (EUR 6.00), vegan shrimps (EUR 11.25), mushroom croquettes (EUR 7.95), tempeh skewers (EUR 8.50) and a few more including some desserts (EUR 4.00 - 5.00). The prices are a little too high for what they offer in my opinion. They also have a few cocktails.

I have ordered tempeh skewers, hummus with focaccia and baked potatoes with 2 sauces. The service is very fast. My food came just 10 minutes after my order was placed. The portions looked quite big for tapas.

I started with tempeh skewers. There were pieces of grilled eggplant and sun dried tomatoes on the stick too. The sauce was a little bit sweet but the flavors together were good.

I enjoyed my hummus a lot. The portion was very big for a small focaccia bread that I got so I didn't finish it. There was a hint of a citrus flavor added to it and it gave a very nice twist to the traditional hummus.

The potatoes on the other side were not really the winner! Pieces of rosemary were too long and they were hurting my gums plus they were completely burned so the whole dish was bitter. Red sauce was warm and spicy while the curry sauce was cold and sweet. It didn't go well together not only from the taste perspective but also because of the different temperature of each component.

If I would ever go there again then it probably would only be for a drink. I understand that people like the place but my personal experience was not that good and this is the reason why I would not recommend it to others.

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This is by no means an exhaustive list of vegan options in Barcelona. There are also other places but they were either closed during my visit or too far away from the city center.

It is not difficult to find some vegan options and in the worst case scenario you can always have patatas bravas. What am I saying?! This is actually the best case scenario! 😊

I hope you enjoyed my vegan experience and please let me know if it was helpful to you when you visit Barcelona next time!

If you like my article, feel free to upvote/resteem it and if you would like to read more about my travel and cooking, you can also follow me 😊

Cheers,
Martina

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