Market Cuisine at La Pubilla

Sometimes it is hard to find places as emblematic and authentic as La Pubilla. One must investigate a city imbued with modernism, bathed in mergers and unnecessary inventions clenched by force in an immense offer full of new restaurants that seek the impossible. Well, if in Barcelona there is a restaurant that has resisted such garde, it is La Pubilla. At the foot of the Mercat de la Llibertat de Gracia, this family establishment opens every morning since 1912.

A traditional Catalan food house where they proudly hold a local flag with a menu full of seasonal produce and proximity. A place where Alexis, head chef and architecture of this culinary banner, pampers you to the point of practically kissing your forehead before heading home. And La Pubilla is surrounded by a home aura that reminds us of our grandmothers house, that humble abode we visited every Sunday with the intention of filling our bellies and returning home with extra money in our pocket.

Here you do not need a kiss or a bribe, your gastronomic offer is good for both. A simple menu renewed daily based on the raw material provided by the market itself divided into three food services. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

If you are one of those who tends to stick with cod and romesco or a plate of Catalan sausages between the chest and back at 10 o’clock in the morning; this is your site. “Fork Breakfasts” is the hallmark of this authentic place. An inherited concept, like its name, of the place that once housed in the same corner of the market.

We all appreciate the rabbit of the yaya which precipitated Alexis to open this temple of traditional Catalan cuisine.

Today we opted-in for its confit leek with Iberian and Béarnaise; and citrus salad with anchovies and escarole first. Like every Thursday, second rice. This time sea and mountain with chicken and prawns. And to top it off, we dip bread into duck magret with seasonal red fruits. The sweet brooch puts a delicious apple tatin as the yaya did. To go rolling!

This is La Pubilla, an honest kitchen that starts from the sensitivity of a grandmother’s house mixed in with long experience. Tradition, market and product in the Mercat de la Llibertat.