For a small corner of northern Catalonia, the Costa Brava shines astonishingly brightly on the international food scene. Home to Girona’s famous Celler de Can Roca (twice voted the best restaurant in the world), this area was also the setting for Ferran Adrià’s legendary El Bulli. There’s everything here, from innovative fine dining and Michelin-starred restaurants with breathtaking sea views to rustic hideaways serving equally exquisite traditional dishes. Elsewhere, there are beach bars where you can enjoy fresh calamari and grilled sardines, just a stone’s throw from the waves – all at a fraction of the price you would pay in France or Italy.
For more Costa Brava inspiration, check out our guide to hotels, things to do, nightlife, beaches and scenic drives.
Search for a restaurant by region
Ullastret
Restaurant Iberian
The food at this small, family-run Catalan restaurant is exceptional and widely regarded as one of the standout places to eat in the region. In a chic, traditional dining room with rough-hewn stone walls and a shaded terrace, the Cateura brothers serve the freshest local fish, meat and vegetables. The Costa Brava fish stew or caldereta is bursting with lobster and monkfish in a particularly subtle saffron and garlic sauce and there is also a wide range of local game and other dishes such as wild boar stew. Not to mention memorable starters such as duck foie with palm honey or the excellent grilled asparagus with vinaigrette.
Contact: restaurantiberic.com
Reservations: Highly recommended, especially in summer and weekends
Prices: ££
La Taverna del Mar, S’Agaró
If you love deliciously fresh, elegant fish and seafood while overlooking the Mediterranean, this is the place to be. In a light and airy 19th-century dining room overlooking the beach in the chic coastal town of S’Agaró, the chefs serve exquisite dishes such as salmon tartare with avocado and trout roe, fresh oysters and wild fish (fried or grilled), including sea bass, John Dory, turbot and red snapper, but also rice dishes. Leave room for puddings, including the more refined specialty of deconstructed cheesecake with mango, passion fruit and shortbread. There is also a children’s menu.
Contact: latavernadelmar.cat
Reservations: Highly recommended, especially in summer and weekends
Prices: ££
Cadaqués
Compartir
Compartir was the first restaurant launched by the three former chefs of El Bulli who have since also opened the three-Michelin star Disfrutar in Barcelona – number 2 in the list of the 50 best restaurants in the world in 2023. The name Compartir means sharing in Spanish and that is very much the idea here. In an unpretentious, contemporary interior, you can choose from the menu a selection of medium-sized dishes with Catalan-inspired creations, such as Empordà duck with apples and red wine or grilled squid stuffed with chicken and mushrooms.
Contact: compartircadaques.com
Reservations: Essential; ideally at least three or four days in advance, especially in summer and on weekends
Prices: ££
Girona
El Celler de Can Roca
On the outskirts of Girona, in a very minimalist, streamlined dining room with large glass windows overlooking a Zen garden, the three-Michelin-starred El Celler is a dinner for special occasions. Twice voted No. 1 in the World’s 50 Top Restaurants (in both 2013 and 2015) and consistently ranked in the top 10, this fine dining is an art that calls on your senses of smell, sight and sound as much as it does on the taste buds. Expect a sense of theater and exceptional presentation in classic Catalan dishes such as fish stew, reinvented in the idiosyncratic style of the Roca brothers.
Contact: elcellerdecanroca.com
Reservations: Essential; usually at least a year ahead. The further in advance you book, the more likely you are to get a table.
Prices: £££
Restaurant Massana
If you want some serious fine dining in Girona, El Celler de Can Roca isn’t the only place to go. The Michelin-starred Massana has been known to connoisseurs since it opened in 1986 and the elegant, light gray dining room is a place to dress up for. Star dishes include the excellent warm duck carpaccio – delicate strips of duck with grape-sized pearls of pear, and the ‘scrambled egg’ pudding in which an ‘egg’ made from a light pink chocolate shell is theatrically cracked, creating the ‘ yolk’ is formed. mango ice cream and white yogurt foam to ooze onto your plate.
Contact: restaurantmassana.com
Reservations: Essential
Prices: £££
Begur and the surrounding areas
Dad and Raim
Hidden away on a side street in the small town of Palafrugell, this beautiful restaurant is housed in an Art Nouveau villa and serves excellent refined cuisine, as well as rice, fish and meat dishes. Choose from a range of set menus, including a rice-based menu, a seasonal tasting menu and a sharing menu. Standout dishes include tempura langoustine skewer with a soy emulsion and renowned local specialties such as Palamós shrimp and rice from the town of Pals. In summer there is a beautiful garden near a swimming pool, complete with a few tucked away turtles.
Contact: pairaim.com
Reservations: Highly recommended, especially on weekends
Prices: ££
Sa Rascassa
Excellent restaurants are worth two a penny in this corner of the forest, but Sa Rascassa has nevertheless built a reputation that far outweighs its small size. Food is served in a romantic walled garden or in the modern but cozy dining room with beamed ceilings. With the pebble bay of Aiguafreda just around the corner, the fish couldn’t be fresher. The local rascassa (scorpionfish) is grilled whole, with coral skin and pearly white inside, while the grilled Mediterranean vegetables with Romesco sauce are undoubtedly the best around. Don’t miss the ‘chocolate stones’, which look like a mini Stonehenge.
Contact: hostalsarascasa.com
Reservations: Recommended
Prices: ££
Aiguaclara
Begur is littered with excellent restaurants, but this is still one of the best. First-class contemporary Catalan cuisine is served in a stylish yet quirky dining room. You will find several examples of one of the region’s specialties, mar y muntanya (surf and turf) with dishes such as scallops with pork belly and meatballs with squid. Leave room for puddings such as flan (cream caramel) with Baileys. There’s also a beautiful gravel garden with lanterns, hammocks and the occasional antique bicycle, and on Friday evenings a DJ spins vinyl (see our nightlife guide for details).
Contact: hotelaiguaclara.com
Reservations: Indispensable in high season and on weekends
Prices: ££
Es Dofi
So close to the sea you can almost wet your toes, Es Dofi, in the small horseshoe-shaped bay of Tamariu, is known among locals as the place to go for the freshest fish. The tables are close together in the modest dining room with its seascape murals and television screen, but for the true Mediterranean experience, the tables on the outdoor terrace are unbeatable. Snack on the lake and phenomenally fresh, baked somos (sandeel), which comes piled high as mini whitefish, or feasts on main courses of hake, turbot, bream and exceptionally juicy, fatty calamari, with salad and fries.
Contact: esdofi.restaurantesok.com
Reservations: Not necessary
Prices: £
How we choose
Every restaurant on this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who’s dropped by to give you his insider’s perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighborhood favorites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to suit the tastes of every type of traveler – and our recommendations take the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price into account. We update this list regularly to stay informed of the latest openings and to provide current recommendations.