Eating Healthy: Your Vegan and Vegetarian Guide to Barcelona

Here is a selection of ShBarcelona’s articles relating to eating healthy and with compassion for both yourself, the animals we share our planet with, and the rather precious environment. Whether you are vegetarian, vegan or just want to eat healthy and good quality nutritious food, this nifty guide will help you make the most of your time in Barcelona. There is even a section at the end for those of you who eat meat but prefer to consume good quality organic meat from ‘happier’ animals.

Health Food Shops in Barcelona

Whilst a little slower than some cities to wise up to the health food epidemic, Barcelona is currently making up for lost time with new healthy shops opening all the time. This is an overview of the best health food/vegetarian and vegan-friendly shops in Barcelona.

Where to Eat in Barcelona if you are a Vegetarian?

In Barcelona, there are plenty of restaurants offering vegetarian food – some of it good, some of it less so. Unlike major cities like London and New York, Barcelona took its time to catch on to vegetarianism and whilst there are many options around now, not all of them are very experimental or imaginative when it comes to providing classy and exceptionally tasty vegetarian dishes.

Buying Organic Food in Barcelona

Despite slow beginnings, Barcelona is ever on the up when it comes to the availability of organic food. Whilst it’s not yet on a par with the likes of trendy old NYC or London, it is still possible to follow an organic diet. If your budget allows it. You can read about some of our favourite stores here.

Until recently, the only juice that was commonly available in Barcelona was orange juice. Lagging behind in the health food mania that has embraced other capital cities, Barcelona has been slow to catch on. However, all that has now changed. See below for the best fruit juices in town.

Vegan Eating in Barcelona

Compared to big cosmopolitan metropolises like New York and London, vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Spain can seem a little, well…outdated. The wonderful creativity embraced in the best of New York’s multitude of vegan restaurants has sadly yet to be embraced in Spain – a country proud of its food and in no hurry to change.

Having said that, new vegetarian and vegan options seem to be popping up in the city all the time. They might be a little behind London, and a lot behind New York and LA, but it seems like in the last year or so Spain, or at least Barcelona, is really getting the hang of the whole organic and health food thing cherished so vehemently elsewhere.

Being Vegan in Spain

It takes a fair bit of commitment, not to mention money, to spend time in Spain as a vegan. Well, unless you are a fruitarian and then it’s a piece of (fruit) cake. “Soy vegano/a” (I’m vegan) will often be met with incredulous looks, as even vegetarianism, outside of the cities is viewed as something of a joke.

Whilst there are very sadly currently no bakeries that cater purely for vegans in Barcelona, all is not lost. A couple of vegetarian and vegan restaurants have suitable products available for the vegan diet.

Related article: Vegan bakeries in Barcelona

Best Vegan Restaurants in Barcelona

Juicy Jones – El Raval

Juicy Jones in Barcelona is worthy of a visit for the range of ridiculously healthy green juices alone. It’s a raw foodies and vegans’ jackpot. The juices come in either 33cl or 50cl and prices start from around €3.50.

Gopal – El Gotico

From Plaça Reial, (if coming from La Rambla) walk across the Plaça and take the exit on the far right. Walk down this wiggly street until you get to Gopal.

L’Hortet – El Raval

In L‘Hortet you can have a menu-del-dia (menu of the day) for around €10 per person. This includes a trip to the very fresh and crispy salad buffet bar (couscous, lettuce, tomatoes, potato salad, olives, celery, dressings) or a soup.

Related article: Being a vegan in Spain

Best Vegan-friendly Restaurants in Barcelona

Teresa Carles – El Raval

It’s not often I praise the vegan food in Spain, as I often find it bland and unimaginative, but this is one place where you really can eat well. Teresa Carles serves a mean salad and a pretty decent freshly squeezed juice to wash it down with.

La Bascula – El Born

La Bascula is a lovely little vegetarian café with a really dark, quirky and fun interior that is typical of Barcelona: antiquated red walls; dim lighting; table tops made out of doors and chairs stuck to the walls.

Aguaribay – Poblenou

I was surprised to find a vegetarian restaurant in Poblenou. But there it was Aguaribay, all quietly inviting and full of vegetarian delights waiting for me to eat them. And it’s vegan-friendly too!

Sesamo – El Raval

Sesamo is a tiny little restaurant hidden away in deepest, darkest corner of Raval, which is the Gothic Quarter’s ugly but up-and-coming sister across the other side of La Rambla.

Organic Restaurant – El Raval

Strings of vertical fairy lights welcome you through the green façade into Organic Restaurant (they’ve cleverly hidden a clue to its purpose in the title).

Woki Organic – El Raval

Woki Organic is the fast-food progeny of one of the best organic food shop in Barcelona (located on Ronda Universitat near Plaça Catalunya and on Carrer Astúries in Gracia) except here they mainly serve wok-based stir fries and have a very small grocery section.

Related article: Woki Organic Barcelona – Vegan takeaway and restaurant

Vegetarian Restaurants in Barcelona

Vegetalia – El Gotico

Vegetalia is a vegetarian restaurant with plenty of stuff for vegans featuring organic ingredients (where possible) in the warm heart of the city of Barcelona is always a welcome addition.

Vegan Shopping in Barcelona

You are in Barcelona, you have a lovely apartment you rented and you want to make the most of the self-catering facilities. Or you are staying in a hostel and you have a terrifyingly tight budget that doesn’t extend to eating out at restaurants.

Bioespacio – Eixample

One of the best organic supermarkets in Barcelona, if not the whole country. Bioespacio is positively spacious and is very well located, if you are in need of picking up some healthy organic snacks or food supplies, cruelty-free cosmetics, home cleaning products, organic dog or kitty food.

Veganoteca – El Raval

Veganoteca is an online and physical shop that sells vegan products such as cruelty-free cheese, egg-free cakes, dairy-free cookies, and ice creams that have been created without the use of dairy, eggs, honey or animal rennet.

The Best Vegan Salads in Barcelona

In Spain, it is more normal for people to eat a salad as a starter or as an accompaniment to other dishes, which makes it difficult to find a really decent and tasty main course salad that is vegan or vegetarian-friendly, and that isn’t just iceberg lettuce with a tablespoon of tinned sweetcorn and a few slices of anemic tomato served with no dressing at all or else doused in industrial-strength mayonnaise.

Healthy Food in Barcelona

Looking for healthy and delicious food in Barcelona? Then look no further than our article Health Food in Barcelona.

Spanish Vocabulary for Vegans and Vegetarians

So you’ve just arrived in Barcelona and you are a vegan or vegetarian. Even if you don’t speak Spanish – let alone Catalan – there’s no need to panic: help is at hand!