Best Barcelona Food Tours to Experience Spanish Food Culture

Barcelona is pretty much the city of dreams for food lovers.

The tapas restaurants are unbeatable, the wine bars are beyond elegant, and there’s no better feeling than watching small plate after small plate be delivered to your table and eating until you can’t possibly take another bite.

But if you’ve never been to Barcelona, or Spain in general, it may be overwhelming to have so many food options thrown in your face every day. Knowing what to order is a good start, but what about all the other local delicacies that need to make their way into your belly before heading back home?

Enter: Barcelona food tours, the absolute best way to experience Catalonian cuisine while visiting this amazing city. 

“What is a food tour?” you may be wondering.

Well, imagine gathering with a small group and led by a local to some of the best spots in Barcelona where you’ll get to sample, snack, and smack your lips as you have bites of the best Spanish food that Barcelona has to offer.

Quick Answer: Best Barcelona Food Tours

Here are our picks for the best Barcelona food tours. Read on to get more details on what each tour includes!

• The Paella Club
• Barcelona: Tastes and Traditions
• Paella Cooking Experience & Boqueria Market Tour
• Cook With Grandma: Market Tour & Cooking Class
• Markets Tour with a Chef
• Evening Tapas & Wine Tasting
• Night Tapas in Gaudi Area
• Hidden Gems Secret Food Tour
• Bites & Flavors Private Tour

Why Take a Food Tour in Barcelona

Barcelona is known worldwide for its vibrant food culture which is built up through tradition, true love of food, and flavors galore. It’s one of the best places in the entire world to eat as the whole city is bursting at the seams with lively restaurants, teeming bars, and bustling markets.

In a city with so much to offer in terms of food, it’s surprisingly easy to stay on the tourist track if you aren’t familiar with the intricacies of what Barcelona has to offer.

Whether it’s a superb local tapas dish, a velvety Spanish red, or churros that will make your head spin from deliciousness, the best places to find these foods are among the locals on a food tour.

Taking a Barcelona food tour is the best way to dine like a Spaniard and learn the ins and outs of Catalonian cuisine.

You’ll get to hop from restaurant to restaurant, explore tucked-away tapas bars, try tasty coffee, and navigate the markets with a knowledgeable guide — all while munching on delicacies along the way. 

What’s more, you’ll get to meet others in your group who are interested in learning the same way you are. Food tour groups rarely exceed a handful of people, which means intimate interactions with other foodies visiting Barcelona.

Who knows, you could be sipping on cava next to your new bestie!

That being said, if you’d rather have a tour with just your closest friends or a romantic evening out with your partner, there are plenty of private tours to choose from, depending on your preference.

Even if you’re already well-versed in tapas and eating out in Barcelona, a food tour can bring you to places you’d never think to eat and introduce you to dishes that are truly local, deliciously homemade, and cooked with compassion. 

The best part about a food tour is there are always surprises, even for those who think they know it all. 

Best Barcelona Food Tours

Here’s a quick round-up of some of the best Barcelona food tours that will show you how magical an experience this activity can be.

Barcelona: Tastes and Traditions

Duration: 3.5 hours
Meeting Place: Santa Caterina Market main entrance
Includes: 11+ samples (enough for breakfast and lunch), 3 different local drinks, Barcelona food guide

There’s no better way to intimately get to know the Barcelonian food scene than by learning from the locals.

This three-and-a-half-hour tour takes you off the beaten track to explore the medieval Born district and the city’s fisherman’s quarter, which are brimming with Spanish tradition waiting to be discovered.

During this tour, you’ll visit Santa Caterina Market where you’ll try locally-made cheese and cured meats before making your way to a specialty shop and the fisherman’s district for snacks and vermouth. 

You’ll end your tour with a traditional Spanish lunch: some of the best seafood paella in Barcelona! And of course, plenty of Spanish wine to wash it down with.

View This Food Tour

Paella Cooking Experience & Boqueria Market Tour

Duration: 2.5 hours
Meeting Place: Travel Bar, Carrer de la Boqueria
Includes: Market tour, guided walk through Old Town, hot and cold Spanish and Catalan tapas, pintxos making class, paella cooking display, sangria mixing class, all recipes emailed to you

While Barcelona is full of glitz and glamour, the real local life lies in the bustling markets.

On this tour, you’ll have a chef as your guide as you navigate the busy Boqueria Market. In the market, you’ll try local specialties and buy fresh ingredients for your lunch.

After the tour of the market, you’ll return to a private kitchen where you’ll prepare pintxos to snack on while the chef fries up some patatas bravas and other delectable Spanish appetizers. The chef will finish with a bang by walking you through how to prepare a giant dish of seafood paella, using the ingredients you picked up at the market.

You’ll be sent home with all of the recipes so you’ll be able to recreate your stunning Spanish dish on your own time!

Enjoy your meal with a pitcher or two of sangria, and call it three hours well spent.

View This Food Tour

Markets Tour with a Chef

Duration: 2 hours
Meeting Place:Carrer de Montjuic del Bisbe
Includes: Guided tour by professional chef, tastes of gourmet foods, visit to La Boqueria and Santa Caterina Markets

If you’re looking for a Barcelona food tour that combines both La Boqueria and Santa Caterina Markets, this is the one for you.

You’ll start your day with some traditional bites to fuel up before walking over to La Boqueria Market to sample more local products and learn about the origins of each from the chef. 

After you’re finished at La Boqueria, you’ll walk through Old Town to Santa Caterina to have more authentic delicacies and tapas snacks, all while learning why market culture is so central to Spanish life. 

Once two hours have passed, you’ll be ready to grab your own ingredients at the market to cook up some Spanish dishes of your own… If you’re lucky, maybe the chef will even give you a recipe!

View This Food Tour

Night Tapas in Gaudi Area

Duration: 4 hours
Meeting Place: Depends on the option selected
Includes: Expert food guide, tastings at 4 different restaurants, tapas with drink pairings, night walking tour of Passeig de Gracia and Gaudi houses

Speaking of mixing food with culture, soak in some signature Barcelona architecture while sipping on Spanish wine and snacking on delicious treats. 

This night-time food tour is led by a local who will really take you off of the beaten tourist trail where you’ll experience Catalonian cuisine at 4 different venues. But you’ll also be right under some of Gaudi’s most impressionable buildings in L’Eixample so take a minute to snap a photo or two, like the tourist you are.

Think fish, meat, vegetables, cheese, and of course something sweet to finish it off. This tour will leave your belly full but aching for more as the bites you’ll have will be some of the best in all of Spain!

View This Food Tour

Hidden Gems Secret Food Tour

Duration: 3 hours
Meeting Place: Jaume I Metro Station Line 1
Includes: Food and drink at 6 different eateries, experienced local guide, tour of Born area

So you’ve walked all the main streets, visited the markets, and have frequented several tapas restaurants, but you’re still looking for something you may be missing on your own. 

That’s where this secret Barcelona food tour comes in.

Navigate Barcelona’s back streets with a knowledgeable guide who will lead you to atmospheric districts with restaurants and bars teeming with locals dining on the finest Spanish cuisine. You’ll stop at 6 different eateries along the way, where you can gorge yourself on everything from churros and chocolate to Spanish meats and cheese, before finally ending your night on the beach with a glass of cava. 

View This Food Tour

Bites & Flavors Private Tour

Duration: 2 hours
Meeting Place: In front of Santa Caterina Market
Includes: Private tour with local guide, 6 different Spanish food tastings

If you like the idea of a food tour but aren’t psyched about having to share it with strangers (although talk about bonding over the important things!), opt for a private tour that shares bites and flavors of Barcelona with you and whoever you choose to bring along.

On this tour, you’ll have 6 unforgettable tastings that range from meat and cheese to crispy but soft patatas bravas to long churros with a deep chocolate sauce. Bouncing between markets, bars, small eateries and local restaurants, you won’t be disappointed after this bites and flavors tour!

View This Food Tour

Evening Tapas & Wine Tasting

Duration: 3 hours
Meeting Place: Passeig del Born
Includes: 8+ Spanish wine pairings, traditional and gourmet tapas at 3 different bars (enough for a full dinner!)

If you’d rather spend your day sightseeing and nights drinking and dining, then an evening tapas and wine tour is perfect for you. 

With this Devour tour, you’ll spend three hours covering different family-run tapas bars where you’ll try unbelievable homemade food paired with more than eight Spanish wines! You’ll make your way to a modern bodega, a trendy wine bar, and a modern tapas restaurant and get a glimpse into what it’s like to dine at each. 

This tour gives visitors a wide variety when it comes to the Barcelona food scene. Complete with enough food to make it a full dinner, this is one of the best ways to mix an evening meal with some culture!

View This Food Tour

Read More: Evening Tapas & Wine Tour Review

The Paella Club

Duration: 3 hours
Meeting Place: The Paella Club headquarters
Includes: Welcome drink, all ingredients (3 different paella versions), bottomless wine and cava pairing

The Paella Club experience in Barcelona was hands down one of the most fun evenings we’ve had! We came as strangers but left as friends.

The hosts, Alex and Alex are absolutely lovely and go above and beyond to make the experience as fun as possible. We felt like we were hanging out in a friend’s house, cooking rather than in a formal “cooking class”.

The experience that they create is fantastic and is one of the best introductions to one of Spain’s most popular dishes- the paella!

The fact that the tour also comes with bottomless wine and cava pairing makes it our top recommendation!
Not only did we stuff ourselves silly with heaps of paella and wine, we now also added paella cooking to our repertoire of skills we have learned while traveling.

Win-win really!

View This Food Tour

Cook With Grandma: Market Tour & Cooking Class

Duration: 4 hours
Meeting Place: Depends on the tour
Includes: Market visit, ingredients, paella, other Spanish dishes, grandma’s home cooking

If you like the idea of a hands-on approach, especially one that ends in a big dish of something delicious, this market tour and cooking class is the perfect option for you.

Grandmas around the world are notorious for making the best food, so what better way to learn about Spanish cooking than from an authentic Spanish grandma? She’ll take you to the food markets and small shops in her neighborhood, where together you’ll decide on a menu and pick up local ingredients.

Then, you’ll return to grandma’s house where she’ll teach you to cook an entire menu from scratch, with each course paired with a local wine!

In a small group atmosphere, you’ll not only learn to cook in an intimate setting, but befriend those to your right and left, who are also interested in all there is to know about Spanish cooking.

A food tour with grandma’s meal at the end. Seriously, what could be better?

View This Food Tour

Is your mouth watering after reading all the Barcelona food tours you can take? I know mine is!

No matter what kind of food tour in Barcelona you’re looking for, there’s an option suited to your tastes, preferences and schedules.

Offered year-round, a food tour is a great way to round out any trip to Barcelona and ensure that Catalonian cuisine has a special place in your heart and mind (and belly!) forever.

---

Planning a stay in Barcelona? Check out our guides

• Things to Do in Barcelona That You Can’t Miss
• Best Day Trips from Barcelona You Should Take
• Where to Stay in Barcelona (By Neighborhood)

Inspired? Pin It!