The best restaurants in the Costa Brava
For a smallish corner of Northern Catalonia, the Costa Brava shines amazingly bright on the international food scene. Home to the renowned Celler de Can Roca in Girona (twice ranked 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 hideways serving equally superb traditional fare. Elsewhere there are seafront stalwarts where you can graze on fresh calamares and grilled sardines, just a pebble’s throw from the waves – all at a fraction of the price you’d pay in France or Italy.
For more Costa Brava inspiration, see our guide to hotels, things to do, nightlife, beaches and scenic drives.
Find a restaurant by area
Ullastret
Restaurant Ibéric
The food at this small, family-run Catalan restaurant is exceptional, and widely considered one of the standout places to eat in the region. In a smart, traditional dining room with rough-hewn stone walls and a shaded terrace, the Cateura brothers serve up the very freshest local fish, meat and vegetables. The Costa Brava fish stew or caldereta is bursting with lobster and monkfish in an outstandingly subtle saffron and garlic sauce and there’s also a wide range of local game and other dishes like wild boar stew. Not to mention memorable starters such as duck foie with palm tree honey or the exquisite grilled asparagus with vinaigrette.
Contact: restaurantiberic.com
Reservations: Strongly recommended, especially in the summer and at weekends
Prices: ££
La Taverna del Mar , S’Agaró
If you like the idea of tucking into superbly fresh, elegant fish and seafood whilst gazing out to the Mediterranean, this is the place to come. In a light and airy 19th-century dining room overlooking the beach in the smart coastal town of S’Agaró, the chefs serve up superb dishes like salmon tartare with avocado and trout roe, fresh oysters and wild fish (either baked or grilled) including sea bass, John Dory, turbot and red snapper, as well as rice dishes Leave room for puddings including the moreish speciality of deconstructed cheesecake with mango, passion fruit and shortbread. There’s also a children’s menu.
Contact: latavernadelmar.cat
Reservations: Strongly recommended, especially in the summer and at weekends
Prices: ££
Cadaqués
Compartir
Compartir was the first restaurant launched by the three ex El Bulli chefs who have since also opened Barcelona’s three Michelin-starred Disfrutar - named No. 2 in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants List in 2023.The name Compartir means to share in Spanish and that’s very much the idea here. Amidst an unpretentious, contemporary interior, you choose a selection of medium-sized dishes from the menu of 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 the summer and at weekends
Prices: ££
Girona
El Celler de Can Roca
On the outskirts of Girona in a highly minimalist, streamlined dining room with huge glass windows looking out to a Zen garden, the three Michelin-starred El Celler is every inch special-occasion dining. Named No.1 in the 'World’s 50 Top Restaurants' twice (both in 2013 and 2015) and continually included in the top 10, this is fine dining as fine art, appealing to your sense of smell, sight and sound as much as the taste buds. Expect a sense of theatre and exceptional presentation in classic Catalan dishes such as fish stew reinvented in the Roca brothers’ idiosyncratic style.
Contact: elcellerdecanroca.com
Reservations: Essential; usually at least one year ahead. The further ahead you can book, the more likely you are to get a table.
Prices: £££
Restaurant Massana
If you want serious fine-dining in Girona, El Celler de Can Roca is not the only place to go. The Michelin-starred Massana has been renowned by those in the know since it opened in 1986 and its elegant, pale grey dining room is somewhere to dress up for. Star dishes include the outstanding hot carpaccio of duck – gossamer-thin slivers of duck with grape-sized pearls of pear and the 'scrambled egg' pudding where an 'egg' made of pale pink chocolate casing is theatrically cracked, allowing its ‘yolk’ of mango ice cream and white yogurt foam to ooze onto your plate.
Contact: restaurantmassana.com
Reservations: Essential
Prices: £££
Begur and the surrounding areas
Pa i Raim
Hidden away on a side street in the small town of Palafrugell, this beautiful restaurant set in an Art Nouveau villa serves excellent fine-dining 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. Stand-out dishes include brochetta of tempura langoustines with a soya emulsion as well as renowned local specialities such as Palamós prawns and rice from the town of Pals. In the summer, there’s a delightful garden by a pool, complete with a few tucked away turtles.
Contact: pairaim.com
Reservations: Strongly recommended, especially at weekends
Prices: ££
Sa Rascassa
Excellent restaurants are two a penny round this neck of the woods but Sa Rascassa has nevertheless gained a reputation far beyond its diminutive size. Food is served in a romantic walled garden or in the contemporary but cosy, beamed-ceiling dining room. With the pebbled cove of Aiguafreda just round the corner, the fish couldn’t be fresher. The local rascassa (scorpion fish) comes grilled whole, coral-skinned and pearly white inside whilst the grilled Mediterranean vegetables with Romesco sauce are unquestionably the best around. Don’t miss the 'chocolate stones' which look like a mini Stonehenge.
Contact: hostalsarascassa.com
Reservations: Recommended
Prices: ££
Aiguaclara
Begur is liberally sprinkled with excellent restaurants but this is still one of the best. Top-notch contemporary Catalan cooking is served in a stylish but quirky dining room. You’ll find several examples of one of the region's specialities, mar y muntanya (surf and turf) with dishes like scallops with pork belly as well as meatballs with squid. Leave room for puddings like flan (crème caramel) with Baileys. There’s also a lovely gravelled garden with lanterns, hammocks and the odd antique bicycle, and on Friday nights a DJ spins vinyl (see our nightlife guide for more information).
Contact: hotelaiguaclara.com
Reservations: Essential in high season and at weekends
Prices: ££
Es Dofi
So close to the sea you can almost wet your toes, Es Dofi, on in the small, horse-shoe bay at Tamariu, is renowned amongst locals as the place to go for the freshest fish. Tables are packed in close at the unpretentious dining room with its seascape murals and television screen but for the true Mediterranean experience, the outdoor terrace tables can’t be beaten. Snack on the moreish and phenomenally fresh, fried somsos (sand eels), which come piled high like mini whitebait, or feast on main courses of hake, turbot, bream and exceptionally juicy, fat calamares, with salad and chips.
Contact: esdofi.restaurantesok.com
Reservations: Not necessary
Prices: £
How we choose
Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller’s taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.
