Barcelona always came back into the conversation. When Ana Egmond and Diogo Fernandes imagined what the next stop for Kind Kitchen, the plant-based restaurant they had founded in Porto in 2019, should be, the Catalan capital reappeared again and again. Perhaps it wasn't the most obvious decision —Lisbon seemed like the natural step, or even Madrid was closer to many of their suppliers—, but there was something that always made them return to Barcelona. "Creativity. Energy. The way of understanding food and life."
That recurring conversation has now become a reality. Kind Kitchen has just landed in Narcís Oller square, next to Gràcia, where it opened its doors last July 7. After consolidating its only restaurant in Porto, the project makes the leap to Barcelona with its second establishment, the first outside the city where it was born and also outside Portugal.
Neighbors who usually pass through this corner of the city will probably have already noticed the change. Among the stone facades of the square, a mustard yellow door is hard to ignore. Above, the sign announces the name of the restaurant: Kind Kitchen. Kind is, in reality, a concept that goes far beyond a name. It is also the idea that articulates the entire project and that its founders summarize under the motto Be kind to every kind. A way of understanding gastronomy based on plant-based ingredients —and, therefore, respectful of animals—, but also on creativity and the pleasure of eating.
This is the philosophy with which Ana Egmond and Diogo Fernandes founded Kind Kitchen in Porto in 2019. Their intention was not to create a restaurant exclusively for vegans, but to contribute to changing the perception of plant-based cuisine and demonstrate that dispensing with animal-derived ingredients is not synonymous with giving up flavor, creativity, or colorful dishes. Over time, the project gathered a loyal community that eventually outgrew Kind Kitchen's first location and led them, in 2023, to move to a larger space in the center of Porto.
A menu that learns to speak Catalan
This same spirit is what they now bring to Barcelona. But whoever expects to find an exact reproduction of the Portuguese restaurant will be surprised. Kind Kitchen has not wanted to export Porto's gastronomy, but rather to bring its way of understanding plant-based cuisine. For this reason, on the Barcelona menu, you cannot find either the popular vegan francesinha —the plant-based version of one of the most emblematic dishes of Portuguese cuisine: a sandwich traditionally filled with different meats and cold cuts, covered with melted cheese and bathed in sauce— nor the traditional pastéis de nata. Instead, however, the menu incorporates nods to local cuisine such as patatas bravas or mushroom cannelloni.
This menu adapted to the city coexists with some of the dishes that have consolidated Kind Kitchen as one of the references in plant-based cuisine in Porto. The marinated mushroom tacos, the Tofu Sando —a Japanese-inspired sandwich— or the Double Smash Burger, all three in a plant-based version, continue to be among the house's essentials. And, in addition, the proposal also looks beyond Portugal and Catalonia, with recipes influenced by other cuisines, such as the miso-glazed Corn Ribs, the Crispy Tofu Nuggets with Korean sauce, or the different vegetable curries. To bring all these proposals closer to the daily lives of Barcelonians, the restaurant also incorporates a midday menu from Monday to Friday for 15 euros (without drink or dessert).
But the influence of the Catalan capital does not end with the dishes. It is also visible in the design of the space, a work by the Barcelona studio A Space About, responsible for projects such as Bar Murri, Verda, or even hotels and shops in the city. The walls also incorporate a work by the German artist based in Barcelona Mark Bohle. For this entire landing process in the Catalan capital, Kind Kitchen has also had the strategic advice of Ansón+Bonet, which has accompanied the project in adapting the concept to the new context without losing its essence.
Barcelona cultivates plant-based cuisine
The arrival of Kind Kitchen exemplifies, therefore, an increasingly common phenomenon: Barcelona has become a city with a great variety of local restaurants but which is also capable of attracting gastronomic projects born outside its borders. In this case, it does so with a restaurant that opts for creative plant-based cuisine, in a city where this type of proposal has long ceased to be an exception.
In fact, HappyCow's 2025 ranking—the main platform for discovering and rating vegan and vegetarian restaurants worldwide—places Barcelona as the fourth most vegan-friendly city on the planet, only behind London, Paris, and Berlin. And the same portal has also crowned Asante Café (c/ Elkano, 63) as the best vegan restaurant in the world according to its users' ratings.
Beyond the figures, Barcelona is today a city where plant-based cuisine is no longer presented as an alternative for a specific public, but as another way of understanding gastronomy. Kind Kitchen now brings a Portuguese accent that adds to an increasingly diverse scene, where proposals as different as Veganashi's vegan sushi, Umami Plant Based's Asian cuisine, or Gallo Santo's Mexican flavors coexist, without forgetting consolidated references in the city such as Teresa Carles or Flax & Kale. All these projects contribute to consolidating a gastronomic ecosystem that continues to grow and reinvent itself, and which El Radar will continue to explore to discover the new proposals that transform the city.