Barcelona has always experienced Christmas with emotion and enthusiasm, with its streets adorned and light compositions transferring the magic of its tradition to the spirits of its citizens. Barcelonians love gatherings, and even more so when they are around special delicacies, without forgetting the pandemic and the protective measures that will still be necessary during these holidays.
There are those who maintain the tradition of going to hotels for these Christmas meals, just as more and more people are choosing to bring that comfort to their living rooms. For all of them, there is plenty to choose from, with the utmost rigor and quality from restaurants and hotels that, as every year, design the best experiences to entertain their clients.
Hotels with a luxurious Christmas spirit
At the Mandarin Oriental, Christmas has always been experienced in a special way, from a perspective where magic and illusion are contagious to both adults and children. In addition to a Christmas market and a very special Santa Claus office, there are plenty of celebratory menus in the restaurants of Carme Ruscalleda and Raül Balam: in Blanc, menus are offered for Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Saint Stephen's Day, ranging from 79 euros per person to 229 euros in Moments (for Christmas Eve and Christmas). Two gastronomic proposals that describe the particular personality of their chefs, with such succulent recipes as the Iberian pluma, mole, cocoa, and papaya signed by Raül Balam in Moments or the traditional roasted pota blava chicken with dried apricots, pine nuts, and plums, which can be enjoyed in Carme Ruscalleda's Blanc.
At the Hotel Palace, with chef Daniel Padró leading the gastronomic proposal, menus are offered with a formula that begins with different appetizers to share, a main course to choose from two or three options, and a dessert also to choose from, as well as national and French D.O. wines. The Christmas Eve dinner can be enjoyed for a price of 115 euros and the Christmas lunch for 125 euros. Their star dishes: roasted sea bass, Prat artichoke trinxat, squid and sauce in its ink, guinea fowl stuffed with foie and dried apricots with Perigourdine sauce, or slow-cooked lamb, salsify, celeriac, truffled potato, and red wine sauce.
In these family celebrations, the little ones are always the protagonists: to enjoy the Christmas spirit with them, its Christmas Market and its Christmas Cinema have returned to the Palace, both on its rooftop. If the first offers tastings from unique artisans, the second presents a plan that includes watching Christmas classics on a giant screen with popcorn and hot drinks for 70 or 80 euros (depending on whether the cabin is for three or four people, and for children up to 12 years old).
Christmas according to haute cuisine chefs
The Hotel Almanac, whose gastronomic restaurant Virens is run by the award-winning green chef Rodrigo de la Calle, offers a Christmas Eve dinner with an almost absolute reign of the plant world and dishes as suggestive as pickled salsify with trout caviar, capers and spicy leaves or caramelized leek marrow tatin with vegetable demi-glace. Its price is 100 euros per person and includes a wine pairing. For Christmas lunch, their offer is unorthodox and interesting: a brunch that for 90 euros per person (without drinks) offers tasting dishes from a seafood station, another for cheeses and Iberian products, a showcooking of tartars and desserts and hot dishes designed by Rodrigo de la Calle.
The CentOnze, at street level on La Rambla, has designed festive menus with all the essence of the Hotel Le Méridien, which is located just 111 steps from La Boquería Market, from where they source their ingredients. For Christmas Eve, it has planned a paired menu that for 79 euros includes three appetizers, three main courses and dessert, as well as nougat and wafers. For the same price, the menu for Christmas lunch includes three appetizers, two main courses (the traditional galets soup with pilota and capon with charcoal-roasted potato puree), dessert and Christmas sweets, including a pairing of Catalan wines and sparkling wines.
The Hotel Neri, in the heart of the city, opens the doors of its A restaurant to present Christmas menus that capture the essence of chef Alain Guiard's signature cuisine, with iconic dishes such as the foie-gras royal with Jerusalem artichoke cream and smoked black turnip or the prawn carpaccio with lime-lemon-tarragon and Morruda olive oil. Tradition is already felt at Christmas Eve dinner, with carols in the hotel lobby before sitting down to eat and a nougat and cava reception at the end of the evening. Its price is 115 euros per person. For Christmas lunch on the 25th, you can choose between two menus of 55 euros or 70 euros per person, both including wine pairing... And gifts! All diners will receive a present, as tradition dictates.
Gastronomic and festive spirit
The Christmas spirit at the Hotel Edition began as soon as December started with the traditional presentation of the beautiful Christmas tree in the hall. Always festive, all Christmas meals at Bar Veraz designed by chef Pedro Tassarolo will be enlivened with live jazz music (Víctor Paradís and Javier Rojas). In a shared proposal for Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Saint Stephen's Day, its price is 65 euros and it brings tradition to the table with essential dishes (roasted cannelloni or escudella with galets stuffed with carn d'olla, cabbage, carrot, and black sausage) in a three-course menu, desserts, nougats, and wafers.
Music also makes an appearance in the gastronomic proposal of Olentia, the restaurant of the Hotel Duquesa de Cardona. More specifically, a DJ will be in charge of providing the soundtrack to a Christmas and Saint Stephen's Day menu that, for 55 euros, includes a starter, a first course, and a second course to choose between two options that oscillate between tradition and revision, and dessert, with wine pairing and Catalan sparkling wines included.
Celebrate Christmas all month in the most exotic way
The family is now made up not only of relatives but also of friends or co-workers. With them, we often share time and leisure, and throughout December, we celebrate with them to wish each other the best, with good drinks and delicious food. These are also special occasions that require special menus, right? Opting for a more exotic experience is a sure hit: Boa Bao, for example, incorporates traditional and unprecedented dishes into its menu, such as Jjin Mandu, Korean steamed dumplings filled with pork and kimchi, the Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp open bao filled with spicy pork, or Kai Phad Med-Mamoung, a typical Thai chicken and cashew stir-fry.
Bar Bar, the gastronomic restaurant that travels through the 29 states of India with traditional dishes and delicate plating, has an unrepeatable Christmas experience available from December 20 to 26: for 26 euros per person (drinks and dessert separate), a menu is offered with a surprise starter from chef Nikhil Mahale and a spiced traditional stuffed pularda roast in Indian style: it is accompanied by pariyal, the winter vegetable stuffing cooked inside the chicken piece (and presented as a side dish), roasted baby potatoes, and a crispy fried ball of beetroot and grape, two of the most typical ingredients of Christmas stuffing.
The best of restaurants, at home
With its multiple advantages: time-saving, convenience, and reliability. Whoever doesn't enjoy cooking, but does enjoy entertaining, will find the ideal choice in the delivery or take away option. For such an occasion, gastronomic restaurants have devised fixed menus or open-menu options to enjoy great dishes prepared by chefs, perfectly packaged and created so that they only need to be plated and heated.
Jordi Esteve, the chef and owner of Nectari (recently awarded a Repsol Sun) is one of the veterans of high-quality delivery and take away. From set menus (the pica-pica for 25 euros per person and the Gourmet for 50 euros per person) to special dishes with white truffle as the protagonist: three-meat cannelloni with white truffle, mushroom risotto and white truffle or pumpkin ravioli with parmesan amaretto and white truffle. For any of these choices, it is essential to book 24 hours in advance via Whatsapp or email. The delivery exclusively covers the metropolitan area and has an additional cost of 10 euros.
Sants' star gastronomic restaurant, La Mundana, also has a high-level proposal to enjoy the best of the house, at home. Specifically, a set menu for two people that includes four kimchi and Comté cheese oysters, prawn carpaccio, Bloody Mary, two roasted croquettes, smoked burrata with pumpkin chutney, grilled Korean ribs, red curry of cheeks and trumpets of death, in addition to its famous smoked butter and the no less famous (and imitated) torrichucho. This option, which costs 120 euros, includes a bottle of Mumm champagne for the toast. To place the order and receive it on time, you have to call.
Not a few houses opt for a roast to preside over Christmas celebrations. At Asador de Aranda, a benchmark of Castilian gastronomy, the delivery or take away of its renowned menu for two people is already institutionalized, which includes a selection of the most representative dishes from its menu: Iberian ham DOP Guijuelo, rice blood sausage, cooked pot chorizo, red peppers roasted in a wood oven with EVOO and a quarter of roasted suckling lamb with green salad. The puff pastry filled with pastry cream and whipped cream and the traditional doughnuts are also part of the pack, as well as a bottle of the house wine as a gift, an excellent D.O Ribera del Duero. Advance reservations are essential, and it is advisable to do so in advance because the queues of customers who come to their establishments to pick up their menus is another of the Christmas scenes of our city.
And finally, for those who choose to prepare appetizers at home and trust the savoir faire of a chef for the main course, Plata Bistró opens its doors only for take away: escudella i carn d'olla, roasted cannelloni, Bresse pullet stuffed with Jerez sauce and truffle or Maldonado ham croquettes. A single menu with four dishes that gather the great classics of home celebrations, cooked with the mastery of its chef and owner, Víctor García.