We begin the journey at the southern end, in Sitges, where the charms of the town are well known by the people of Barcelona, beyond its museum, leisure, or short getaway offerings: the gastronomy. With the essence of that seafaring village, still reminiscent, the gastronomic offer of much of its restaurant scene is based on product cuisine, with fish and seafood from the market as protagonists and rice dishes as the flagship. The sea on the plate, in the tastiest way.
Pic Nic, the pioneer
It started as a beach bar under a pine grove, right on the beach, taking over from the Orchateria Valenciana, offering refreshments. From that moment, it will soon be 70 years and in all this time, its evolution has led it to lead the gastronomic offer on San Sebastián beach with chef Javier Luque, at the helm for 7 years. It is now a modern restaurant, and still with its feet on the beach, it stands out for offering one of the most surprising views, feeling and seeing the sea almost touching the table, perfectly conditioned to host a good experience at any time of the year.
The rice dishes, of course, are one of its strengths, with ten succulent varieties: from the traditional senyoret paella, with all the seafood peeled, to more surprising options such as the rice with baby octopus and artichokes (confited during their season to be able to enjoy them all year round) or the one with cod and scallops, not forgetting a good lobster stew or a soupy rice, also with lobster, sailor style.
Solraig, award-winning rice dishes
On Castelldefels beach, on the Paseo Marítimo and almost touching the sea, Solraig offers a wide selection of classic and seafaring-style tapas in a revision of the beach bar offer brought to the most chic and comfortable dining. The sea, as the common thread, is at the same time the star of the rice dishes of this house. In fact, some of them have won awards: in 2018, the truffled rice with red prawn, mushrooms and piparras came in third place in the Best Rice Dishes of Spain contest and, in 2019, competing with 600 more rice dishes, came in second place, with the rice with zamburiña, squid and peas from Maresme.
Awards aside, the excellent raw material that arrives from the fish market of Vilanova i la Geltrú or from the producers of the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park is noticeable in all eight rice dishes that can be found on the menu. It is worth trying any of the two award-winning rice dishes and, if you feel like escaping the sea and looking for a good meat option, the creamy rice with duck crackling and foie is a sure hit.
Ca la Nuri, rice tradition
Following this rice route that started in Sitges, we make a pit stop without taking our feet out of the sand at Ca la Nuri, a true Barcelona reference in rice dishes that, for decades, has been just a few meters from the water of Somorrostro beach, another icon with reminiscences of the festive and informal Barceloneta of the 20th century. Nuri, who started this saga, explains that she decided to make rice dishes to use the squid legs she fried in her restaurant, so as not to waste them. Now, rice dishes are the house's specialty, with six options on the menu and two in suggestions, which change every 15 days, collecting seasonal produce in succulent elaborations.
One of the essential dishes on the menu is the scallop and pork jowl rice, a surf and turf with intense flavor, or the seafood paella, if you are looking for a more classic rice dish. For lovers of black rice, here it is accompanied by queen scallops and saffron aioli. A small oasis in Barceloneta where time stops and enjoyment soars.
Can Fisher, chic and seafaring
Can Fisher, located on Barcelona's seafront promenade, at the height of Poblenou, is another quality rice destination, with fish and seafood that arrives directly from the fish market every day to star in the rice dishes or whole piece cooking. The rice is from the Ebro Delta, but the rice style is from the Costa Brava: that of intense fumets and grenyal cooking point. With an interior dining room flooded with light entering through the large windows, the terrace is the protagonist all year round, thanks to the views of Bogatell beach and beyond, of the sea.
It proposes a menu of six rice dishes, all of them designed to be shared between two people and differentiating those made in the purest Costa Brava style, such as the soupy lobster rice or the seafood rice according to the catch of the day, and those that are, by all accounts, of a socarrat profile. This is the case of the "señorito" rice or the black rice with prawns, mussels, gratinéed herb alioli and Padrón peppers.
L'Estupendu, the rice dishes with the most character in Badalona
Arriving in Badalona, right next to the mythical Anís de Mono building, where the beach that locals and visitors fill when the heat starts to bite begins, we find L'Estupendu. The location is privileged, but also the place itself, because it is historic: where before there had been the Pleamar baths, now it is the scene of many rice feasts framed from the shade of the marine-style porch, with the view of the sea, the sand and the palm trees. An oasis where time doesn't matter, but good food does.
A soupy rice with cuttlefish and mantis shrimp, a black rice with crab and razor clams or a red prawn rice rival the unbeatable fish and seafood paella preferred by palates looking for classic rice dishes. However, the del fadrí rice is equally noteworthy, so named because for all the "señorito" style rice dishes served, with peeled seafood, 1€ is donated to the Badalona association Aspanin.
This journey along the Barcelona coast, looking for the best rice dishes from Sitges to Badalona, ends here, with the breeze accompanying the sucking of prawn heads and the clinking of glasses as a sign that, when the heat arrives, good rice dishes are an infallible remedy.