Don't…
Overdo it at Michelin-Starred Restaurants

Eating well in a city that's achieved 21 Michelin stars (many of them earned by Ferran Adrià's innumerable protégées) isn't a problem. But with the tab for a tasting menu in these fêted restaurants often equaling the cost of a hotel room, your credit card statement may be a little harder to digest.

Instead…
Savor the Tapas Renaissance

Economic challenges have led to a surge in cheap and cheerful eateries serving tapas, high-end burgers, and designer sandwiches, and many of the city's culinary wizards are at the forefront of the trend. While not exactly bargain-basement, Tickets (pictured), the Adrià brothers' tapas bar in Poble Sec, serves a sprinkling of El Bulli signature dishes without giving you heartburn over the price. Having earned a 2011 Michelin star for his rural restaurant Els Casals, chef Oriol Rovira opened Sagàs, in El Born, a bar-café that celebrates the global diversity of bread-based snacks, from banh mi to a coca (a type of Catalan pizza bread) topped with porchetta. Chef Paco Pérez of Enoteca fame has chimed in with La Royale, an uptown diner in Sant Gervasi decked out in old-fashioned aviator paraphernalia serving fancy burgers.

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