When asked where to get good paella in Barcelona, many locals answer simply: Valencia. But this Barceloneta beachfront classic with a nautical-inspired interior and picket-fenced terrace is the exception—paellas here come with proper socorrat (caramelized bottom crust). There are also boat-fresh fish and seafood dishes such as whole sea bream baked in a crust of salt; tender, purple-rimmed clams, and sweet, grilled navajas (razor clams). And it's one of the few places where more unusual local delicacies such as delicate espardenyes (sea cucumbers) and pink-tinged percebes (goose barnacles) can be sampled.

Closed for dinner Sundays and Mondays.

Like its more famous competitor Quimet & Quimet, this neighborhood tapas bar and restaurant in Sant Antoni specializes in conservas (gourmet canned products, which were highly revered before mass refrigeration), charcuterie, and cheeses. Lucio, the proprietor, will happily spend hours discussing the merits of home-cured anchovy filets, Italian cheeses, and cured sausages from the inland town of Vic. He'll also encourage shy types to try new things, such as oil-softened mojama (air-cured tuna loin) and bricks of Catalan meat loaf, made by Lucio's wife, Mariel. Mariel is also responsible for the more formal, brick-lined cellar dining room, which specializes in sturdy, often sensational home cooking, such as fresh foie gras with mangoes and hearty game stews. The menu changes daily depending on what's available in the market.

Closed Sundays and Mondays.

The blank canvas of Coure's surroundings cedes center stage to chef Albert Ventura's exceptionally good—and unexpectedly seductive—combinations at this overlit restaurant just off the Avenida Diagonal in the Eixample. He slices slow-cooked, meltingly tender pig trotters wafer thin, adds fresh oysters, and brings them together in a musky cèpe vinaigrette that accentuates both the richness of the trotter and the ozone qualities of the oysters. For dessert, ice-cream cannelloni is redolent of Caribbean cocktails, perfumed by an infusion of pineapple and eucalyptus oil. The initial buzz of Coure's mid-2005 opening has quieted, but the all-ages see-and-be-seen crowd still find young chef Ventura to be full of promise.

Open Tuesdays through Saturdays 1:30 to 3:30 pm and 9:30 to 11:30 pm.

Embat, a pioneer of Barcelona's bistromanía trend, is proof that it's still possible to dine well in Barcelona for under €30 (around $40). Located in central Barcelona just off Avinguda Diagonal, Embat has faded, toast-colored wall tiles and a zinc bar that hark back to an old-school eatery; the clientele, at least at midday, is largely made up of older locals with time to lunch properly. The small menu (about five choices each for starters and entrées) changes weekly, depending on what's in the markets, but we especially like the creamy lasagna made with black sausage and goat cheese, local white beans with cabbage and partridge, or the entrecôte on a layer of mustard sauce and lletons (sweetbreads). At €12, the steak is the most expensive dish on the menu, and although prices rise slightly for dinner, Embat is as easy on the wallet as it is on the stomach. Reservations advised for lunch and dinner.

Open Tuesdays and Wednesdays 1 to 3:30 pm, Thursdays and Fridays 1 to 3:30 and 9 to 11 pm, and Saturdays 2 to 3:30 pm and 9 to 11 pm.

Carles Gaig moved his restaurant in 2004 from an old farmhouse in Horta to this slick, black dining room in the Eixample. Although design junkies are drooling, Gaig is still all about ingredients, whether you're talking a pricey bottle of Vega Sicilia or the perfect baby squid. Dinner here kicks off with the deconstruction of a classic Catalan aperitif: a tongue-tingling granité of vermut (artisanal vermouth). A series of tasting menu courses follow: a single, plump mussel infused with peppercorn and juniper served on the shell; purple chunks of pressed octopus paired with a potato mille-feuille; pan-fried turbot with pork belly. Gaig's execution is faultless, and while perhaps he is not as innovative as some of his younger contemporaries, this is what eating in Barcelona is all about: connecting with the land and sea through wild turbot, tender beef, or even just Maresme peas. A more homespun version of Gaig's cuisine can be experienced at the Fonda Gaig, where the focus is on evergreen Catalan classics such as cap i pota (head and leg of pork), and meatballs cooked with sepia (200 Carrer Còrsega, Tel. 93 453 2020).

Mondays through Saturdays 1:30 to 3 pm and 9 to 11 pm, Sundays 9 to 11 pm.

The family-run La Teca has been a beloved specialist food shop in the El Born neighborhood since 1932. A total overhaul in 2005 transformed it into a more modern affair for food-lovers, complete with four tables. From there you can order anything in the shop for a 20-percent service surcharge. Choose from exquisite cheeses from Spain, France, and Italy; succulent sausages and hams; olives of every size and description; and a host of other gastro delights that line the shelves. The family also runs the Vila Viniteca wine shop next door, so the wine list is extensive, if expensive. It's possible to bring your own bottle, and for $8.15 they will serve it in petal-thin Riedel glasses. Come for a light lunch or predinner snack.

Closes at 8:30 p.m. and on Sundays.

This upscale tapas bar—phonetically the name becomes "pa' comer algo," loosely translated as "to grab a bite"—serves up hearty dishes such as lentil stew with chorizo, pot roast with mushrooms, and fried artichoke slivers. The decor is chic, with slate-gray walls and leather bar stools, and the obligatory small chalkboard announcing the daily specials. The atmosphere is as laid-back as a neighborhood watering hole, with bantering waiters and friendly regulars. Come early (one-ish for lunch, eight-ish for dinner) to avoid a wait in line.

This Poble Sec tapas bar has been around for four generations, but a recent facelift exchanged the cold, clinical tiles and fluorescent lighting for a softly-lit space with red brick walls, steel staircases, and a marble bar, and the local crowd for adventurous, in-the-know epicures. It's all part of the polishing up of Poble Sec, these days more Meatpacking District than beaten-down barrio. Likewise, while the Cantabrian classics such as l'escala anchovies and croquettes have stayed, 21st-century tapas are the focus. Rosal 34's signature dish, patatas bravas, is served in creamy layers of potato and garlic mousse, with a shot of chili oil in the bottom of a martini glass. Navajas (razor clams) are grilled to sticky sweetness and buoyed with vanilla-infused oil and chunks of candied lemon; the piece de resistance is an artichoke heart filled with a baked quail egg and topped with a spoonful of silky, Pyrenean caviar.

Closed Sundays for dinner.

Chef Paco Guzman has made a name for himself as the merry prankster of "new wave tapas" at Santa Maria. Santa, his second restaurant, aims to put less stress on your credit card. The blond wood tables, retro wire chairs, and funky oversize lampshades have been supplied by designer Alfons Tost (who also decked out Monvínic); the music is loud and funky, and the waiters charmingly flirtatious. Santa's menu is just as much fun, with bistro-inspired main courses such baby cochinillo (suckling pig) with leeks and sage and rice cooked with lobster and artichokes. Half portions are available, should you wish to share, but where the menu really shines is with Guzman's hallmark tapas. Order the five-dish sortido for a true taste of his creativity, such as a salad of hummus, celery, and wild mushrooms with a peanut butter sauce, or a small steak tartare with mustard ice cream. The €20 Sunday night–only fixed menu is a good bet in this quiet, more residential part of town, when many other restaurants are closed.

Open daily from 1:30 to 4 pm and 8:30 pm to midnight.

Winningly low-key in the manner of many of Barcelona's best new-wave restaurants, this friendly place in the Eixample is nevertheless one of the most ferociously fashionable venues in town for foodies and style mavens. Thanks to the warm service that Anna Doñate oversees, a good time is had by all in this simple, white-walled dining room with kitchen views. Chef Xavier Franco takes a similarly hardworking and generous approach to his cooking. The menu changes seasonally, but always consists of eight starters, ten main courses (five fish and five seafood), and six desserts. A few dishes have become classics, including panceta crujiente con calamares y alcachofas (crispy ham with squid and artichokes), and magnificent cochinillo confitado (slow-roasted suckling pig with velvety meat capped by a brittle crust of its own skin). Beautifully balanced desserts and an excellent wine list all combine to make this one of Barcelona's contemporary classics.

Closed Sundays and Mondays.

Ramón Parellada is a veteran restaurateur with his fingers in a number of the city's culinary pies. Part owner of La Vinya del Senyor, he has a share in the Banys Orientals too, but his baby is the Senyor Parellada, an emblematic Catalan bistro that was the onetime darling of Barcelona foodies (long before food became fashionable). Those looking to the old-school for inspiration need look no further than this bustling, chatter- and antiques-filled dining room in El Born, for this is the home of excellent bacalao a la llauna (salt cod cooked over a tin and seasoned with garlic and pimentón); and epic milk-fed lamb with 12 heads of garlic. Knowing his clientele (businessmen and local food lovers) as he does, Parellada can propose homey, earthy dishes like pig's trotters with turnips and know that he'll find takers. A rejigging of the menu reflects the modern preference for sampling lots of small dishes instead of doing a rote meal of courses.

Forget three-star restaurants and city-center hot spots. The newest, coolest way to dine in Barcelona is to uncover some hole-in-the-wall hidden beneath a car park; or better still, ingratiate yourself into a private dining club. Tapioles 53 is a "food space" in Poble Sec where diners must be members (a privilege that comes at the not-so-lofty expense of calling ahead, eating there, and signing your name to a register.) It's housed in a converted umbrella-making factory, but its ancient table and open kitchen make it feel like a private home. Chef Sarah Stothart's father—a well-known Australian painter—did the abstract oils of the Penedès wine region and of Australia that hang on the walls. Born in Australia and brought up in Greece, Spain, France, and Italy, Stothart's far-flung repertoire has been influenced by dishes she learned at her mother's knee and from eating her way around the world. The menu changes weekly, but look for her mother's juniper, veal, and pork terrine; rosewater-infused cardamom rice pudding; fresh goat cheese-with-spinach gnocchi and sage butter; and Thai beef salads.

Open Tuesdays through Saturdays 9 pm to midnight.

In a city where customer comfort often seems like an afterthought, the stellar service at this joint venture, opened in 2005 by young chef Santi Colominas and exemplary maître d' Sandra Baliarda, stands out. The striking interior is the work of local hotshot designer Jordi Torres, who combined industrial materials with a mural of a tree to create a sort of yin and yang of strength and gentleness. There's a modernista tile on each table—homage to the ornament and whimsy of the 19th-century design movement. But Colominas's seasonal menus are an exercise in restraint and balance: crisp sepiones (baby cuttlefish) in a rich sofrito of cherries and sticky cuttlefish ink; creamy duck liver paired with delicately roasted wild-garlic stems. The wine list is small, carefully considered, and well-priced, but the fact that all of the fashion-forward gourmands who fill the place smoke is a downer.

Closed Sundays.