José Pizarro’s Barcelona for foodies

From market eats to upscale treats, P&O Cruises Local Food Hero and renowned Spanish chef José Pizarro takes us on a tapas trail in the Catalan capital.

10 min 12 Sep 2025

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José Pizarro knows every tapas spot and restaurateur in Barcelona. At least that’s how it feels as the Spanish chef and P&O Cruises Local Food Hero takes us on a foodie tour of the Catalan capital through some of the city’s most diverse and culturally rich quarters.

José, who owns five restaurants in London and two in Spain, is known as the ‘godfather of Spanish cooking’ and, while he may have called the British capital home for over 20 years, his love for his homeland and its cuisine is a passion he wants to share with guests on Arvia and Iona and in his tapas menu at The Glass House across the fleet.

José explains that we’ll be working up an appetite in Barcelona because, unlike Madrid and other Spanish cities, there isn’t one main street or area where all the tapas bars are located. Instead, the ruta de tapas is like a piece of thread knitting together multiple neighbourhoods, meaning you get to see more of the city and its sights as you travel from one mini meal to the next.

‘In Barcelona, the pace is a little slower,’ says José. ‘Rather than spending two hours going from one bar to another to try something here and another thing there, we spend the whole day exploring and tasting.’ It’s this laid-back approach that makes visiting Barcelona so much fun. Between stops for sustenance, there’s much to admire: fascinating architecture, grand cobbled squares, meandering streets and beautiful gardens.

In In La Boqueria Market, Barcelona on the Tapas Trail with Chef Jose Pizarro, photographed for P&O Cruises by Alun Callender

Pinotxo Bar, La Boquería market

For a taste of everything under one roof, it’s got to be La Boquería, a cavernous iron-roofed market on La Rambla where more than 200 traders sell fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and fish, confectionery, baked goods and made-to-order dishes to wide-eyed visitors and locals. We arrive in the morning and José ushers us to the market’s legendary Pinotxo Bar, where we join market stall owners and customers starting the day with coffees and xuixo (sugar-coated, deep-fried tubes of pastry filled with cream spiked with lemon zest and cinnamon). It’s the perfect pick-me-up before hitting the culinary trail.

In Faixat Pujadas Patisserie,
Barcelona, on the Tapas Trail with Chef Jose Pizarro, photographed for P&O Cruises by Alun Callender

La Plata, Gothic Quarter

Next stop: the Barrio Gótico or Gothic Quarter, which we get to via the city’s famous main artery La Ramblas. José peels off down a cobbled side street and, suddenly, we’re in the medieval quarter, where the remains of a Roman city sit alongside popular restaurants and plaças (squares) shaded by palm trees and busy bars.

‘This is my friend Pepe’s restaurant,’ calls José. The script on the sea-blue sign reads: ‘La Plata, desde 1945’. ‘Since his family opened this place, the menu has never changed,’ José explains.

We’re ushered into the compact eatery and stand at the tiled bar. Within minutes, a large silver platter of tiny whole fried fish is placed in front of us, their scales shimmering under a beige coat of hot, crispy batter. Two glass tumblers of beer follow with five more dishes: bread with a slick of puréed tomato; four fat boquerones (anchovies) swimming in olive oil, vinegar and parsley; butifarra (a rich Catalan sausage) speared onto a piece of crusty white bread; a simple salad of fresh tomatoes, white onions and tiny green olives; and, finally, bread topped with more silvery anchovies.

Crossing Plaça Reial, a beautiful square enclosed by Classical canary-yellow buildings, we stop to look over the shoulders of small groups of artists, each one intent on capturing the details of the square’s ornate fountain and curious lampposts. ‘These lampposts were designed by Antoni Gaudí when he was a young man,’ explains José.

And you can’t talk about Barcelona without mentioning Gaudí. The Catalan architect was a champion of Spanish Modernism and his iconic buildings are dotted around the city. While in the Gothic Quarter, we pay brief homage to his unfinished masterpiece, La Sagrada Família, with its gnarly church spires reaching like tendrils towards the sky.

At Quimet + Quimet, Barcelona on the Tapas Trail with Chef Jose Pizarro, photographed for P&O Cruises by Alun Callender

Pepa Tomate, Sant Antoni

Onwards we go to the Sant Antoni neighbourhood, famous for its namesake food market built in1882 by architect Antoni Rovira i Trias. Our destination is Pepa Tomate, an industrial-style restaurant with red banquette seating and open-brick walls where José urges us to try his favourite classic tapas dishes. ‘You must order patatas bravas. They are to die for.’ We’re also introduced to a typical Catalan dish of fideuà, a sort of paella made with small tubes of pasta instead of the traditional rice. Like everything else, it is delicious.

Quimet & Quimet, Poble Sec

By now it’s afternoon, and time for a well-earned drink, so we make our way to village-like Poble Sec near hilly Montjuïc for hora del vermut, Spain’s ritualistic aperitif hour.

‘This is one of the oldest areas in the city,’ explains José. ‘It is home to artists and young people, which means there are a lot of cheap places to eat and drink.’ You could spend a whole day here exploring the botanical gardens, Gaudí’s sprawling Parc Güell and Fundació Joan Miró, an art gallery-cum-artist’s studio dedicated to the Barcelona-born artist and other 20th- and 21st-century works.

The area is also home to one of the city’s greatest drinking dens, and we arrive just as the owner is heaving open the red wooden doors of Quimet & Quimet, revealing an impressive library of more than 500 wines, vermouths, cavas and spirits lining floor-to-ceiling shelves. A wall of colourful tins of fish and seafood is displayed behind a stainless-steel bar. There’s only space for 30 people inside and there’s already a queue, so we duck in for a glass of the house-made, sweet-savoury vermouth, served over ice with a chunk of orange, and a montadito (small open-faced sandwich). ‘A cold glass of vermouth with anchovies and olives,’ muses José. ‘Is there a more perfect snack than that? For dinner, though, we’re going somewhere special.’

At Dos Pebrots, Barcelona on the Tapas Trail with Chef Jose Pizarro, photographed for P&O Cruises by Alun Callender

Dos Pebrots, El Ravel

From the outside, Dos Pebrots in El Raval is unassuming. Inside, contemporary interiors nod towards Japanese minimalism with birch wood benches and an open kitchen. ‘El Ravel used to be home to Barcelona’s red-light district,’ says José as we eye the menu, which celebrates traditional Mediterranean cooking techniques that have fallen out of favour. ‘Today,’ he explains, ‘El Raval is known for its shops and galleries. MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona) is around the corner.’ We lose ourselves in squid served with paprika and extra virgin olive oil, and a salad of edible flowers, capers and veal that looks like a work of art.

Outside, the sun is setting and it’s time to part ways. ‘The only way to truly understand a city is through its food,’ reflects José as we bid him farewell. After our day together, we certainly feel that little bit closer to Barcelona.