Can Culleretes, the oldest restaurant in Barcelona
Can Culleretes was founded in the 18th Century, specifically in 1786. At this time, little metal spoons were starting to be used, which explains the unusual name of the oldest restaurant in Barcelona: Can Culleretes literally means Home of the little spoons in Catalan, and their favourite phrase is “Noies, culleretes!” (“Young girls, little spoons!”)
When it was founded over a century ago, this establishment was originally a creamery. In 1890, the then owner Tito Regás, transformed it into a restaurant and decorated it with 6 ceramic ceilings with immense lights and three large murals signed by Francisco Tey.
But it was only in 1900 that the restaurant became very successful due to its reasonable prices and high quality local dishes.
Can Culleretes has remained true to its reputation and today it attracts numerous celebrities, visitors from all over the world and an assiduous and loyal Catalan clientele.
Can Culleretes’ cuisine
- If you’re into new culinary fads, creative dishes and trendy decor then Can Culleretes is not the restaurant for you.
- Here the food and the setting are traditional. Meals are typically Catalan and the restaurant offers, among other things, spinach cannelloni, codfish brandade, civet, or Catalan sausage (botifarra). À la carte, you can choose from all sorts of regional dishes, their signature dish being grilled fish and seafood!
- Top tip! If you book on the site The Fork, you can get discounts of up to 30% (although only on à la carte dishes)
The lunch menu
For around 15 euros, you can enjoy a set lunch menu offering a huge range of dishes (5 or 6 starters and 5 or 6 main courses). When we were there we chose a starter of tuna and kiwi salad as well as an assortment of seafood.
Here there are no frills and the cuisine is not creative. The fish we had as a main course was simply well prepared and tasty.
As you can imagine, we didn’t walk out of Can Culleretes thinking we had made the discovery of the century in culinary innovation. That said, we ate very well and had a very pleasant time in a place that is rich in Catalan history and traditional charm. And it’s always nice to take a little trip to the past!
