Great Value Seafood Restaurant in Barcelona – La Paradeta

A seafood heaven with various mouth-watering options

Seafood is something that you must eat when you visit Barcelona. Speaking of seafood, you can’t miss La Paradeta. La Paradeta is a chain seafood restaurant in Barcelona, and the branch S visited was the one close to the Sagrada Familia. The restaurant is in an alley which is not easy to find, and you’ll most likely see a line of people waiting outside before it opens.

The La Paradeta at the Sagrada Familia branch was surprisingly more spacious than S expected. Therefore, S didn’t wait long and was able to get a seat straight away. Everything here is self-served, from picking the seafood you like to taking the cooked food to the table. You also need to take back the dishes to the counter after you finish.

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As you can see from the stand, there were various types fo seafood. Don’t worry if you can’t speak Spanish, you just need to point out the ones you want. You can either order by weight or the amount you want. The staff will also ask you how you want it cooked for some dishes, such as if you want the shrimps to be steamed or grilled.

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S ordered a bag of mussels, a crab, a dover sole, prawns, cockles and razor fishes. S was really tempted to get the lobster but she was glad that she didn’t, because she was too full to finish all the food she had ordered already. You can choose between plainly steamed or with a tomato, onion and red wine sauce for the mussels, and S chose the latter one. The sauce was perfect for dipping the bread into and together with the mussels.

S usually prefers her seafood cooked with minimal fuss, especially with crab or shrimp. The brown crab should come with salad filling, but S turned it down. The brown crab was simply boiled and the taste was amazing just on its own. S would definitely love to order another one if she had a second stomach!

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There are 2 ways to cook dover sole; fried or grilled. S wanted to try something different since she hadn’t tried fried dover sole before, so she chose the fried one. The batter was very light which didn’t take away from the flavour of the dover sole. The dover sole was tender with lots of meat on it, though it was a bit difficult to eat with fork and knife because of the bone.

The cockles and the razor fish both are shellfish so they were cooked together, and S guesses that’s why they were served on the same plate. The cockles were grilled and the razor fish were served with garlic and parsley which was perfect. It was quite different since S had tried razor fish before when she was in Taiwan, but the different way of cooking gave S a new experience tasting razor fish.

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If S has to choose a particular dish to highlight for that night, S would choose the grilled prawns for sure. S has always loved prawns, but it’s quite expensive to get fresh prawns in the UK. The size of the prawns at La Paradeta were big and the meat was juicy and chewy. The grilled prawns are the ones you must order if you visit La Paradeta, S couldn’t recommend these enough.

The seafood at La Paradeta were fresh and were reasonably priced, the total for this seafood feast was €56 which also included the drinks and the bread. If you are a seafood lover like S and don’t mind the decor or the ambience of the restaurant, but just want some good food for a reasonable price. The La Paradeta definitely should be on the top of your list when you visit Barcelona!