Italian food
Barcelona has an enormous, uneven Italian scene, heir to decades of immigration and recent fashion: the good one is first-division European and the bad one lives off tourists.
Separating wheat from chaff
A short menu with few pastas and long-fermented doughs betrays the serious house; a twenty-pizza card with touristy names is the trap. The queue of Italians at one in the afternoon is the best indicator.
Fresh pasta and trattorias
Sant Antoni and Gràcia concentrate trattorias with house-made fresh pasta and serious regional kitchens. Book: small rooms fill on weekdays for the set lunch.
Neapolitan pizza
The Neapolitan wave brought wood ovens and forty-eight-hour dough to half the city: good Barcelona pizza competes with any capital's. The neighborhood van with a serious oven exists too: follow the smoke.