Restaurant in Barcelona, Spain
Seasonal French cooking that earns its price.
âme is a French Contemporary bistro in Barcelona's Eixample with a 4.9 Google rating and consecutive Michelin Plates, priced at €€€. The owner-run kitchen delivers technically precise cooking built on seasonal Catalan ingredients, with a tasting menu and a regularly changing à la carte. Easier to book than any of Barcelona's starred peers and considerably more affordable.
A Google rating of 4.9 across 213 reviews is the most telling number here: âme is performing at a level most €€€€ restaurants struggle to sustain, and it is doing it at €€€ prices. This French Contemporary bistro on Carrer de Londres in the Eixample is a serious option for any Barcelona trip where you want one genuinely considered meal without paying Disfrutar prices. Book it.
âme occupies a specific and useful position in Barcelona's dining scene: it is the French-rooted, market-driven bistro that actually delivers on the promise. The kitchen is run by the two business partners who also own the place, which means the cooking has a consistency and personal investment that hired-brigade restaurants frequently lack. The format is a regularly changing à la carte backed by a tasting menu built around the kitchen's own signature dishes.
Those signature dishes are worth knowing before you book. The crêpe de mar pairs Palamós red prawn pil-pil with a crispy crêpe, threading French technique through Catalan coastal ingredients. The arroz caldoso de pato uses rice from the Ebro Delta with duck confit and artichokes from El Prat: a dish that reads as Barcelona in intent but executes with Gallic precision. The dessert of Medjool dates, salted butter caramel and Tonka chantilly is the kind of closer that reminds you the kitchen has a French pantry instinct even when sourcing locally. These dishes anchor both the à la carte and the tasting menu, so they are not exclusive to one format.
The space sits in the Eixample, Barcelona's grid district, which means good transit access and no significant navigation difficulty from most central hotels. The room itself reads as bistro-scale: intimate enough that the cooking feels personal, but not so compact that a table of four becomes a logistical challenge. If you are planning a group dinner, the size of the room means you should book early and communicate group size clearly at reservation stage. Private dining or semi-private arrangements are worth raising directly with the restaurant when you book, since the room configuration at this scale can often accommodate a degree of separation that the main dining room does not formally advertise.
For solo diners and pairs, the counter or small-table options typical of this format work well. The changing à la carte gives you flexibility if the tasting menu format does not suit your pace or appetite, and the price tier makes the tasting menu a reasonable call rather than a major commitment. At €€€ in a city where the tier above runs €150–250 per head, âme is the restaurant where the decision is genuinely easy.
The Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025 is a useful calibration signal. A Plate indicates food quality that Michelin considers worth noting without awarding a star, which in practice means technically accomplished cooking with consistent execution. It is not the same as a starred venue, but it is a meaningful credential in a city as competitive as Barcelona. For the explorer diner who tracks quality signals, this is the relevant comparison: âme is cooking at a level above casual, below destination-dining spectacle, and is priced accordingly.
Barcelona's broader dining scene gives you useful context for the decision. The city's three-star tier, led by Disfrutar and Lasarte, asks for significantly more budget and planning. Cocina Hermanos Torres and ABaC operate at the €€€€ tier with corresponding booking difficulty. âme books easily by comparison, which makes it a practical anchor for a trip that includes other harder-to-secure tables. If you are building a multi-restaurant itinerary, confirm âme first and treat it as your reliable evening rather than your reach booking.
For context beyond Barcelona, the French Contemporary format âme works in is one where technique and seasonal sourcing carry equal weight. Internationally, Amber in Hong Kong and Odette in Singapore represent the starred ceiling of the same culinary mode; âme is the neighbourhood register of that same impulse, and is none the worse for it. Within Spain, the highest expressions of technique-led cooking are found at El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Quique Dacosta in Dénia, and Azurmendi in Larrabetzu. âme does not compete with those in scale or ambition, but it does not need to: it is doing something more accessible and, for most visiting diners, more bookable.
If you are visiting Barcelona and want a meal that is French in training but Catalan in sourcing, priced below the starred tier, and rated by real diners at 4.9, âme is the clearest call on the Eixample right now. See our full Barcelona restaurants guide, hotels guide, and bars guide for the full picture.
| Venue | Price Tier | Cuisine | Booking Difficulty | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| âme | €€€ | French Contemporary | Easy | Michelin Plate 2024, 2025 |
| Cocina Hermanos Torres | €€€€ | Creative | Hard | Michelin starred |
| Disfrutar | €€€€ | Progressive, Creative | Very Hard | Michelin starred |
| Lasarte | €€€€ | Progressive Spanish, Creative | Hard | Michelin starred |
| Enigma | €€€€ | Creative | Hard | Michelin starred |
Address: Carrer de Londres, 91, Eixample, 08036 Barcelona. For reservations, contact the venue directly or check current availability through your preferred booking platform. Hours are not confirmed in our current data; verify before travelling.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| âme | The aim of this unusual bistro, run by two business partners who are also in charge of the kitchen, is to pay continued homage to French cuisine, while at the same time making full use of seasonal local ingredients. The à la carte, which changes on a regular basis, is complemented by a tasting menu that is based around the former’s signature dishes such as the “crêpe de mar” (Palamós red prawn pil-pil with a crispy crêpe), the “arroz caldoso de pato” (rice from the Ebro Delta, duck confit and artichokes from El Prat), and the pudding of Medjool dates, salted butter caramel and Tonka chantilly.; Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | €€€ | — |
| Cocina Hermanos Torres | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Disfrutar | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Lasarte | Michelin 3 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Cinc Sentits | Michelin 2 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Enoteca Paco Pérez | Michelin 2 Star | €€€€ | — |
How âme stacks up against the competition.
Yes, for most diners. The tasting menu is built around the à la carte's signature dishes — including the Palamós red prawn crêpe and duck confit rice — so you get the kitchen's clearest statement of intent. At €€€, it sits well below Barcelona's top-end tasting menus at places like Disfrutar or Lasarte, and it holds a Michelin Plate for two consecutive years. If you want to eat à la carte, that option exists, but the tasting menu is the better way to cover the range.
Bar seating is not confirmed in available venue data, so contact âme directly before assuming counter dining is an option. Given the bistro format on Carrer de Londres in Eixample, the room is more likely table-service focused. For solo counter dining in Barcelona, Cinc Sentits is a more explicitly documented option.
At €€€, âme is well-priced for what it delivers: a Michelin Plate-recognised kitchen running a regularly changing à la carte alongside a tasting menu rooted in seasonal Catalan produce and French technique. Comparable Michelin-acknowledged addresses in Barcelona charge more for a similar commitment. The value case is strong if French-rooted cooking with local ingredients is your format.
The bistro format and à la carte option make âme a reasonable solo choice, since you can order selectively without committing to a full tasting menu. That said, bar or counter seating is unconfirmed, so solo diners should call ahead to check table availability for one. The Eixample address on Carrer de Londres is easy to reach and not a destination-only neighbourhood, which helps.
âme is run by two business partners who also cook, which gives the kitchen a focused, owner-operated sensibility uncommon at this price point. The menu changes regularly, so dishes like the Ebro Delta duck rice or Medjool date pudding may not always be available. Book in advance and check whether the current menu suits you. It holds Michelin Plate recognition for 2024 and 2025, which is a reliable floor for quality.
Group suitability depends on room layout, which is not detailed in available venue data. For groups larger than four, check the venue's official channels to confirm table configuration and whether the tasting menu can be served to the whole table simultaneously. The bistro scale suggests intimate rather than event-style seating.
Dietary accommodation details are not in available venue data. Given that the menu changes regularly and features ingredients like Palamós prawn, duck confit, and dairy (Tonka chantilly, salted butter caramel), guests with shellfish, meat, or dairy restrictions should contact âme directly before booking to confirm what the current menu can offer.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
