Restaurant in Barcelona, Spain
Gran Via address that earns repeat visits.
Elephant Crocodile Monkey sits on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes in the Eixample with low booking friction and a repeat-visit appeal that most of Barcelona's destination restaurants cannot match. It is not the hardest table in the city to land — and that accessibility is a feature, not a flaw. A practical choice for a special occasion dinner when you want a quality Eixample evening without the months-long waitlist.
A second visit to Elephant Crocodile Monkey on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes tends to confirm what the first one suggested: the name is not the strangest thing about this address. Located in the Eixample grid at number 700, the venue sits in one of Barcelona's most walkable dining corridors, which means the bar for earning a return trip is genuinely high. Whether it clears that bar depends on what you are comparing it against — and in this neighbourhood, the competition is serious.
On a first visit, the priority is getting a read on the room. The Eixample tends toward a mid-volume buzz in the early evening, settling into something more intimate after 9 PM when the after-work crowd thins. If you are booking for a special occasion — an anniversary, a birthday dinner for two, a client meal , the later seating gives you more of the atmosphere you are paying for. Go early and you may find the energy closer to a busy neighbourhood restaurant than a destination dining experience.
A second visit is where the multi-visit case gets interesting. With the layout and pacing understood from visit one, you can be more deliberate: counter or table, early or late, wine-led or food-led. Booking here is direct , no months-long waitlist, no impossible phone queue , so the friction of a return visit is low. That accessibility is itself a signal: this is a venue that wants regulars, not just one-time pilgrims chasing a reservation.
For special occasions specifically, the Eixample location works in your favour. Pre-dinner drinks at one of the neighbourhood's cocktail bars and a post-dinner walk toward Passeig de Gràcia make this a full evening rather than just a meal. If you are weighing this against a higher-stakes booking at Disfrutar or Lasarte, the question is whether you want a reliably bookable experience in a good part of town or a harder-to-land reservation at a more internationally recognised address. Both are valid answers depending on the occasion.
Practical note: the venue does not publish a phone number or website in the standard directories, which makes direct booking via walk-in or third-party platform the most reliable route. Build that into your planning, especially if you have a fixed date in mind.
For broader context on where this fits in Barcelona's dining scene, see our full Barcelona restaurants guide. If you are building a full trip around the meal, our Barcelona hotels guide and our Barcelona bars guide cover the rest of the evening.
Barcelona's top-end dining tier is anchored by venues like Disfrutar and Cocina Hermanos Torres, both of which require planning months in advance and carry price tags to match. If your priority is the most technically ambitious cooking in the city, those are the bookings to chase. Elephant Crocodile Monkey sits at a different point on the effort-to-reward curve: easier to book, lower friction on repeat visits, and positioned for diners who want a quality Eixample dinner without the full commitment of a tasting-menu marathon.
Lasarte and Cinc Sentits occupy a similar bracket in terms of occasion-worthiness, but both carry more formal expectations around dress and pacing. For a special occasion dinner where the room and the company matter as much as the food, Elephant Crocodile Monkey's accessibility is a genuine advantage over venues where the booking process itself becomes part of the stress.
If you are building a Barcelona dining itinerary across several days, the practical recommendation is to anchor one night at a high-commitment address , Enigma or ABaC are worth the extra effort , and use Elephant Crocodile Monkey as the more relaxed, repeatable option for another evening. That split gives you range without over-optimising every meal around the hardest-to-book table in the city.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Elephant Crocodile Monkey | — | |
| Cocina Hermanos Torres | €€€€ | — |
| Disfrutar | €€€€ | — |
| Lasarte | €€€€ | — |
| Cinc Sentits | €€€€ | — |
| Enoteca Paco Pérez | €€€€ | — |
Comparing your options in Barcelona for this tier.
Groups are workable here given the Eixample address on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, which typically means a roomier footprint than compact old-town spots. check the venue's official channels to confirm private or semi-private arrangements before committing a large party. For groups of six or more in Barcelona, it is worth asking specifically about set-menu options, which tend to simplify service on both sides. Disfrutar and Cocina Hermanos Torres have formal private-dining infrastructure if that is a firm requirement.
The name signals personality rather than formality, and that carries through to the experience: this is not a white-tablecloth occasion restaurant in the Lasarte mould. It sits on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes in Eixample, which puts it in a well-connected, walkable part of the city rather than a tucked-away destination. First-timers should go in without rigid expectations about format and let the menu set the pace. Confirm hours and booking policy directly before visiting, as neither is documented publicly.
Booking a week or two in advance is a reasonable baseline for an Eixample restaurant of this profile, though the specific demand level here is not publicly documented. For context, Barcelona's higher-profile venues like Disfrutar require months of lead time, so if you can secure a table here with shorter notice, that is part of the practical appeal. Check availability online or call ahead; if you are visiting on a weekend, err toward more notice rather than less.
The Gran Via address and the venue's name suggest an informal register that tends to suit solo diners better than high-ceremony tasting-menu rooms. Whether counter or bar seating is available is not confirmed in current records, so it is worth asking when booking. Solo diners in Barcelona who want a guaranteed counter experience should consider Cinc Sentits or a sushi-format spot; here, the draw is more about the overall atmosphere and value proposition.
Bar or counter seating is not confirmed from available information, so check the venue's official channels before planning your visit around it. If bar dining is a priority, Barcelona has clearer options: Enoteca Paco Pérez and Cinc Sentits both have documented seating formats. At Elephant Crocodile Monkey, the safer assumption is standard table service unless the venue confirms otherwise.
Specific menu details are not publicly documented, which makes a confident dish recommendation impossible without risking inaccuracy. The practical move is to ask the staff on arrival what is driving the menu that week, particularly if the kitchen works with seasonal or market-led ingredients, which is common across Barcelona's Eixample dining scene. Avoid arriving with a fixed dish in mind; the menu format here appears to reward flexibility.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
