Restaurant in Barcelona, Spain
Counter dining, Michelin plate, fair price.
A Michelin-plated Japanese-Mediterranean counter restaurant in Eixample with a 4.8 Google rating across 459 reviews. Chef Teppei Nii's rotating menus blend Japanese technique with Mediterranean coastal ingredients at €€€ pricing — notably below Barcelona's top-table tier. Book the six-seat counter for dates or special occasions; the room is intimate, the cooking is technically serious, and availability is currently Easy.
Soluna sits on Carrer de Casanova in the Eixample, and if you are weighing whether to book, the headline number tells you most of what you need to know: 4.8 stars across 459 Google reviews for a €€€ restaurant in a city where that price tier is genuinely competitive. The Michelin Plate recognition in 2025 confirms what the reviews suggest — this is a kitchen operating with real technical discipline, not a neighbourhood joint riding on novelty. The question is not whether Soluna is good. It is whether it is right for your trip and your occasion.
The room is built around an elongated counter with seating for six, supplemented by functional tables for the rest of the dining room. If you are coming for a date or a serious celebration dinner, request the counter. Sitting at the pass puts you closer to the preparation and gives the meal a focus that the tables, while perfectly serviceable, do not replicate in the same way. For groups larger than two, the tables are the practical choice, but book early , a room this size fills quickly, especially at weekends.
The spatial experience here is deliberately intimate. This is not a sprawling Barcelona restaurant designed for large parties and high covers. Soluna is built for people who want to pay attention to what is on the plate. For a special occasion in Barcelona, that intimacy is an asset. For a group looking for a lively, social dinner with noise and energy, look elsewhere , Cocina Hermanos Torres or ABaC can absorb larger parties with more theatrical staging.
Chef Teppei Nii's concept is Japanese cooking pulled toward the Mediterranean. The menu names , Soluna and Festival , rotate approximately every two months, which means what you find in winter will not be what you find in spring. At the time of this writing, the menus are in their current seasonal iteration, so confirm the format and current dishes when you book.
The dish that has travelled furthest by word of mouth is the cod cheek "pizza" , an okonomiyaki base with cod cheeks pil-pil and tuna katsuobushi. It is a genuine fusion construction rather than a branding exercise: the pil-pil technique (the Basque emulsion method using cod collagen) applied to a Japanese pancake format, finished with katsuobushi. Whether or not you read that as clever depends on your tolerance for concept cooking, but the technical execution is what puts it in Michelin territory. Order it if it is on the current menu.
The cuisine sits at the intersection of two cooking traditions that have more structural overlap than they might appear to , Japanese umami discipline and Mediterranean coastal ingredients share a common preference for letting the primary ingredient lead. At Soluna, that overlap is the premise of the whole restaurant, not just a dish or two. For diners who already know Japanese Contemporary well, The Japanese Restaurant in Andermatt and Eika in Taipei represent the purer end of that tradition. Soluna sits at a different point , the Mediterranean influence is structural, not decorative.
Booking at Soluna is rated Easy. This is a meaningful advantage over Barcelona's €€€€ tier, where Disfrutar requires planning months in advance and Enigma runs its own separate booking process. You can reasonably expect to secure a table at Soluna with a week or two of lead time, though for weekend counter seats during peak season (spring and summer in Barcelona), earlier is always safer. Hours are not confirmed in our current data, so check directly with the restaurant when you book , this matters particularly if you are planning a late dinner, as Eixample restaurants vary widely on last-seating times.
On the question of late-night dining: Soluna's small size and counter format make it better suited to a focused, single-sitting dinner than a long, leisurely late session. If your evening calls for drinks after dinner, the Barcelona bars scene in Eixample gives you plenty of options within walking distance. The restaurant itself is leading treated as the centrepiece of the evening rather than the opening act.
At €€€, Soluna is priced below Barcelona's leading table tier. Compared to the €€€€ commitment required at Lasarte, Cinc Sentits, or Enoteca Paco Pérez, you are getting Michelin-recognised cooking at a lower per-head outlay. For special occasions where the goal is quality of experience rather than prestige address, that gap is worth considering. The two menu formats (Soluna and Festival) give you some flexibility on spend, though specific pricing is leading confirmed at booking since menus change every two months.
If you are comparing Soluna to Barcelona's broader creative dining scene, the calculus is direct: you get a technically serious, Michelin-plated Japanese-Mediterranean kitchen at €€€ pricing, with a dining room small enough to feel considered rather than commercial. The trade-off is that the room has no grand spectacle and the counter capacity means availability can tighten quickly around key dates. Spain has no shortage of acclaimed creative kitchens , El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Arzak in San Sebastián, and Azurmendi in Larrabetzu all operate in a different register , but within Barcelona at this price point, Soluna offers a focused, credentialled alternative to the city's larger tasting-menu operations.
For trip planning beyond dinner, our full Barcelona restaurants guide, Barcelona hotels guide, and Barcelona experiences guide cover the broader picture. If wine is part of your plan, the Barcelona wineries guide is worth a look before you travel.
Book Soluna if you want Michelin-level Japanese-Mediterranean cooking in a small, intimate room at a price point below Barcelona's top tier. It is the right call for a date dinner or a special occasion where quality on the plate matters more than the scale of the setting. Skip it if you need a restaurant that can seat a group comfortably, or if you want a late, drawn-out evening , the room and format do not lend themselves to either. For a focused, technically serious dinner in Eixample, the 4.8 rating and the Michelin Plate are not accidents.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soluna | At Soluna, which comes from the Spanish translation of the names of his children, chef Teppei Nii conjures up Japanese-inspired cuisine that strays a little from the norm as a result of its fusion with more Mediterranean-style cooking. At its elongated counter (with seating for six) and its functional tables, choose between menus (Soluna and Festival) that change approximately every two months. One particular dish everyone is talking about and you must try is the famous cod cheek “pizza" (okonomiyaki with cod cheeks pil-pil and tuna katsuobushi).; Michelin Plate (2025) | €€€ | — |
| 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 | €€€€ | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Soluna and alternatives.
The cod cheek "pizza" — an okonomiyaki with cod cheeks pil-pil and tuna katsuobushi — is the dish most talked about and worth ordering if it appears on the current rotation. Both menus (Soluna and Festival) change approximately every two months, so the specific lineup depends on when you visit. Ask about the current menu when booking so you know what to expect.
Groups of six can book out the entire counter, which is the most compelling way to experience the room. Larger parties should request the functional tables in the dining area, but be aware the counter is where the format makes most sense. If you are coming in a group of more than six, check availability for table seating directly with the venue.
At €€€, both menus represent genuine value for Michelin-recognised Japanese-Mediterranean cooking in Barcelona. The menus rotate every two months, so there is a consistent reason to return. If you want a longer, more elaborate tasting format, Cinc Sentits at €€€€ offers that — but Soluna delivers precision cooking at a more accessible price point.
Yes, at €€€ it is priced below Barcelona's top-tier restaurants like Lasarte and Disfrutar, while holding a Michelin Plate (2025) and a strong 4.8 Pearl rating. You get a chef-led, counter-format experience at a fraction of the cost of the city's starred rooms. If budget is a real factor, Cinc Sentits is the closest €€€€ comparison — Soluna gives you more room in that equation.
Yes, particularly for two people or a small group of up to six at the counter. The intimate format — six counter seats, a rotating seasonal menu, and Japanese-Mediterranean cooking with a Michelin Plate — creates a focused, occasion-appropriate experience without the formality of Barcelona's starred rooms. It is better suited to a dinner-for-two than a large celebration.
Book the counter if you can — it seats six and puts you closest to the kitchen format chef Teppei Nii has built around. The menus rotate every two months, so the specific dishes will differ from any review you have read. Booking is rated Easy relative to Barcelona's top tier, but the counter fills quickly given its size, so do not leave it to the last week.
For a step up in formality and price, Cinc Sentits and Lasarte both operate at €€€€ with Michelin stars. For avant-garde cooking at the highest level, Disfrutar requires months of advance planning and a significantly larger budget. Cocina Hermanos Torres is the choice if you want a grand-scale tasting menu experience. Soluna sits below all of these in price and formality — that is its specific advantage, not a gap.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
