Restaurant in Barcelona, Spain
Flexible format, serious food, no waitlist drama.
Ten's is Jordi Cruz's gastro-bar in El Born — a Michelin Plate-recognised address (2024 and 2025) with a seasonal tapas and raciones menu, plus a tasting menu served to the full table. At €€€, it's the most accessible way into Cruz's cooking, and a solid choice for an intimate dinner without the formality of Barcelona's full fine-dining tier.
If you visited Ten's when it first opened on Carrer del Rec, the experience has likely shifted in ways worth knowing before you return. The room still reads spare and precise: clean lines, minimal decoration, a visual calm that signals the kitchen takes the work seriously. What changes more reliably than the décor is the menu itself. The tapas and raciones at Ten's rotate with the seasons, which means the dish you remember from a spring visit almost certainly won't be there in October — and that's the point. For a first-timer, Ten's is a well-priced entry point into Jordi Cruz's cooking. For a repeat visitor, the seasonal rotation is the reason to come back.
Jordi Cruz holds three Michelin stars at his flagship Ángel, and Ten's is the more accessible format of that same culinary thinking: a gastro-bar on a narrow El Born street, Michelin Plate-recognised in both 2024 and 2025, with a Google rating of 4.1 across more than 2,400 reviews. That volume of reviews at that score tells you this is a venue operating consistently, not one coasting on a famous name.
Timing your visit to Ten's is more consequential than it might appear. The menu leans on seasonal produce, which means spring visits reward you with lighter plates , bright acidities, fresh shellfish, herb-forward preparations. Autumn shifts the register toward richer, earthier combinations. Oyster preparations cycle through different treatments depending on the season: the Bloody Mary version tends to appear when tomatoes are at peak quality; the gazpachuelo treatment is a colder-weather comfort. If oysters are the draw for you, visit between October and April, when they're at their leading in Catalan waters.
In terms of day and time, Ten's performs leading during lunch service on weekdays, when the pace is more considered and the kitchen operates with less pressure than a Friday or Saturday dinner rush. The El Born neighbourhood fills quickly on weekend evenings, and ambient noise in the bar-facing areas increases accordingly. For a special occasion dinner, request a table away from the bar counter and aim for an early sitting , before 9 PM by Spanish standards, which means around 8:30 PM.
Ten's is structured as a gastro-bar, which means the format is more flexible than a traditional tasting-menu restaurant. You can build a meal from individual tapas, order a selection of raciones for sharing, or commit to the Ten's tasting menu , served only to the whole table, not individually. That last option is the most efficient way to understand what Cruz's team is doing here: it sequences the menu so that the kitchen's logic is legible, rather than leaving you to piece it together from à la carte choices.
The raciones are genuinely designed for sharing rather than being oversized tapas. This distinction matters for planning: a table of two can cover meaningful ground with four to five raciones and a couple of individual tapas. A group of four has more flexibility but should commit to the tasting menu if everyone wants the same experience , mixing tasting menu and à la carte across a table isn't the format here.
At €€€ pricing, Ten's sits below the full fine-dining tier of Cruz's other projects and well below comparably credentialled Barcelona restaurants. For context, the restaurants in Barcelona's €€€€ bracket , Disfrutar, Lasarte, Cocina Hermanos Torres , deliver longer tasting menus with greater ceremony. Ten's trades the ceremony for directness: you get the cooking without the production, which suits certain occasions better than others.
Ten's works well for a birthday dinner or an intimate celebration where the conversation matters as much as the food. The room is calm enough for that. It doesn't work as well for large groups who want a full fine-dining procession, or for anyone who needs a private dining room. The gastro-bar format keeps things sociable and a little informal, which is a feature rather than a flaw if you're booking for two people who want a serious meal without the weight of a three-hour tasting menu.
For celebration dinners where you want more ceremony, Cinc Sentits or Enoteca Paco Pérez offer a more structured occasion. If you want to understand Barcelona's broader modern Spanish scene, Quirat, Prodigi, and Barra Alta Barcelona each represent different points on the spectrum. Ten's sits closest to a serious neighbourhood restaurant with creative ambition, rather than a destination tasting-menu address.
Beyond Barcelona, if Cruz's approach to modern Spanish cooking appeals, the benchmark comparisons at the leading of the Spanish scene are Quique Dacosta in Dénia, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, and Arzak in San Sebastián. The international parallels for a gastro-bar format with serious kitchen credentials include Frantzén in Stockholm and Maison Lameloise in Chagny, though both operate at a considerably higher price point and formality level. Ten's is the version of that ambition that's accessible on a weeknight.
Booking at Ten's is direct by Barcelona standards. There is no six-week waitlist and no allocation drama. Book at least a week ahead for weekend dinner to be safe; for weekday lunch, a few days' notice is typically sufficient. The address , Carrer del Rec, 79, El Born , is walkable from the Gothic Quarter and close to the Barceloneta end of El Born, a neighbourhood well covered in our full Barcelona restaurants guide. If you're exploring the wider city, our Barcelona bars guide, hotels guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the rest.
Also worth knowing for the wider region: Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria, and Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María are each worth the trip if you're extending your Spanish itinerary.
Quick reference: Ten's, Carrer del Rec 79, El Born, Barcelona , €€€ , Michelin Plate 2024 & 2025 , 4.1/5 (2,428 reviews) , book 1 week ahead for weekends, 2–3 days for weekday lunch , tasting menu for full table only.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ten's | Modern Cuisine | €€€ | A minimalist gastro-bar overseen by famous chef Jordi Cruz. The focus here is on individual tapas that include different types of oysters (“natural”, with Bloody Mary, gazpachuelo etc), an impressive array of “raciones” designed for sharing, elaborate desserts, plus a tapas tasting menu entitled Ten's that is only served to the whole table and is the perfect option to get a true insight into the cuisine here. One dish that bowled us over was the Japanese-style tiradito with cured gilthead bream, gazpachuelo, grapes, kumquat and seaweed.; Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Easy | — |
| Cocina Hermanos Torres | Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Disfrutar | Progressive, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Lasarte | Progressive Spanish, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star | Unknown | — |
| Cinc Sentits | Modern Spanish, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
| Enoteca Paco Pérez | Modern Spanish, Modern Cuisine | €€€€ | Michelin 2 Star | Unknown | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Ten's and alternatives.
A week ahead is enough for most visits, though weekend evenings fill faster. Ten's does not run the six-week waitlist you find at Disfrutar or Lasarte, which makes it one of the more accessible €€€ options in the city. If you want the Ten's tasting menu, confirm when booking that your whole table is on board, as it is only served to the full table.
Ten's is a gastro-bar, not a traditional tasting-menu restaurant, so the format is more flexible than the price range suggests. You can build a meal from individual tapas and shared raciones, or commit the whole table to the Ten's tasting menu for a more structured read on Jordi Cruz's cooking. The address is Carrer del Rec, 79 in Ciutat Vella, placing it in the Born neighbourhood.
The oyster selection is a strong opening move, offered in several formats including natural and with Bloody Mary. The raciones are designed for sharing and worth anchoring your order around. One standout documented by reviewers is the Japanese-style tiradito with cured gilthead bream, gazpachuelo, grapes, kumquat, and seaweed. If the table is aligned, the Ten's tasting menu gives the clearest picture of what the kitchen is doing.
Disfrutar is the step up if you want a full avant-garde tasting menu and can secure a reservation. Cinc Sentits offers a more intimate, produce-led format at a comparable price point. Enoteca Paco Pérez skews harder toward wine pairing as a core part of the experience. Ten's sits between those options in format: more relaxed than a full tasting-menu room, more ambitious than a neighbourhood tapas bar.
At €€€, Ten's earns its place if you are eating from the raciones and tasting menu rather than grazing lightly on a few tapas. The Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 signals consistent kitchen quality. For the same spend, Cinc Sentits delivers a more structured progression, but Ten's gives you more control over pacing and portion size.
Yes, particularly for groups of two to four where the conversation is as important as the food. The gastro-bar format means you are not locked into a two-hour fixed sequence, which works well for a birthday dinner or an anniversary where you want flexibility. For a more ceremonial occasion requiring a full production, Lasarte or Cocina Hermanos Torres would be the stronger call.
If the whole table is willing, the Ten's tasting menu is the clearest way to read Jordi Cruz's cooking in this format, and it removes the decision fatigue of building a meal from scratch. The catch is that it requires full-table buy-in, so it does not suit mixed groups where some want to eat lightly. For solo diners or pairs who prefer to graze, the individual tapas and raciones route works well without feeling like a lesser experience.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
