17 Great Girona Restaurants, Cafes, Bars and Markets

This Girona food guide showcases wonderful restaurants, cafes, bars and markets in the charming Costa Brava city.

Girona, Spain hit the international culinary radar in 2013 when El Celler de Can Roca won the coveted top spot on the “World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list. As diners flocked to the city with their elusive reservations in hand, many may have wondered where else to eat in Girona.

Our guess is that they didn’t find a lot of great restaurants back then. Today is a different story. The city has numerous notable restaurants including seven with Michelin stars. It makes sense.

As we’ve traveled the globe, we’ve learned that young chefs like to train at the world’s best restaurant – both to learn gastronomic techniques from the masters and to build their personal resumés. Like we observed in Scandinavia, young chefs who stage in Spain often stay local and open smaller, more accessible restaurants.

We spent our first days in Girona wandering around the winding, cobblestone streets, marveling at the ancient terra-cotta brick buildings in the Jewish quarter and photographing key Game of Thrones sites.

Yes, we’re huge fans of the HBO show. Seeing the monumental church steps where Jaime Lannister charged up on his white horse gave us both an electric thrill.

As we wandered, we started our exploration of the Girona food scene by eating patates braves and jamon, our gateway foods to Catalan cuisine. But we really weren’t sure where to eat during those first few days. Beyond the city’s seven Michelin-starred restaurants and some surprisingly excellent local chain restaurants, we didn’t find a lot of good information about the best Girona restaurants.

As we talked to local food experts like Xavier Escatllar and Marco Gonkel, we started to peel away the city’s layers to find a thriving food scene that takes full advantage of the bounty of local products. Girona’s location in Costa Brava provides the city access to amazing food.

With the mountainous Pyrenees on one side of Costa Brava and the Mediterranean Sea on the other, Girona has freshly pressed olive oil, deeply red tomatoes, seafood plucked from the sea and some of the freshest garlic we have ever eaten. And we can’t forget the wine. Girona is a city where Empordà wines flow freely and for little cost.

We found that young chefs have learned to harness these ingredients in fun, new ways and that Girona’s food scene, which has jumped beyond the dictums of pure Catalan food, embraces food genres from all over the world. We loved eating bowls of ramen made with Iberico Jamon in Girona. And, with a fish supply that the people in Japan would envy, it only makes sense that Girona’s sushi would be great.

People in Girona are proud of their Michelin-starred restaurants and you should go to them if you can get reservations and have the budget. We didn’t go to them during our three-week visit, but we still dined out frequently – so much that restaurant staff recognized us as we walked in their doors and greeted us with smiles normally reserved for regulars.

These are the restaurants that won our votes for the best places to eat in Girona Spain:

1. El Cul De Món

We liked everything about our Girona lunch at El Cul de Món starting with our scenic 27-minute walk to the restaurant’s “end of the world” location.

This walk beyond the northern edge of Girona’s millennia-old city walls around a horseshoe switchback turn took us by a pleasant stream running under quaint footbridges leading to Chef Lotfi Bousatta’s Moroccan-inspired restaurant that oozes Catalan sensibilities.

Dishes feature elements like pork slow-cooked for 12 hours with chocolate and raisins and Catalan sepia ink rice with sausage. Our set lunch was a true bargain at €17.60 for three courses and a glass of local wine.

El Cul de Món is located at Sant Daniel, 17007 Girona, Spain.

Located on an appealing street in the historic part of town, Divinum provides an excellent introduction to Catalan gastronomy in a contemporary setting. As a bonus, the restaurant offers two affordable lunch menus.

We opted for the €35 menu available at the time of our visit – a great value for the quality and quantity of food. Each dish, including citrus-marinated sardines and a savory steak tartare, was a winner in both flavor and appearance.

Divinum’s top chefs trained in the Roca kitchen, and their expertise shines in their creative food wizardry. It’s not surprising that Michelin has recognized Divinum with a coveted star.

Divinum is located at Carrer de l’Albereda, 7, 17004 Girona, Spain.

Also located in the historic part of town, Nexe is another Girona restaurant preparing exciting food created with the tools of modern gastronomy. Originally called Nu and operated by Michelin-starred Pere Massana, Nexe’s current culinary team continues his legacy by creating Catalan dishes with an Asian twist.

Though we’re not normally big fans of fusion food, we loved everything we ate. Highlights included a starter of large tempura fried prawns whimsically displayed on wires as well as cubes of luscious foie gras served over a bed of ground chocolate cookies and topped with banana ice cream.

The restaurant’s casual atmosphere and excellent food echo a world trend found in amazing U.S restaurants and many Paris restaurants lauded in France’s Le Fooding guide. As a bonus, Nexe offers a Producer menu for those who want to taste it all.

Pro Tip
Sit at the long bar for a front-row view of the Nexe chefs in action. There is no better place to watch determined chefs plate food with tweezers while using other fun gastronomic techniques.

Nexe is located at Carrer d’Abeuradors, 4, 17004 Girona, Spain.

Normally, chain restaurants go against everything that we like about dining out, casual or otherwise. This is not the case in Costa Brava, where local chains like König serve some of the best tapas in Girona.

König’s affordable menu with hamburgers and sandwiches, all made with locally sourced meats and produce, excels when it comes to tapas and beer. Rumor has it that the König’s owners protect their addictive patates braves recipe with high security. We don’t blame them – we liked König’s tapas and beer so much that we produced a YouTube video.

König has multiple locations in Girona.

Our quest for excellent third wave coffee in Girona ended when we walked through the doors of La Fábrica in the heart of Girona’s historic neighborhood. This cyclist cafe serves the best coffee in town both at their central location and at nearby Espresso Mafia (see below), but that’s just part of the story.

Opened by Canadian expats, one of whom is a former professional cyclist, La Fábrica serves a full menu of healthy sandwiches and decadent desserts that can be enjoyed on the café’s scenic outdoor patio located in the middle of a winding alley. The decor is cycle chic, but that doesn’t stop non-cyclists like us from loving every bite and sip.

We also enjoyed drinking their incredible roasted beans at home, brewed up in a Moka pot on our kitchen stove. (See Espresso Mafia below.)

Pro Tip
Although La Fábrica is a popular spot for lunch in Girona, the café is not open for dinner. Come early to avoid the inevitable wait.

La Fábrica is located at 17004, Carrer de la Llebre, 3, 17004 Girona, Spain.

We didn’t score a reservation at El Celler de Can Roca, the best restaurant in Girona Spain, but that didn’t stop us from checking out the Roca family’s Catalan working man restaurant. We ate at Can Roca to feel and taste the local eating vibe of Girona, where we enjoyed dishes like a solid sausage plate and stuffed potatoes (pictured above).

The prix fixe lunch menu was a bargain at only €11 including wine at the time of our visit. Not a light version of El Celler, this old-time eatery provides a glimpse of the Roca Brothers’ family roots.

Pro Tip
Plan way ahead if you want to dine at the three-star Michelin El Celler de Can Roca. The waiting list is a full year.

Can Roca is located at Ctra. de Taialà, 42, 17007 Girona, Spain

We also enjoyed meals at the following restaurants:

Pro Tip
Take a food tour or cooking class soon after you arrive to learn about the local cuisine and meet new people. We also recommend Girona Food Tours for a comprehensive food tour.

As much as we loved Girona, we had a small problem. We loved the desserts too much, if there’s such a thing. We wanted desserts every day during our visit, and we found plenty of places to satisfy our sweet tooth. These are our favorites:

7. casamoner

Casamoner is another Girona chain that surprised us. We visited the bakery daily to purchase fresh baguettes that rivaled some of the best bread we’ve eaten in France… plus a dessert or two.

Sometimes we picked a sugary sweet meringue. Sometimes we went for the intoxicatingly rich egg yolk custard flamet.

But, usually, we opted for xuixo (pronounced shoo-show) – a flaky, tube-shaped, donut-like fried pastry filled with Catalan cream and coated with sugar. To us, and to many others, the xuixo is the official dessert of Girona!

Discover more than 100 great desserts around the world.

casamoner has multiple locations in Girona.

We stopped in El Pessic on our first day for cappuccinos and a Reixada Xocolata. We couldn’t resist the café after ogling its pastry selection through the window. Thanks to its tasty treats, central location and free Wi-Fi, this was not our last visit to El Pessic.

El Pessic is located at Plaça de Catalunya, 10, 17004 Girona, Spain.

Our only complaint about Montse L’Artesana was that it was rarely open when we craved the café’s churros with chocolate and sugar or their steaming cups of drinking chocolate. We later realized that the shop was closed so that the staff could participate in a seasonal stand at Girona’s Christmas Market.

Montse L’Artesana is located at Carrer de la Cort Reial, 9, 17004 Girona, Spain.

As if running a three-star Michelin restaurant and a more casual restaurant in Girona wasn’t enough, the Roca family also operates Rocambolesc Gelateria (conveniently located across the street from a casamoner location). Under the leadership of Jordi Roca, this festively decorated ice cream shop dishes up some of the world’s best soft-serve ice cream and creative toppings.

If you haven’t had candy floss or cotton candy atop ice cream, then this is the shop for you. As for us, we enjoyed our ice cream feast at Rocambolesc Gelateria so much that we produced a YouTube video about the experience.

Rocambolesc Gelateria is located at Carrer de Santa Clara, 50, 17001 Girona, Spain.

A short walk from the historic center and right by Parc del Migdia, Tornés Pastisseria provides a relaxing spot for a cup of coffee and a light bite. Wide windows provide a view of pedestrians walking by the café, and there’s no need to rush in this pleasant café with free Wi-Fi.

Pro Tip
Don’t eat too many sweets with your coffee. Tornés Pastisseria has a counter filled with a variety of tempting treats. You’ll want to buy some to eat later in the day.

Tornés Pastisseria is located at Carrer del Migdia, 51, 17003 Girona, Spain.

We drank a lot of wine in Girona, but we also drank coffee and cocktails in the city. Here are our favorite places for coffee and cocktails in Girona:

12. Espresso Mafia

Once we realized that La Fàbrica has the best coffee in town, we wanted to buy some to make in our apartment. Alas, the café was closed! That’s when we discovered that Espresso Mafia sells the same freshly roasted beans as La Fàbrica. The coffee shop’s baristas also make well-crafted coffee drinks that go well with desserts like cheesecake.

Pro Tip
Like its big brother La Fàbrica, Espresso Mafia does NOT provide free Wi-Fi for its coffee-loving customers.

Espresso Mafia is located at Carrer de la Cort Reial, 5, 17004 Girona, Spain.

Despite the availability of wonderful local wine in Girona, sometimes we found ourselves wanting a cocktail. That’s when we went to Nykteri’s Cocktail Bar, an intimate bar on the edge of the historic quarter.

Here, veteran bartender Mariona Vilanova Reyes whips up unique creations, some with local Terrània Ratafia. Nykteri’s also offers a gin and tonic making class (reservations required.)

Pro Tip
Not sure what you want to drink? Just tell Reyes what you like, and she will suggest a cocktail from the bar’s vast drink menu.

Nykteri’s Cocktail Bar is located at Carrer de Santa Llúcia, 4, 17007 Girona, Spain.

Most European cities have a central market. Girona is no exception to this rule. If you stay in an apartment, you’ll be able to shop at that market, Mercat del Lléo, like locals and cook at home. You’ll also be able to shop at smaller specialty shops too.

14. Mercat del Lléo

A large lion statue greets visitors to Mercat del Lléo, Girona’s busy central market. Inside the market, 60 vendors sell a myriad of local products including meat, fish, seafood, spices, produce and more.

Housewives vie with chefs and tourists for the best products. Luckily, there is more than enough for everybody – especially on Saturdays when additional vendors line the outer sidewalks with additional stalls.

Mercat del Lléo is located at Plaça Calvet i Rubalcaba, s/n, 17002 Girona, Spain.

Don Jamón is our favorite jamon shop in Girona.

Perhaps it’s because the shop sells a wonderful selection of meats at all price points. Perhaps it’s because the staff is super friendly. Perhaps it’s because we love the shop’s Ham Session (see above) concept. Perhaps it’s because Don Jamón was only a couple of blocks from our apartment.

Who are we kidding? We love Don Jamón because it’s the best jamon shop in town.

Don Jamón is located at Carrer Ultònia, 3, 17002 Girona, Spain.

True confession – we adore French cheese.

Lucky for us, we discovered La Fromagerie early in our visit to Girona and returned numerous times to purchase cheese lovingly imported by Sandrine Poupinet, a Girona resident who hails from Brittany. We found incredible cheeses here including a 6-month version of Tomme de Laguiole, one of our favorite cheeses from a recent visit to Laguiole.

La Fromagerie is located inside the Mercat del Lléo.

As much as we love French cheese, we weren’t so sure about Catalan cheese until we wandered into La Noucentista, a gourmet shop across the street from our neighborhood casamoner. Owner Xavier Baig introduced us to local cheeses like the award-winning Casa Mateu from nearby Lleida – think sheepy Roquefort cheese without the bleu.

With his selection of wine and cheese, along with specialty meats like sobressada (a spicy Catalan spreadable salami) and boutifarra, we could eat and drink for quite a while after shopping at La Noucentista.

La Noucentista is located at Carrer del Migdia, 22, 17002 Girona, Spain.

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