Vegetalia Barcelona restaurant review

Hola chicos y chicas!

I've just got off a plane after a few wonderful, wonderful days in Spain, visiting two lovely cities - Barcelona and Madrid.

I've been to Barcelona a good few times in the past for both work and on holiday, but never as a vegan, and I've never been to Madrid full stop. That meant that, as well as exploring the cities' art, architecture, bars and streets, I was bang up for exploring what both places would present in terms of vegan food.

My first stop was Vegetalia, a little cafe-type place not far from La Rambla, the huge pedestrianised street that's one of the best known and visited bits of Barcelona.

Vegetalia's a fairly straightforward place - the menu's a pick and mix arrangements of things like burgers, nachos, salads, soups, noodles, and desserts. It's veggie, but at least half the menu's vegan and marked as such.

I went in with my other half, and two omni friends. We kicked off with two lots of nachos between us, one vegan with guac, and one not, with cheese. Here's the vegan one I hogged (apols for crappy mobile phone picture):

    

No trouble there - some nicely made guacamole, bit of onion and tomatoes, and a clean plate. Next up, we all went for burgers, which came either 'al pan' (translated in English as 'in a bun' on the menu) or with rice and salad. 

There were, if memory serves, two vegan burger options, and I opted for the seitan and carrot. I ordered mine with the rice and salad, and got some nicely cooked brown rice and salad with a lemony dressing. The burger was neither particularly seitany or carroty, but tasty nonetheless, and perfectly moist. 

Friends who went for the 'al pan' option rather oddly got theirs in between slices of seeded toast, rather than in the promised bun (although the Spanish 'pan' just means bread, rather than a bun, so maybe that's a problem with the translation rather than the kitchen).

As well as getting the salad I enjoyed, the 'al pan' people had more nachos in place of rice - leaving a lot of nacho-ed out people around that table! My other half also got a pot of spicy sauce with his burger (the only one of us that did), a red peppery concoction that wouldn't have got amiss on the side of everyone's plate as a shortcut to a quick burger pep-up.

While I like brown rice, nachos and wholemeal bread, when I go for a burger, I kind of want dirty food - fried potatoes, bread big enough to cross the Channel on, that sort of thing - none of which was on the menu. Vegetalia had more a healthy, whole food vibe though, so I can't hold my unhealthy cravings against them.

As an introduction to Barcelona's veg*n food, Vegetalia was a good start - the food turned up quickly, the waiter was a friendly geezer, and the food itself may not have had as much deep frying and carbs as I wanted, but it was simple and tasty - and, I was to find out, carbs and deep frying wouldn't be in short supply during my stay. Result!

Restaurante Vegetalia
http://www.restaurantvegetalia.com/
54 Carrer dels Escudellers
08002
Barcelona
Spain
933 17 33 31