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Places the guides would actually book, from a market stall to the big dinner of the trip.
Citorah PickRestaurant · Barceloneta
Citorah says Singla actually cooks the socarrat, the stock tastes like the harbour outside the window, and the room isn't a cruise-ship overflow.
Wrong for Solo diners, anyone in a rush (45 minutes from order), or a €30-a-head ceiling.
Citorah PickRestaurant
Citorah says 7 Portes (sometimes written "Set Portes") at Passeig Isabel II 14 is the 1836 grande dame you want — two minutes from Barceloneta metro on the L4, vaulted dining room, marble columns, brass nameplates of dead writers above the booths.
Wrong for Solo diners (rice is a two-pax floor, full stop), backpackers on €15 a meal, anyone with a 7pm flamenco ticket.
Citorah PickRestaurant · Barceloneta
Citorah says The room hasn't moved since 1903 and neither has the formula: white tablecloths, tiled walls, waiters who've been there longer than your relationship, and rice cooked the way Barceloneta cooked it before the Olympics ruined the seafront.
Wrong for Solo diners (the 2-pax rice minimum makes it a €50 mistake), anyone in a rush (rice is 25 minutes from the pan, as it should be), and the under-€20-a-head crowd.
Citorah PickRestaurant
Citorah says The Escribà family have run pastry counters in this city since 1906, and their beach restaurant at Av. del Litoral 62 is where they cook the rice.
The catch Wrong restaurant if you're solo (the rices are built for two), in a hurry (forty minutes minimum from order to table — that's how paella works), or trying to eat for under €30.
Citorah PickRestaurant · Gràcia
Citorah says Two branches, both run by Grup Xàtiva, both better than anything you'll find on La Rambla with a laminated photo menu.
Wrong for Solo travellers (you can't order most of the menu for one), wrong if you've got a 9pm Sagrada Família slot (each pan is cooked to order, 25-40 minutes minimum), and wrong if €40-a-head feels steep.
Citorah PickRestaurant · El Born
Citorah says This is the rice address locals send their cousins to when 7 Portes is full of cruise passengers being walked in two-by-two.
The catch Wrong restaurant if you're solo, want under €20 a head, or are catching a 16:00 train.
Citorah PickRestaurant
Citorah says Yes, the one Bourdain did. The one every listicle puts at #1. They're not wrong; they're just lazy about how to do it.
Wrong for Solo diners (it's a sharing menu and you'll feel daft), groups over six (they'll split you across two tables and the sharing falls apart and you end up eating in two conversations), under-€60-a-head budgets (two people, beer, no lobster, you're at €75-100), and anyone who wants a quiet conversation — it's a strip-lit, tiled, shouty cervejaria and that's the joy of it.
Citorah PickCafé
Citorah says Versailles has been open since 1922 — stained glass, carved wood ceilings, foxed mirrors, red-waistcoated waiters who've worked here longer than you've been alive and won't pretend to be charmed by you.
Wrong for Anyone wanting a quick takeaway nata (sit-down service is the whole point, and the staff are unhurried), big groups (the room is formal, not loud), tourists hunting "the famous one" — Belém is the famous one, that's the problem with Belém.
Citorah PickRestaurant
Citorah says Solar has been run by the Cardoso family from Monção since 1974 — Evaristo opened it, his son Pedro runs it now, and the ground-floor room is where the Lisbon regulars sit under the wall of signed footballs and politician headshots.
Wrong for Solo diners (it's a sharing room, you'll feel marooned), anyone wanting a quick bite (three hours, minimum), and under-€40-a-head budgets — reckon €70-90 per person with wine.
Citorah PickRestaurant · Alfama
Citorah says It's a former palace chapel — properly small, properly tiled in original blue azulejos floor to ceiling — and the fado is the real reason you book.
Wrong for Solo diners (the two-top tables get squeezed against the wall by the door), groups over six, anyone who wants to talk through dinner — silence is enforced when the fadista sings and the waiters will glare.
Citorah PickRestaurant · Baixa / Chiado
Citorah says The menu is a blackboard the waiter carries to your table and translates, badly and charmingly, from Portuguese — it changes daily depending on what came off the Setúbal boats and out of the Alentejo that morning.
Wrong for Solo diners (the menu wants three people sharing six plates), groups over four (they'll split you), anyone who needs to be somewhere at a specific time.
Citorah PickRestaurant
Citorah says Climb the staircase off Rua dos Fanqueiros toward the Sé and you arrive at Largo São Cristóvão 3, where Zé Paulo Rocha took over the old Eurico's tasca in 2019 and turned it into the hardest twelve tables in Lisbon.
Wrong for Solo diners (the room is built for sharing four plates between two), parties over four (they'll split you), anyone in a hurry, anyone who wants a menu in English.
Citorah PickMarket · Shoreditch
Citorah says The Sunday market sprawl, and a street that is half curry-house institution, half bagel shop. The 24-hour beigel bakeries at the north end are a London rite of passage.
Citorah PickMarket
Citorah says Hackney, Saturdays, the east-London market locals actually shop. Food stalls plus a great street to drink along after.
Citorah PickMarket · South Bank / Waterloo
Citorah says The famous one, by London Bridge. Touristy now, but still a real produce market with excellent stalls. Go mid-morning on a weekday to beat the crush.
Citorah PickMarket
Citorah says The locals' answer to Borough: a tighter run of railway-arch traders in Bermondsey, weekends only. Better atmosphere, fewer crowds.
Citorah PickRestaurant
Citorah says Handmade pasta, tiny, a permanent queue that moves. No bookings at Borough (join the virtual queue); the Shoreditch and Soho (Kingly Street) branches take reservations.
Citorah PickRestaurant
Citorah says Fergus Henderson's nose-to-tail restaurant near Smithfield. Modern British cooking's reference point. The bakery alone is worth the trip.
Citorah PickRestaurant · Puerto Morelos
Citorah says Los Pelicanos sits on the beach and is exactly as touristy as you would expect but the shrimp are honest
Citorah PickRestaurant · Puerto Morelos
Citorah says La Sirena is the local pick and half a block from the square.
Citorah PickRestaurant · Isla Mujeres
Citorah says Lunch on the way back down the island at Lolo Lorena (French-Caribbean, small, book if you can, and check it's serving lunch) or Mango Cafe, mid-island (breakfast-all-day, the shakshuka is a surprise; cash only).
Citorah PickCafé · Isla Mujeres
Citorah says Lunch on the way back down the island at Lolo Lorena (French-Caribbean, small, book if you can, and check it's serving lunch) or Mango Cafe, mid-island (breakfast-all-day, the shakshuka is a surprise; cash only).
Citorah PickRestaurant · El Centro
Citorah says You will eat at Los de Pescado for a 90-MXN fish taco lunch.
Citorah PickRestaurant · Puerto Morelos
Best for breakfast
Citorah says There is a small square, a leaning lighthouse, three good taco stands, half a dozen serious restaurants (El Nicho for breakfast, John Gray's Kitchen for dinner), and one of the best snorkelling reefs in Quintana Roo a five-minute panga ride offshore.
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London · Food & drink
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Madrid · Food & drink
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