Area : El Born MAP IT
Opening hours : From 1pm to 4 pm and from 8pm to midnight. Closed on sunday
Prices : 26€
Phone : 93 315 12 27
Metro/Bus : Arc de Triomf (L1)
TripAdvisor : 4.5/5 rank 653 / 4198 44 reviews
Qype : 4/5 4 reviews VipGourmet : 6/10 1 review
Santa Maria is a rare place. Tapas here are extremely creative, cooks from Ferran Adrià's school will surprise you with their imagination. A delight to taste all the tapas with the tasting menu at 17 and 27euros... Beautiful people's canteen. Always full, you better book... We passed by again in May 2011 the menu did not change a whole. They fall asleep a little on their reputation. Caution.
A combination of cutting-edge industrial design, with exposed ducts over medieval stone walls, and innovative tapa creations keeps Santa Maria thriving. The kitchen's inventions have even lured in Barcelona's leading chefs to dine on anything from espardenyes (sea cucumber) to escamarlans amb salicornia (prawns with saltwort) and ancas de rana (frogs legs).
Santa Maria serves delicious tapas using traditional ingredients and techniques...but don´t get too comfortable. Their menu is highly creative, as the cooks from Adrian Ferra´s school are always looking for new ways to create new flavours. And the results are always good. If, like us, you find it hard to choose, try the discovery menu which will only cost you 36 euros. Catalan classics are mixed with Japanese flavours. Seaweed is served with fish with sweet rice vinegar, eggs with caviar, salmon with leeks and wasabi patatoes, and the desserts on offer include coconut-soaked bread with a strawberry infusion and she-chuan peppers. The decor is chic, with clean lines and iconic images, attracting a young professional crowd. Make sure you book in advance.
Celebrity chef Pedro Guzman bought an old store and transformed it into Santa Maria, a hip restaurant serving delicious Spanish cuisine. Although a Catalan menu dominates Pedro's culinary preparations, specialties from other parts of the world can also be tried out at this restaurant. The menu, although quite imaginative, does not change very often. So expect a little monotony if you visit regularly.
Situated near Carles Abellán’s Comerç 24, run by another of Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli alumni and also serving small, innovative tapas-like dishes (but cheaper with a greater chance of an available table), it’s easy to describe this as the runner-up choice. Comparing the two, however, is unfair as that’s where the similarities end. Whereas the dining experience at Comerç 24 can feel a bit formal and theatrical, Paco Guzmán’s joint is a noisy, busy tapas place that just happens to serve up wonderful, fancy food on the side.
