The secret to affording Michelin star restaurants: Lunch

I ate supremely well in Barcelona. Before my trip, I'd never been to a Michelin star restaurant. I never thought I was the type of person who could afford such luxury. But then I discovered lunch menus, and a whole new world of culinary bliss was opened to me. 

Sure, the concept of lunch isn't new. But at a few of the city's best restaurants, mediodía (midday) tasting menus are €50-100 cheaper than regular tasting menus, and it's much easier to snag a table. 

Lunch at the following Michelin starred restaurants cost between €35 and €50 per person. That's not the cheapest meal, but it's on par with what you would pay at most good places in Barcelona. If I splurged on lunch, I would typically balance it out with a cheap dinner from the market: shaved ham or salami, cheese, a baguette and a cup of cherries for less than €5. Spain is great.

Though there are often empty seats available at lunch time, it's always best to make a reservation so the chefs can prepare. Michelin star dining is a whole production. Unfortunately, if you have dietary restrictions or severe food allergies, these restaurants are probably not for you as the menus are specialized and set. 

Caelis

Wednesday-Saturday, 1:30-3:30 pm
€42

This place was so good I actually ate there twice. I recommend sitting at the bar–it's fun to watch the chefs prepare the plates, and it makes the whole thing feel a little less formal. The menu changes every week depending on what's available at the market. So I had two different meals, but they followed the same structure:  

• 3 amuses-bouche 
• Bread with three flavors of butter, made in house: Black olive, tomato and rosemary
• A lighter starter (1 of 2 options)
• Then a heavier main (1 of 2 options)
• Dessert or a selection of cheeses
• Water, a glass of red or white wine and coffee are included in the price
• They will typically ask if you would like a glass of cava to start. It's an additional €8.

On my first visit, I got a zucchini salad, steak and potatoes and the cheese selection. On the second, I got tuna tartar, lamb shoulder and Saint Honoré for dessert. Both knocked me over they were so good. On the second visit, I was invited to take my coffee up to the roof of the hotel. There's a bar and pool up there that overlook the whole neighborhood. It's absolutely breathtaking.

Via Laietana, 49 (Hotel Ohla Barcelona) Barcelona 08003

​Xerta

Tuesday-Friday, 1:00-4:00 pm
​€38 "Executive Menu"

Unlike most of the other restaurants on this list, Xerta doesn't reveal what's on their "Executive Menu" online. Once you order it, the wait staff recites your options. But this is the structure:

• A bunch of "appetisers"
• Bread course
• Starter (1 of 2 options)
• Choice of a meat or fish dish
• Dessert (1 of 2 options)
• "Mini sweets" (petit fours)
• Water and a glass of red or white wine are included in the price
• You will be offered coffee (typically espresso) at the end of the meal. It's an additional €3.30

On the day I visited, the appetisers included a mini ice cream cone topped with some kind of savory cream, mango gazpacho, and a map with four different bite-sized snacks. The map depicted Tarragona, the province just south of Barcelona where Xerta's chef Fran López was born. The starter I chose was a delicious rice dish, which ended up being one of the best things I ate the whole trip. It had garlic and mushrooms and who knows what else, but it was GOOD. After that I was in heaven and barely paid attention to the fish dish I ordered. The waiter said it was traditional for the region. It was basically just a bowl of stuff from the sea: a shrimp, a squid, fish, etc. For dessert, a sweet cream custard served in a frozen orange peel. 

Còrsega 289 (Ohla Eixample Hotel) Barcelona, 08008

​Angle

Monday-Friday, 1:30-3:30 pm
€50

By far the most expensive meal I had in Barcelona, but also easily the highest quality. There wasn't a single weak course, and it felt like the perfect amount of food. Angle is helmed by famed chef Jordi Cruz, one of the stars of MasterChef Spain. Cruz's other restaurant ABaC has earned three Michelin stars and is way out of my league (no cheap lunch menus there). 

One thing I liked about Angle was that the menu spelled out exactly what they were serving. Usually these restaurants bring you a few extra things like the amuses-bouche and petit fours, but Angle put it all on the menu:

• Frozen, smoked latxa sheep’s cheese with Leon cured beef chips
• Braised young leek with black garlic charcoal bread and chilli romesco sauce
• White asparagus from Navarra with citrus water and curry spheres
• Red mullet and small Norway lobster rice with alioli mortar
• Painted roast sweet potato, guinea fowl with foie, crispy skins with truffled corn
• Chocolate and hazelnuts textures with vanilla ice-cream and bourbon
• Petit fours
• (There was also a bread course somewhere in there)

While the food was outstanding in every way, you will have to pay extra for all your drinks: 

• ​Sparkling water: €4
• Cava: €7.50
• Coffee: €2 

Carrer Aragón 214 Barcelona, 08011

​Hofmann

Monday-Friday, 1:30-3:45 pm
€38

The daily menu is updated regularly, but it follows this structure:

• An amuse-bouche
• Bread course
• Starter (1 of 3 options)
• Main (1 of 3 options)
• Dessert (1 of 3 options)
• ​Petit fours
• Water and a glass of red or white wine are included in the price

During my visit, the amuse-bouche was a tomato-water with little chopped bell peppers. I ordered a salad with tomato, burrata cheese and pesto sauce, lamb with eggplant caviar and "tzatziki" and for dessert, chocolate mousse, creamy vanilla and hazelnut ice cream​. 

Carrer de la Granada del Penedès, 14, Barcelona, 08006

​Dos Palillos

Thursday-Saturday, 1:30-3:30 pm
​​€45
​
While this place was exceptional, it was also confusing. After you're seated at the sushi bar, a waiter offers you a choice between three different tasting menus: one with eight plates, one with 18 and one with 21. They don't tell you the price of each option and it feels weird to ask. I chose the smallest one, thinking eight plates sounded like a lot, but it wasn't really. This is the only restaurant I left feeling anything less than completely satisfied. It was also one of the most expensive. The food was great, but you get more bang for your buck at the other restaurants listed here. The chef was there changing up the menu on the spot that afternoon, so I assume it's pretty flexible from day to day. My dishes were:

• Sake tonic to start
• Edamame 
• Thai lily pads
• Thinly shaved pork belly with bok choy and spicy sauce
• Lacquered “toro” sashimi with yamaimo and fresh wasabi 
• Some kind of rice dish with seared fish, egg, okra and fresh ikura
• Shrimp and pork belly dumplings
• Nippon burger 
• Iberian pork jowl Cantonese style
• Mochi

No drinks were included in the price except for the sake tonic:

• Sparkling water: ​​€3.20
• Cava: ​​€5.90 

Carrer d'Elisabets, 9, Barcelona, 08001 

​Nectari

Monday-Friday, 1:30-3:30 pm
​​€35

It's hard for me to review Nectari because while I think the food was great (and it's the cheapest meal on the list!) I got crazy nauseated after the starter course and suffered through my main, dessert and the petit fours in an effort to both maintain decorum and get home and go to sleep as quickly as possible. I swear the food was good! My memory of it is just coated in agony.

• 2 amuses-bouche
• Bread course
• 2 mini tapetes 
• A starter
• Choice of a meat or fish dish
• Dessert of the day
• Dúo de Chocolates
• Water is included in the price

It was all fun at the beginning. The meal started with a tiny bloody mary in a bottle served on ice followed by what was described to me as "cauliflower espresso." It was foamy on top and weirdly meaty on the bottom, I think. The first "mini tapete" was cold canelón of marinated salmon stuffed with avocado mousse, tobiko roe with wasabi and textured soy. The second was three croquettes from different regions: Mexico, Spain and Japan. The starter was "Salmorejo" (cold soup) of tomato with quail eggs and red shrimp. My wave of nausea hit just before I scraped the bottom of the bowl. I ate maybe two bites of my Iberian pork dumplings with potato, pumpkin and apple parmentier before smashing up the rest to make it look like I'd eaten more. I repeated that step with a dessert I didn't even want to hear the name of. When the 2 chocolates came, I stuffed them in my purse to avoid having to take another bite. 
A glass of cava was an extra ​​€7.50. I declined coffee (which would have been extra) and fled. 

Carrer València, 28 Barcelona, 08015