food & drink

Paella made with seawater is an old Valencian trick – the salt and minerals set the rice differently, or so the story goes. Arrosseria Xàtiva does 25 versions of it. The Gràcia flagship on Carrer del Torrent d’en Vidalet runs as a pure rice house: Riuet bomba rice from Pego Oliva (D.O. Valencia), cooked in seawater in individual pans, on a kitchen line that runs 365 days a year.

The menu is a working catalog of 25+ rice dishes. Paella Valenciana comes the way it’s meant to be, with rabbit, chicken and green beans. There’s a duck confit rice, an onion paella for vegetarians and arròs a banda – rice cooked in fish broth, served alongside the fish. At the center of the lineup sits the arròs negre, squid-ink black rice one regular called the best in Barcelona. Fideuà versions – the same treatments built on short pasta noodles instead of rice, a Catalan staple – fill the other half of the menu. And, rarely in this city, you can order a paella for one – no two-person minimum, no forcing a table to share.

The room is small and rustic, on a residential street in Vila de Gràcia, full of locals and off the tourist circuit. The kitchen cooks to order, so plan on a leisurely meal – each pan takes a good 25 to 40 minutes. A meal lands around €35; the set lunch is considerably less. Reservations are easy online and worth making on weekends.

Three other Grup Xàtiva outposts exist in town – Les Corts (the original), Sant Antoni and the sister Trenta3 next door to Les Corts.