food & drink

Sandro Raffaelli grew up around his family’s restaurants in Lucca, and when life brought him to Barcelona he did the natural thing and opened one of his own. Since 2015 he’s run this corner of Gràcia with his daughters Greta and Gioia out front – two floors, three small rooms, some forty-five covers, the walls hung with family photographs and paintings by Sandro’s mother in a style she borrowed from Modigliani.

The open kitchen sits up front, with a handful of seats facing it for anyone who likes dinner with the show. The menu is authentic and tight – around twenty dishes, Tuscan at heart. Pasta is rolled fresh every morning: tordelli lucchesi made to a seventeenth-century Lucca recipe, cacio e pepe and pappardelle under a ragù simmered for six hours, wild boar when the season allows. Around them come fried pizzette on a slow-fermented dough, sea bass tartare and a proper cotoletta alla Milanese, with a convincing tiramisù to finish.

The larder does serious mileage – Parmigiano aged thirty-six months, San Daniele prosciutto, burrata flown in from Puglia twice a week – and the wine list runs to forty-odd Italian bottles with a Tuscan lean, from Maremma Sangiovese to Ciliegiolo. A Repsol Solete has hung on the door since 2023, and the rooms are small enough that booking a day ahead is the sensible move.