La Boqueria Market

This morning we headed back to La Boquiria for breakfast at a place I had heard about in two different travel videos on Netflix. It looked really crowded, so we were worried about finding seats for breakfast.

Breakfast at El Quim

The restaurant we went to was El Quim. It’s an interesting place in the middle of La Boqueria. All of the seating is at a bar that surrounds the central kitchen, so you can watch them cook your meal (and others) while you wait. The only negative is that there’s no line to to get a seat. If everything is full, you just find a party that appears ready to leave, stand behind them, and wait your turn. You might even have to help bus their dishes to have a place to eat. Luckily there were empty seats when we arrived, but they filled quickly. If you come to El Quim, get there early or you’ll be waiting.

El Quim first opened in the market in 1987 and has upgraded their location–including adding more seats–three times over the years. They must be doing something right. Their specialty is fried eggs with several choices in toppings. There are some other similar-looking places in the market, but none are as busy as El Quim.

We started off with a tapas of roasted Padrón peppers and some fresh-squeezed orange juice. They get all of their ingredients directly from other vendors in the market, so everything is super fresh. I had been wanting to try these peppers for a while, and although they seemed a bit odd for breakfast, they were a pretty good addition. They are generally very mild with an occasional hot one thrown in.

My main dish, their specialty, was ferrats i calamarsons or fried eggs with baby squid. It was by far the best dish I tried over the whole trip. It sounds weird, but trust me, it’s very good.

Other Shops in La Boqueria

This vendor had lots of candy, nuts and dried fruit. It all looked very tasty, but they were pretty aggressive handing out bags so you could fill them up.