Lactuca, Barcelona

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Lactuca is a good buffet option in Barcelona where you can enjoy unlimited food and softdrinks for just 10 Euros per person. One of the restaurants is located just next to La Sagrada Familia and that's how we discovered it during our visit to the church. The buffet offers many salad options, french fries, pizza, paella, chicken and meat dishes, soups and soft drinks. You can also enjoy fruits, desserts and coffee or tea included in the price. You can pay with credit card too.

Favorite Dish: I liked most of the dishes. Desserts were not so good but the rest is satisfactory.

There was a Lactuca just down the block from my school on Ronda Sant Pere (to the NE side of Placa Catalunya, by Urquinaona Metro). There is usually a lot to choose from at the buffet and it's not expensive. Rather than sit-down buffet, I actually recommend doing take-out from Lactuca. They give you a huge container and it's only about 5 Euro to fill it with whatever you want. Good spot for lunch.

Favorite Dish: I usually ate salads. The vegetables are always fresh. They usually have a selection of cold pasta salads too.

I enjoyed very much eating in Lactuca, in several places around Barcelona. The one that I liked most is located near the Familia Sagrada, but all of them are equally good. I liked the first one because the people there (the cashier) was very friendly, telling me what to do along the counter filled with several dishes to choose from. - You don't find less expensive restaurant than these buffets in all over the city. This one particularly offer all you can eat for less than 10 euros. You can have either a beer or a refreshment, besides dessert (cake, fruits, yogurt) and a coffee too. And you can get seconds and thirds, if you feel able to...

Favorite Dish: All dishes are very good there.

The restaurant is located in one of the most privileged areas of the city of Barcelona. As many, it also offers seats on sidewalk, which I selectd. In their very scanty menu, I selected a dish of pasta with Italian sausiches, 'au gratin', that is, cheeses melted under a broiler for a few minutes. What arrived was a 'pasticchio', a undescribable confusion of pasta involved in a tasteless sauce under an envelope of hardened cheese. The maître CUT the dish for me. It was so tasteless that I had to request the salt (which should be at the table, in the first place), to see if the salt would release some taste in that dish. But it didn't. I ate it because I was hungry as hungry can be. When the waitress asked if I enjoyed it, I said the truth - that it was a dish without any taste whatsoever, it was a composition of paste, hardened cheese and a few pieces of an obscure 'chorizo'. She said that she would tell this to the chef. She came back to say that they all were very sorry, but it was the first time that anyone had complained about their dishes. Well, I replied, it was the very first time also for me that I tried such a incredible tasteless dish! - In spite of all, they charged me anyway. ---One more hint: they placed a 'hors d'oeuvre' or 'antipasto'that I did not ordered! It consisted of a sherry tomato, a pool of olive oil and a piece of bread. Big deal, right? But they would charge it some 7 or 8 euros if I had not ordered it out of the table. The waitress obliged, taking it out from the bill (which means that she had already counted on it!). ---No, no - avoid that place. It is called BROWN. It fits.

Favorite Dish: The only one I tried was simply horrible.

My boyfriend and I chose this restaurant because we wanted to load up on vegetables (which can be pretty pricey if you order them as a side in a typical restaurant). We went nuts at the salad bar! The salad ingredients were fresh and nicely displayed - the pizza was acceptable, pasta was OK, and the all you can drink caffe latte (regular or decaf) from the machine was surprisingly tasty and you'll have more than one cup for sure! For protein there was chicken one night and vegetarian meat balls the next. Fresh fruit, either whole or as a fruit salad were offerred as well. There's an ice-cream machine too (we didn't have any so can't comment on quality). The manager spoke english and was very enthusiastic and helpful.
Funny thing was, I happened to find a 2 for 1 coupon on the sidewalk the next day and we ate there again the next night!

Very similar to Fres Co restaurants, I heard some people saying these are better, but it's probably a matter of the day you went there (as the daily dishes change, one given day you may like more one, and the next day the other). In my opinion, this brand is just a clon of Fres Co, so all said in my tip above will apply to this one as well. I used to work near both a Fres Co and a Lactuca, when I wanted to have lunch in one of them I just had a look at the daily specials and choose accordinlgly.