The Best Desserts in Barcelona

Our Sweet Route Through El Born

During one of our trips to Barcelona, our Catalan friend Ferran suggested a simple but very fun plan: spend an entire day trying some of the city's most famous desserts.

According to him, these were the best-rated places for each specialty, so we decided to put them to the test ourselves.

• Brunells

Our first stop was Brunells, one of Barcelona's most famous bakeries. While they offer plenty of different pastries, they're especially known for their croissants.

📍 Carrer de la Princesa, 22 (El Born)

• We tried the classic butter croissant.

• Verdict: 10/10

We have to admit that, as Argentinians, it's still hard for us to abandon our beloved medialunas. Anyone who has tried them knows they're quite different. But this croissant was incredible: soft, fluffy, full of flavor, and with an amazing texture.

Hofmann

Our next stop was Hofmann, another must-visit for pastry lovers.

📍 Carrer dels Flassaders, 44 (El Born)

• We tried one of their their famous mascarpone-filled croissant and a cinnamon roll.

• Croissant Verdict: 9/10

• Cinnamon Roll Verdict: 10/10 (for cinnamon lovers only!)

Everything was delicious. We only took one point off because we're not the biggest fans of filled pastries. But objectively speaking, the flavor was incredible.

Besides the bakery itself, we were really impressed by their chocolate section. They had chocolates and chocolate bars inspired by Barcelona, including some with the Sagrada Familia engraved directly into the chocolate.

We thought it was a very original souvenir idea, especially if you're looking for something a little more local than the typical magnets or keychains.

JonCake

Then it was time for the stop we were most excited about.

📍 Carrer de l'Assaonadors, 29 (El Born)

If you love cheesecake, you've probably already heard of JonCake.

We're not huge cheesecake fans ourselves, so we tried to keep our expectations realistic.

We really liked the idea of selling individual cakes to go.

This is probably where we'll disagree with a lot of people. We really enjoyed it, but personally we felt it could have been a little sweeter.

That said, we completely understand why so many people consider it one of the best cheesecakes in Barcelona.

Sucre Cremat

Our final stop was Sucre Cremat.

📍 Carrer dels Canvis Vells, 2 (El Born)

• Verdict: 10/10. Nothing else to say. Just try it.

If you've never had a freshly made crema catalana, this is a great excuse to do so.

The best part is that they caramelize the sugar right in front of you, so it arrives with that perfectly crisp layer of freshly burnt sugar that you get to crack with your spoon.

Our Verdict

If we had to choose only one place to revisit, we'd probably go back to Brunells.

They were genuinely some of the best croissants we've ever had, and we'd even dare to say they're among the best we've tried while traveling. Pair them with a morning mate, and honestly, we can't think of a better combination.

If you have a free morning in Barcelona and enjoy sweets, we thought this route was perfect.

All of these places are located within walking distance of each other, so you can explore El Born while sampling some of the city's most famous desserts.

And yes, by the end of it, we felt like we'd had enough sugar for one day. We shared every portion, which allowed us to try more places without completely overdoing it. If you're not used to eating that many sweets, you might want to split this route across two different days.