Where can I buy Filipino food in Barcelona?

Start with the Groceries filter in Juan More Chance’s Filipino businesses directory, then phone the shop before you travel. No shop in Barcelona publishes a live stock list, and the thing that wastes an afternoon is crossing the city for a bottle of patis that sold out on Saturday.

Does this apply to me

Yes, to anyone shopping in Barcelona. Buying food asks nothing of your papers.

What it costs

Nothing to look, and nothing to ask. Prices are set by each shop and are not published anywhere, imported Filipino brands cost more here than at home, and the same jar can differ by a euro or two between shops. Ask the price on the phone, along with the pack size, before you decide to make the trip.

What to bring

A written list, in the names you actually use:

• patis
• bagoong
• toyo
• suka
• sinigang mix
• pancit noodles
• ube
• calamansi

Shop staff may not know the English name, and the label may be in Chinese or Thai. Bring cash as well as a card, because small shops sometimes have a card minimum.

Where to go

Two routes, and use them in this order.

• 1. The Filipino businesses directory in Juan More Chance. Open it and choose the Groceries filter; for pandesal or a merienda stop, choose Cafés and bakeries. Each listing carries the shop’s address and phone with the date it was last checked, which is the point: a shop’s own website can go behind a bot check, and a phone number nobody has rung in a year is not worth a bus fare. Take the details from the listing, look at the date on it, and ring before you go. If a listing looks out of date, use “Suggest a business” or the edit request on this page and an admin will check it.
• 2. Barcelona’s municipal food markets, for the fresh side of a Filipino kitchen — whole fish, pork cuts, offal, greens by the kilo. Find your nearest at ajuntament.barcelona.cat/mercats. A stallholder will cut pork the way you ask, if you ask. On price, compare rather than assume: market and supermarket prices vary stall by stall and week by week, and no official source ranks one against the other.

How long it takes

One phone call before you go, and one trip instead of three. A shop that does not answer the phone is a shop to leave until you have checked it another way.

What happens next

If the shop does not stock what you want, ask them to order it. Small importers restock on a cycle and will often add an item for a regular customer. Ask when the delivery lands, and go that week.

What goes wrong

• Do not travel across the city on a group-chat recommendation from two years ago; shops close and change hands, so phone first.
• Watch pack sizes, because a “cheap” bottle is often half the size of the one you buy at home.
• Check the best-before date on imported goods, since slow-moving stock is normal in a small specialist shop.
• Never send money in advance for a balikbayan grocery order to someone you have not met in person.

Useful words

Read next

• Which metro and bus ticket should I buy, and what does it cost? — one journey across the city costs €1.30 on a T-casual.
• What is 010, and what can it actually do for me? — the free line for a market’s address and opening hours.
• This answer is wrong. How do I get it fixed? — if a shop has moved or closed, this is how you tell us.

Official source

Barcelona City Council, municipal food markets, at ajuntament.barcelona.cat/mercats, for the market finder with each market’s address and hours. Individual shop details come from the Juan More Chance business directory, where each listing carries the date it was last checked.