Xerta

If Xerta looks fancy, that’s because it is. Gentlemen in sharp suits and ladies with purses that look like they cost more than college tuition come to this cream-colored restaurant surrounded by a terrarium-like garden inside of the Ohla Eixample hotel for the over-the-top, seafood-forward tasting menus. The food, made with ingredients from the Delta del Ebro region south of Barcelona, is worthy of Willy Wonka’s factory: rice dishes emerge from a miniature thatched house with a smoking chimney and caviar-topped tuna sashimi is served on a bed of dry ice. You can sample the highlights of the 8- and 11-course dinner (€105-€162) in a more down-to-earth format during weekday lunch, €45. It includes a selection of fresh-as-it-gets fishy snacks—like mussels, eel, or tuna, depending on the availability in the Delta del Ebro market, followed by a rice option, a meat or fish dish, and dessert. It also includes bread, water, and two glasses of wine per person—because, Spain.