Interactive Spanish Cooking Experience in Barcelona

Fantastic experience from start to finish. Very easy to book online with a quick confirmation. Meeting place (The Travellers Nest) very easy to find, very friendly staff and a very cool bar. Fernando (our chef and tutor) speaks excellent English, is very knowledgeable and a really fun guy. The trip around the market to buy lovely fresh ingredients was made even better by having a Spanish speaker with us. The teaching kitchen/restaurant was tucked away through all the interesting little back streets and was equipped with everything we needed. Fernando was so hospitable and made our mixed European group really welcome. The food and sangria we all made together was delicious, recipe sheets were given out and then the evening was extended with drinks back at The Travellers Nest. I would thoroughly recommend this cooking experience - great value for money and the paella recipe will be used time and again now I’m an expert!!!

This was an exceptionable evening, and a good value. I enjoyed the lesson and the Paella turned out to be delicious. Gabriel was charming and informative. The small group made it special and all the tapas and Sangria was a special treat. I highly recommend it if you are visiting Barcelona.

Pros: The food and sangrias were delicious! Cons: - The venue where we were supposed to meet was closed, but no one bothered to notify me, so I ended up having to call to see what was going on. Then they said that the chef was waiting outside of the building, but there were several people standing outside the building, so it wasn't clear who the chef was. - Found the chef, then got taken over to a different building and our tour/experience started about 25 minutes late. - There were WAY TOO MANY people in the group (around 40). This was not conducive to an interactive experience. - When we got to the restaurant to cook, they weren't setup yet so we had to wait outside for a bit - The restaurant was small and did not accommodate 40 people wanting to cook and make sangrias. It was miserable trying to shimmy past people in an overcrowded kitchen. I ended up just sitting at the table instead of having to try to stand on my tiptoes and see what was going on. I wouldn't do this tour again unless the group size was only 10-15 people.

We enjoyed the event a lot. The walk through the market felt a bit rushed but was enjoyable. The food prep and presentation was well done.

Great Fun! Good food! Great crowd! Great chef! We would definitely do the cooking experience again & recommend this one.

The cooking experience we were looking for in Barcelona. The market is fun to explore with the group, so I would definitely make sure to book any day other than Sunday. The whole group makes one large paella so you get some instruction and time with the food without having to do every step. Overall it was a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend it to others.

My daughter and I loved this cooking class. We met some very nice people, food was fantastic, sangria was fabulous and instructor was awesome. Gabriel was very nice and taught us a lot about making seafood paella and sangria. Learned a lot about cleaning fish and how to buy the freshest seafood. I would definitely recommend this tour. 😊😊😊

This was a great experience, our chef was amazing and included everyone while we cooked paella and drank strong sangria! I think there were only 3 things I was slightly disappointed in (I only say this because I would still do it again - but with different expectations) 1- We didn’t do a tour of the market just popped in to buy seafood then back out (but we went back afterwards to explore on our own-once the buzz from the sangria had worn off.) 2- We didn’t make any tapas, we ate them and the chef explained everything very well and gave us recipes. 3- The paella was made by the 12 of us in the group, all doing different tasks so you don’t get to experience the whole recipe on your own. But still you get the idea.

My husband and I went to this tour on Friday afternoon. We met at the meeting spot which was a bar that was closed for renovations. We got there at 3:45 (tour started at 4) and were the only ones there at this closed bar. We called to make sure this was still the meeting spot and were told it was. We saw another man in front of the closed bar and he asked us if we were going on the tour. He was not super friendly and was kind of negative toward Barcelona and paella... Once everyone else arrived we went to La Boqueria which was not the shortest walk ever from the closed bar. Could they not have come up with a better meeting spot? Our guide did not introduce himself or say anything during this walk. Our group followed him silently in the market. He purchased seafood from a vendor and then we walked in silence across town to the kitchen. It seemed like a waste to go to Boqueria since we weren't given any information, tips or any insight whatsoever. At the kitchen we made paella as a group. It was nice that it was interactive but again, our guide could have made it more fun. He seems like back-of-house would be more fitting for him. We did not receive the promised tapas or promised shot at the bar after. Instead, he told us while we finished eating that a group would be coming soon and if we wanted to go to another restaurant we would get a discount on cream of catalan. The tour was said to be a full 3 hours but we were rushed out at 2.5 hours. Definitely not the Spanish way! We were not very pleased with our guide. It seemed like this event had so much potential and we did not have the best experience.

We had to wait for the tour to start in front of a closed bar, in one of the worst streets in Barcelona. Hence, by time we were about to leave for the 8 minute walk to the kitchen (the markets were closed because it was Sunday) it had given the pick pockets long enough to target my husband. This unfavourable man struggled with my heavily built husband to try and steal his gold necklace from around his neck. Luckily, plain clothes police were nearby and saw the incident and gave chase as did my husband. Outcome of this was; one of the 2 thieves was caught and my husband managed to save his necklace only because of his strength and good reflexes. But, he got a strained neck (like whip lash - which he still has 3 days on), friction burn and a mole pulled off his neck that needed to be looked at by the doctor at the hospital for infection. So, rather than do the tour we spent the night, defending ourselves, chasing thieves, giving statements to the police at the police station and in hospital. While I was standing waiting in the streets for my husband one of the neighbouring shop attendants told me she had complained numerous times to the tour agency about how unsafe it was to have us standing out there so obviously they have had trouble before. Once we got back to the room I rang Viator (in Sydney as we're Australian) and they said they would get in touch with the tour company in Barcelona and request a full refund. It is now Wednesday and we still haven't heard anything. So, in a nut shell it was a horrendous night and as it was the 3rd night of a month long holiday in Europe and England it certainly has put a very dark cloud over the holiday. For your own safety...DO NOT DO THIS TOUR!!!!