Massana — Girona
Massana has held its Michelin star since 2007, which means that it predates the current wave of international attention that followed El Celler de Can Roca's world-best recognitions, and that it earned its reputation through the kind of consistent excellence that is harder to maintain than any single spectacular season. Chef Pere Massana's cooking is rooted in Catalan seasonal ingredients but moves with the kind of creative freedom that a kitchen achieves when it has been thinking about its own identity for almost two decades.
The restaurant occupies a narrow, historic building in Girona's old Jewish Quarter — the Call — which is the most atmospheric neighbourhood in a city that has no shortage of them. The dining room is intimate, perhaps forty covers, with the warmth of exposed stone and warm light that the best medieval buildings provide when they have been thoughtfully converted. The combination of setting and cooking is one of the most coherent in Catalan fine dining.
The tasting menu moves through the seasons of the Costa Brava hinterland: Empordà wine country produce, Costa Brava seafood, the cured and fermented preparations of Catalan food tradition. A spring menu might include local asparagus with anchovy butter and Pyrenean cheese, a main of Empordà lamb with herbs and wild garlic, and a dessert built around blood orange and olive oil. The wine pairing draws heavily on Catalan DOPs — Empòrda, Penedès, Montsant — with the depth of a list that has been curated for an audience that takes Spanish wine seriously.
Massana is the answer to the question every visitor to Girona asks after securing a Celler de Can Roca reservation: where do we eat the other nights?
Best Occasion Fit: First Date
Massana's combination of a medieval stone setting, Michelin-starred cooking, and an intimate room that makes conversation natural rather than effortful positions it as Girona's finest first-date restaurant. The Catalan tasting menu gives you something real to share, and the Jewish Quarter setting — one of the most beautiful in Spain — means that even the walk to the restaurant becomes part of the evening.
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