One of the best known restaurants of traditional cuisine in Barcelona is Casa Leopoldo del Raval. The news is that it is reopening its doors to the public, but now as a Chinese restaurant offering oriental dishes at affordable prices.
The historic restaurant, located in the heart of the Raval, now offers a menu with spring rolls and fried rice. The restaurant still retains the facade which was renovated in 2017 with the sign “Casa Leopoldo Restaurant Asiàtic”.
It was closed for two years due to the pandemic and is now reopened by a family of Chinese origin with a menu of oriental dishes.
The new menu at Casa Leopoldo del Raval
At the entrance you can see the blackboard with the menu at 12,50 €. The dishes combine the classics of Chinese restaurants (fried noodles, rolls and seaweed soup), with delicious grilled ingredients such as sausage or cuttlefish or an exquisite beef with oyster sauce. There is also noodle soup.
The premises remain the same as after the 2017 remodeling, although the decorative objects and bullfighting art that were on the walls are gone. Gone are the bullfight posters and photos of big celebrities. Only dark blue painted walls and Cadiz style tiles.
Some history of Casa Leopoldo del Raval
It was opened to the public in 1936 by the family of Rosa Gil.
From that time until he retired in 2015, the restaurant was very important because it maintained the legacy in Barcelona of the traditional Catalan cuisine of Cadaqués and l’Alt Empordà. Meatballs with cuttlefish, the “mar i muntanya”, chicken with crayfish, were some of the dishes offered.
It was more than just a restaurant with diners. Because of the menu and the atmosphere, it was the second home of great personalities of the bullfighting world, artists and intellectuals of the time, such as Montalbán, Serrat or Marsé, among others.
And for the many references that Vázquez Montalbán made to the restaurant in the Carvalho saga.
Restaurant with oriental accents
Now Casa Leopoldo del Raval looks more illuminated and with some Mediterranean proposal.
Shouhui’s family, the new owners, already run two other restaurants since 2019 and plan to open two more locations soon.
They say that although the place was a bit dark, they liked it a lot because it was in good condition despite having been closed for a couple of years.
They only made some adjustments and installed lamps, since no major changes could be made because the premises are part of the city’s heritage and the building is protected.
Even to have been able to change the color of the paint on the walls, it had to be approved by the administration.
Restaurant Casa Leopoldo del Raval: Carrer de Sant Rafael, 24
