Xerta, Barcelona's Ebro Delta restaurant, has closed

Xerta, the restaurant that brought Ebro Delta cooking to the Ohla hotel in Barcelona's Eixample, has closed after about ten years. The team announced it on Instagram, and the reason they give is a change in the hotel's gastronomic concept. The catering side, Xerta Catering, keeps going.

A star from 2016 to 2024

Time Out Barcelona and Metròpoli Abierta both say the restaurant held a Michelin star from 2016 until 2024. The kitchen was led by José Guadalupe Couoh Pomol, the Mexican chef who had been with the project since the start in 2015 and took over from founder Fran López around 2024.

López arrived with his own history. He had already won a Michelin star at Villa Retiro when he was 25, which at the time made him the fourth-youngest chef in the world to do it.

The restaurant sat inside the Ohla Eixample hotel at Carrer de Còrsega 289. It was the only gastronomic restaurant in Barcelona built on the Ebro Delta, with a kitchen that sourced most of its ingredients from there: elvers, oysters, sea anemones and rice.

What people came for

The cooking was about the sea first. The dishes the outlets single out are angulas and cocochas al pil-pil, and a cigala with fried duck egg, cigala cream and truffled parmentier foam. But Xerta also did meat and game well, with a duck rice made with artichoke, roast-garlic alioli, fresh mushrooms and a bone glacé.

Price was part of the pitch, too. Both outlets mention a midday menu at 45 euros from its starred years, which Time Out describes as an endangered species when it comes to creative high-end cooking in Barcelona.

The restaurant is shut, the kitchen isn't

In the team's own words, they're still doing what they like best: cooking, looking after the product and building experiences around a good table. Now they'll take that cooking "wherever you want", with new projects promised.

Xerta Catering handles dinners with friends, weddings and corporate events, and both outlets say it is the official supplier of the Llotja at Camp Nou. Time Out quotes the catering site saying menus are adapted to each event.