Updated August 2026
The restaurant we picked for breakfast was closed. That is the whole reason this review exists.
We had the address set in the GPS the night before, we walked over as a family, and there was a sign taped to the door saying they were shut for the day with what looked like another location listed underneath. Which would have been fine on a slow morning. It was not a slow morning. We had Sagrada Família tickets timed for half past twelve, and timed tickets in Barcelona are not a suggestion, so standing on Carrer de Llull rereading a closed sign was not a good use of what we had.
Then the kids looked one door over, saw crepes on a menu board, and made the decision for us.
Here is what the four of us ordered at Ferretti Poble Nou, what was worth it, and the one thing we got badly wrong. The bill is at the bottom.
The Mistake We Made, So You Do Not Have To
Josh and Emily each got their own Kinder gelato crepe. They were thrilled. They were also both done at about a third of the way through.
This is not a complaint about the food. They loved it. It is a portion warning. The Kinder gelato crepe is enormous and it is very sweet, and the honest verdict from both kids afterwards was that they should have split one between them. Emily said she could have stopped even earlier than she did. Two of them on one table is ten euros fifty of food nobody finished and a sugar load nobody needed at ten in the morning with the Sagrada Família still ahead of us.
If you are travelling with two kids, order one crepe and two forks. That is the single most useful sentence in this review.
What Actually Landed
Vika and I split the rest of the table, and the split had a clear winner. The chicken empanada beat the spinach and cheese, and it was not close. Both were good. The chicken had heat and seasoning and tasted like somebody cared about it. The spinach and cheese was pleasant and forgettable. If you are ordering one, order the chicken.
The pistachio cream medialuna was mine, and it is the thing I would order again without thinking about it. It is a croissant, stuffed, and it was delicious.
Vika tried a bite and agreed it was good, but she is not a sweets person, and she is especially not a sweets person at breakfast, so most of it ended up with me. That suited both of us.
The cappuccino was genuinely good. Wandering around Europe you expect good coffee, and you expect a good cappuccino, and that is exactly why it lands the way it does, because it does not always happen. When it does, you are pleasantly surprised every single time. In a neighbourhood cafe we walked into by accident, it happened.
The thing we did not expect to care about was the smoothies. The Red Berries Antiox is made from fresh fruit rather than a syrup pump, and it meant that in a breakfast otherwise built on chocolate and pastry, both kids got something with actual fruit in it. As a parent that is not a small thing. It is the reason we did not feel like we had started the day badly.
What It Cost
Nine items, one breakfast for four, 49,10 euros, and everybody left happy.
Just over twelve euros a head, in a neighbourhood cafe, in August, in Barcelona, and two of the items were dessert wearing a breakfast costume.
The two crepes alone are 21 euros of that total, which is the whole argument for sharing one.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Kinder gelato crepe, 2 at 10,50 | 21,00 |
| Red Berries Antiox smoothie, 2 at 6,50 | 13,00 |
| Chicken empanada | 3,20 |
| Vegetable empanada | 3,20 |
| Pistachio cream medialuna | 3,25 |
| Cappuccino | 2,70 |
| Iced black coffee, no cream | 2,75 |
| Total | 49,10 |
If you are coming from the States, the comparison is the interesting part. A crepe like that at home would probably run about fifteen dollars. The empanadas would be about five dollars each. The cappuccino would be at least twice what we paid for it. Same food, ordered without thinking about it, in a cafe we walked into by accident. Over a two week trip that gap adds up, and for once it adds up in your favour.
Is Ferretti Worth Going Out of Your Way For?
No, and it does not need to be.
This is a neighbourhood cafe on a residential stretch of Poblenou, not a destination. Nobody should reroute a Barcelona day to eat here. But if you are staying in Poblenou or walking the Rambla del Poblenou, it is a genuinely good, genuinely affordable family breakfast where the kids will be happy and the coffee will not disappoint you.
It is also worth knowing that Ferretti is a small chain with several branches around the city, so if you are reading this from a different neighbourhood there may be one closer to you.
What we would order next time: one Kinder crepe for the two kids to share, two chicken empanadas, the medialuna, two coffees, and both smoothies. That is a better breakfast than the one we had, and it is about ten euros cheaper.
The Supermarket Stop on the Walk to the Sagrada Família
We paid, we left, and we did not get very far. This next part is not Ferretti at all, but it happened on the same morning and it turned out to be the best value of the day, so it belongs here.
We set off on foot toward the Sagrada Família and stopped at a Condis supermarket on the way. The plan was bread, so that nobody would have a food emergency in the middle of the afternoon. We got the bread. We also got something we had not planned on at all.
In the fruit and vegetable section there is a Zumex press with a hopper of whole oranges sitting on top of it. You take an empty glass bottle off the rack beside the machine, stand it under the spout, press the button, and watch it fill. Then you carry it to the till like any other item. There is a small instruction card on the machine in Catalan, and you will not need it.
The shelf tags above the bottles read suc de taronja, which is orange juice in Catalan. Three sizes, at 1,95, 2,95 and 4,95 euros a bottle. That is the whole price. Nobody squeezes it for you and nobody charges you for the theatre, and it tastes like it was inside the fruit twenty seconds earlier, because it was.
Josh called it absolutely fantastic on the spot, and he was right. We liked it enough that we went back the following day, to a different branch of the same chain, and made another bottle. Just as good the second time.
The loaf did not last either. We had come out of a breakfast that had comfortably filled all four of us, and that bread was gone before we reached the Sagrada Família. It was that good. It also did exactly the job we bought it for. Nobody had a food emergency, and we got all the way through the basilica and across the city to a very late lunch that afternoon without anybody falling apart.
If you are walking Barcelona with kids and you pass one of these presses, stop. Two euros for something squeezed in front of you does more for a hot morning than a bag of pastries will, and the supermarket is where you will find it. The cafes charge several times that for the same glass.
Questions Families Ask
How much is breakfast in Barcelona for a family of four? Ours came to 49,10 euros at a neighbourhood cafe, including two large crepes, two fresh fruit smoothies, two empanadas, a pastry and two coffees. You can eat for considerably less by skipping the crepes, and considerably more in the tourist centre.
Is the Kinder gelato crepe big enough to share? Yes. Two school-age kids can comfortably share one, and ours both wished they had. It is 10,50 euros and neither of them got much past a third of their own.
Where do you get cheap fresh orange juice in Barcelona? In the supermarket, not the cafe. Condis has a self service Zumex press in the fruit section where you fill a glass bottle yourself and pay at the till. Three sizes, at 1,95, 2,95 and 4,95 euros a bottle.
Does Ferretti Poble Nou work with kids? Yes. Casual, quick, counter-led, no reservation needed, and a menu with pictures that a hungry child can point at. We were seated and served without any wait on a weekday morning.
Where is it? Carrer de Llull 217 to 221, in El Poblenou, Barcelona. It is an easy walk from the Rambla del Poblenou.
The Verdict
We went here by accident and left glad we had. Good coffee, fresh fruit in the kids, two empanadas worth eating, a stuffed croissant I would order again, and a bill that did not sting. The crepes are a trap of the nicest possible kind: order half as many as you think you need.
And if your first-choice restaurant has a sign on the door, look one door over before you start rerouting your morning. Ours worked out fine.
