Chef in Residence
Roger Segura
Chef

Els Tres Porquets on the Rambla del Poblenou has tracked a decade-long shift in how Barcelona drinks and eats: from neighbourhood wine stop to a Poblenou anchor ranked in Opinionated About Dining's Casual Europe list. Under Roger Segura, the format pairs natural and small-producer wines with food that takes the selection seriously, in a district increasingly worth making the trip for.
<h2>Poblenou Before the Crowds</h2><p>Barcelona's wine bar circuit has long concentrated in the Eixample and El Born, where tourist density and a ready spending crowd made the economics direct. The Rambla del Poblenou represented a different proposition: a pedestrianised boulevard that locals actually used, in a district that had spent decades converting industrial fabric into residential and creative workspace. It was, until relatively recently, a circuit largely invisible to the city's dining visitors. Els Tres Porquets arrived on that stretch and positioned itself accordingly, for a neighbourhood audience that drinks with curiosity rather than occasion.</p><p>That starting point matters because it explains the register of the place. Barcelona's more prominent wine bars, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/can-cisa-bar-brutal-barcelona-restaurant">Can Cisa / Bar Brutal</a> in El Born and <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/glug-barcelona-restaurant">Glug</a>, operate in areas where the wine-literate visitor expects to find them. A Rambla del Poblenou address, by contrast, asks more of both the venue and the customer. The format has to earn repeat custom from people who live nearby, not foot traffic from those who have read a list.</p><h2>A Format That Has Shifted With the Scene</h2><p>The evolution of Barcelona's small wine bar category over the last decade illustrates a broader European pattern. Early iterations of the format were often defined by the list alone: natural wine, producers with a story, labels you couldn't find at the supermarket. The food was either an afterthought or a deliberate provocation, charcuterie boards and tinned fish assembled rather than cooked. Gradually, the bars that held an audience were the ones that brought the kitchen in line with the cellar.</p><p>Els Tres Porquets sits in that evolved tier. Roger Segura leads the kitchen, and the food here operates above the plate-of-cured-meat default that many wine-led formats still rely on. The venue's recognition trajectory reflects this: an Opinionated About Dining recommendation in 2023, followed by an OAD Casual Europe ranking at #800 in 2025. OAD's Casual list is a useful signal precisely because it aggregates experienced-diner feedback rather than institutional inspection, which means consistent performance over time matters more than a single excellent service. Moving from recommended to ranked across two consecutive cycles indicates an operation that has refined rather than drifted.</p><p>That trajectory is worth reading against the wider Poblenou context. The district has its own version of the same arc: from post-industrial vacancy to creative cluster to a neighbourhood with enough critical mass that it can sustain venues with genuine ambition. Els Tres Porquets has been part of that progression, and its current position as an OAD-listed address in a district that still lacks the density of Born or Gràcia tells you something about how the neighbourhood's dining tier has risen.</p><h2>Where It Sits in Barcelona's Wine Bar comparable set</h2><p>Barcelona's wine bar category now spans a meaningful range. At one end, shops-with-a-bar hybrids like <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/vila-vinoteca-barcelona-restaurant">Vila Vinoteca</a> prioritise the retail selection and treat eating as secondary. At the other, places like <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/monocrom-bistro-vins-barcelona-restaurant">Monocrom bistró & vins</a> have pushed the food component hard enough that the bistro framing has overtaken the wine bar one. Els Tres Porquets occupies a middle position where both elements are treated with equal seriousness, without either dominating the experience.</p><p>For reference points further afield, the format has parallels with the London model represented by <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/40-maltby-street-london-restaurant">40 Maltby Street</a> or the Amsterdam approach at <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/4850-amsterdam-restaurant">4850</a>, places where the wine is curated with genuine depth and the kitchen produces food that treats the selection as a pairing context rather than a distraction. The category is one of the more competitive in European dining right now, and ranking within it at OAD level requires more than a decent list.</p><p>This is a different tier entirely from Barcelona's tasting-menu circuit. <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/cocina-hermanos-torres-barcelona-restaurant">Cocina Hermanos Torres</a>, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/el-celler-de-can-roca-girona-restaurant">El Celler de Can Roca</a> nearby in Girona, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/arzak-san-sebastian-restaurant">Arzak</a> in San Sebastián, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/azurmendi-larrabetzu-restaurant">Azurmendi</a> in Larrabetzu, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/martin-berasategui-lasarte-oria-restaurant">Martin Berasategui</a> in Lasarte-Oria, <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/aponiente-el-puerto-de-santa-maria-restaurant">Aponiente</a> in El Puerto de Santa María, and <a href="https://www.enprimeurclub.com/restaurants/diverxo-madrid-restaurant">DiverXO</a> in Madrid occupy Spain's fine-dining upper register at significant cost and formality. Els Tres Porquets competes on entirely different terms: accessibility, frequency, and the kind of comfort that makes a place part of someone's routine rather than their annual occasion.</p><h2>The Rambla del Poblenou Address</h2><p>The address itself functions as an editorial signal. Rambla del Poblenou, 165 is not a destination street in the conventional sense, it doesn't appear on the standard Barcelona dining itinerary the way Carrer del Parlament or the blocks around Santa Maria del Mar do. Arriving there requires a decision to go specifically, which filters the room toward people who know what they're looking for. The Google review average of 4.4 across 1,414 ratings is a meaningful data point in that context: that kind of volume at that score, in a neighbourhood with lower ambient tourist traffic, reflects a genuinely repeat local audience rather than one-time visitors ticking an address off a list.</p><p></p><h2>Planning a Visit</h2><p>Els Tres Porquets fits a specific kind of Barcelona evening: one that doesn't start from a tasting menu booking or a celebrated address, but from a desire to drink well and eat food that earns the wine. The Poblenou setting means it works as an anchor for a broader district visit, particularly as the neighbourhood's food and bar offer has expanded enough to support a longer evening's movement.</p>
The chef associated with Els Tres Porquets is Roger Segura.
Els Tres Porquets has received recognition including: Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe Ranked #800 (2025); Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe Recommended (2023).
The menu at a wine bar of this type rotates with the cellar and kitchen supply, so no fixed dish list is available in verified records. What the OAD Casual Europe recognition points to, however, is a format where the food holds its own alongside the wine selection rather than playing second fiddle — the kitchen is a reason to return, not an afterthought.
Hours at Els Tres Porquets: Hours: Monday 1–4 pm, 8:30–11 pm Tuesday 1–4 pm, 8:30–11 pm Wednesday 1–4 pm, 8–11 pm Thursday 1–4 pm, 8:30–11 pm Friday 1–4 pm, 8:30–11 pm Saturday 1–4 pm, 8:30–11 pm Sunday Closed.
Els Tres Porquets is located at Rambla del Poblenou, 165, Sant Martí, 08018 Barcelona, Spain, Barcelona.
Running a food-serious operation in a neighbourhood context that draws genuine repeat custom rather than tourist turnover. The Rambla del Poblenou address sits outside Barcelona's main wine bar circuit in Eixample and El Born, which means the room skews local — a dynamic that shapes both the service pace and the list. Opinionated About Dining has ranked it among its Casual Europe recommendations in both 2023 and 2025.
Rambla del Poblenou, 165, Sant Martí, 08018 Barcelona, Spain
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