Maiz Maiz

Maíz Maíz opened in June 2026 at Avinguda Mistral 73 in Sant Antoni as a pocket restaurant of tostadas and flautas. Nicolás de la Vega is 36, Mexican, trained at Hofmann, and has lived in Barcelona for sixteen years. He was co-chef with Francesc Beltri at Slow & Low, the Mexican-Asian-Catalan room that took a Michelin star in 2023, and he cooked at Bar Canyí. He also ran La Milpa, a short-lived unorthodox taquería in the Gothic Quarter. In August 2025 he walked away from the star. Time Out recorded the line: high gastronomy demands your entire life, and anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. He went back to Mexico, worked, saved, and came home to cook street food.

The gap he named was specific. Barcelona already had high-end Mexican rooms and plenty of tacos; it did not have flautas — rolled, fried tortillas — or tostadas as everyday food. The idea arrived watching a forty-person queue for flautas with his mother in Mexico. The Sant Antoni room is almost domestic: a bar, an open kitchen, no tasting-menu distance between cook and table. The ticket sits around €25, up to about €35 if you stay for mezcal.

The short card moves with the market. Time Out and BCN Foodie Guide sat an oyster with corn soup, fermented fish sauce, ginger, lime and salsa macha; a tuna tostada from Arrom on guacamole with smoked-chilli mayonnaise and fried leek; a lamb flauta with salsa borracha of smoked chillies and pulque; a cochinita pibil flauta with pickled onion and apricot-habanero; esquites with smoked-chilli mayonnaise, fresh cheese and ground coffee; papitas de Nani, named for his grandmother, confit in a salsa petróleo of Worcestershire, Maggi and soy; a tostada de “mi jefe” of pickled tongue for his father; caramelised popcorn ice cream with lime, salt and Tajín.

He has called Maíz Maíz an ode to his Mexico — street food, family plates, esquites, escabeches, maize — not a generic one. @maizmaizbcn is the live camera for hours and the day’s card. Confirm them before you walk.