In July 2026, in Barcelona, Disfrutar already has three Michelin stars and a title of Best Restaurant in the World 2024 awarded by . However, a few meters from the room, a discreet place now concentrates most of the house’s creativity. A space that guests never see.
Opened in the Eixample district, this second independent premises at 163 Carrer de Villarroel houses Disfrutar’s new research and design studio in Barcelona. An extension of the laboratory installed under the restaurant, it is used to imagine machines, objects and scenographies which will, later, change these few seconds of surprise experienced at the table.
Disfrutar’s research and design studio in Barcelona, behind the scenes
A former shoe store in the area, the address retains its large street windows. They no longer display shoes but the awards accumulated by the restaurant: three Michelin stars, three Repsol Soles, title of Best European Restaurant OAD 2024 and, above all, first place in the ranking. The decor immediately establishes the level of the project.
Behind these trophies, Oriol Castro shows dedicated areas where experimental machines are installed, temporarily or permanently. Each piece of equipment is tested by the teams for what it can bring to the kitchen, to the textures, to the staging or to the service. On the walls, photos, drawings, tests and prototypes retrace the long path between intuition and served dish, reminding us that a few seconds of astonishment can result from months of research.
A unique research organization in haute cuisine
The basement of the restaurant remains occupied by the historic laboratory, where the chefs continue to work on techniques, textures, products and new gastronomic concepts. A few meters away, the studio extends this research to CXC’s object, design, prototypes and consulting projects. Very few houses, even three-starred ones, have such an organized research and development structure.
Disfrutar relies on several dozen employees whose skills go far beyond the framework of a traditional brigade. We meet producers, craftsmen, technicians, designers and the butcher Moïse who has come to chat with the team. For Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, taste quality remains the starting point, but the object, gesture, rhythm and storytelling count almost as much. Everything is designed to provoke a precise emotion and leave a lasting mark on the memory of guests, in a culture of research inherited from the elBulli years.
Anna Vilageliu, design as a driver of innovation at Disfrutar
It is in this studio that Anna Vilageliu, responsible for design of Disfrutar and the CXC universe, intervenes. Product designer and graphic designer, trained at EINA then specialized in packaging and brand identity at SHIFTA by ELISAVA, she still occupies an unusual position in haute cuisine: imagining the object that will receive the dish, the way in which the customer will discover it, touch it, handle it and understand the intention that accompanies it.
The collaborations established with EINA also invite students to design new objects and devices to accompany the restaurant’s creations. Around the game, the experience, the surprise, the gestures or the storytelling, several dozen prototypes have emerged and must deal with heat, hygiene, ergonomics of the service, pace, weight, fragility or interaction with the guest. This back and forth forces everyone to step out of their role: a student questions a gesture repeated for twenty years, an engineer transforms a constraint into a solution, a designer gives a new function to an object. Here, innovation appears less like a sudden idea than like an organization that allows testing, failure and the crossing of know-how.
What is Disfrutar’s research and design studio in Barcelona?
This is a second room, located a few meters from the restaurant in Eixample, entirely dedicated to machines, prototypes, objects and scenographies which extend the culinary laboratory installed under Disfrutar.
Where is the Disfrutar studio and can we visit it?
The studio is near 163 Carrer de Villarroel, in Barcelona, in a converted old shoe factory. It cannot be seen from the restaurant room and is not open to customers for free visits.
Who is Anna Vilageliu and what is her role at Disfrutar?
Anna Vilageliu is a product and graphic designer, responsible for the design of Disfrutar and the CXC universe. She designs the tableware, containers, mechanisms, supports and narrative that structure the guests’ gastronomic experience.
