La Cuina de Can Simón

Where the Fish Auction Sets the Menu

There is a particular discipline to cooking in a medieval walled town on the Costa Brava. The ingredient supply is neither anonymous nor industrial: Tossa de Mar's fishing boats return each morning, the catch goes to the local auction, and the kitchens that take it seriously build their menus around what actually arrived. La Cuina de Can Simón, at Carrer del Portal 24 just inside the town walls, operates on that logic. The sourcing is not a marketing position; it is the structural principle of how the menu is written each day.

Tossa de Mar itself provides the context. Marc Chagall, who spent time here and called it his "blue paradise," was drawn by the quality of light and the integrity of the place, a medieval Vila Vella still intact above a sweep of coastline. That physical setting shapes the dining character of the town. Restaurants that succeed here tend to work with the territory rather than against it, and the most accomplished among them treat proximity to the sea and to the inland ranges of the Costa Brava as a culinary resource rather than mere scenery.

A Sourcing Model Built on Two Landscapes

The kitchen at Can Simón draws from both sides of the Costa Brava's geography. Fish and seafood arrive through the daily fish auction, which anchors the menu to what the Mediterranean is actually producing on any given week. This is not the same as simply buying fresh fish from a supplier; the auction route means the selection reflects real fishing conditions and seasonal rhythms rather than a standardised wholesale list.

But the menu does not stop at the shoreline. Rice dishes and select meat cuts from the mountainous interior of Costa Brava extend the sourcing radius inland, acknowledging that the region's food culture has always existed between the sea and the mountains. The kitchen's own framing is direct: a family of artists and fishermen, cooking with natural, artisanal and locally sourced ingredients. That dual heritage, maritime and inland, is what gives the contemporary menu its structure. Dishes are not built around technique for its own sake but around the logic of what the territory offers.

Within Spain's broader contemporary dining scene, this sourcing model places Can Simón in a recognisable tradition. The country's most celebrated kitchens, from Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María to Quique Dacosta in Dénia, have built reputations on a similarly rigorous relationship between geography and plate. Can Simón operates at a different scale and price tier than those three-Michelin-star benchmarks, but the underlying philosophy connects it to the same current in Spanish cooking: the idea that sourcing is where the editorial work of a kitchen begins, not where it ends.

The Michelin Plate and What It Signals

La Cuina de Can Simón holds a Michelin Plate, recognised in both the 2024 and 2025 guides. The Plate designation, awarded for consistently good cooking that meets Michelin's quality threshold without yet reaching starred territory, matters in a town like Tossa de Mar precisely because it signals that the kitchen is being evaluated against national and international peers, not just local alternatives.

For context on what the Plate means within the Spanish hierarchy: the country's Michelin starred restaurants include names like El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, about an hour's drive inland from Tossa, Arzak in San Sebastián, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona, Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria, Mugaritz in Errenteria, Ricard Camarena in València, Atrio in Cáceres, and DiverXO in Madrid. Can Simón is not competing in that starred bracket, but its Plate recognition places it clearly above the undifferentiated mass of coastal tourist restaurants. In a town that draws considerable summer foot traffic, that distinction has practical value for visitors calibrating where to spend an evening.

Planning a Meal at Can Simón

The restaurant sits at Carrer del Portal 24 in Tossa de Mar, physically inside the medieval quarter, close to the town walls. The address is the kind that rewards arriving on foot rather than by car; the approach through the old town's alleyways is part of the transition into the meal. The price range reads as €€€, which positions it above the casual seafood options on the waterfront but considerably below the multi-course tasting menu pricing of starred restaurants along the Costa Brava. For a gastronomic meal in a medieval coastal town, the value proposition is coherent.

Given the daily-auction sourcing model, the menu's fish and seafood dishes are the logical entry point. The kitchen has noted that red mullet stew is among the simpler, more characteristic preparations, a signal that restraint and clarity carry more weight here than elaborate technique. Rice dishes and meat cuts from the interior round out a menu that works as a full meal rather than a showcase of single courses.

Tossa de Mar is busiest between June and September, when the town's beaches and medieval walls draw peak visitor numbers. Booking ahead is advisable during those months; the combination of a compact historic town, a recognised gastronomic address, and limited seating at quality restaurants generally means tables at Can Simón fill before the summer weekend rush. For visitors building a broader itinerary around the area, our full Tossa de Mar hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the rest of the town's offer. For a wider view of where Can Simón sits in relation to Tossa's dining scene as a whole, our full Tossa de Mar restaurants guide provides the broader context.

For readers whose itinerary extends beyond Spain entirely, the contemporary sourcing-led approach at Can Simón connects to a wider international conversation about place-driven cooking. César in New York City and Jungsik in Seoul represent how the contemporary format operates in different urban contexts, useful reference points for understanding what the category looks like when the geography changes but the commitment to sourcing discipline does not.