Andorra Food Guide: Where to Eat in Andorra la Vella

Andorra is a small mountain country high in the Pyrenees between Spain and France, and most visitors come for skiing, hiking or tax-free shopping rather than food. That is a mistake, because Andorran cooking is hearty, seasonal and very good after a day outdoors. This Andorra food guide covers the dishes to know, how to read a menu in Catalan, Andorra's official language, how tipping and paying work, then goes parish by parish through where to eat in Andorra la Vella, Escaldes-Engordany, La Massana and Ordino, Canillo and Soldeu, Pas de la Casa and Sant Julià de Lòria. The food is mountain Catalan at heart: cabbage and potato, cured pork, grilled lamb, snails, river trout, wild mushrooms and strong cheese. If you are crossing the border, our Spain food guide covers Catalonia and the rest of Spain, and the France food guide covers the French side of the Pyrenees.

What to eat in Andorra: 12 dishes to know

These are the dishes to look for, listed under the Catalan names you will see on menus. Many are best in the colder months, when the mountain restaurants are full of skiers.

• Trinxat (everywhere): the classic Andorran dish, winter cabbage and potato boiled, mashed together, fried into a flat cake with garlic and topped with crisp slices of pork belly or bacon (rosta).
• Escudella (winter): a big meat and vegetable stew with chickpeas, sausage and a meatball, served in two courses as escudella i carn d'olla: first the broth with pasta, then the meat and vegetables. Some parishes serve it to everyone for the feast of Sant Antoni in January.
• Carn a la brasa (bordas): meat grilled over wood embers, usually lamb chops, veal, pork ribs and sausage, served with grilled potatoes and allioli.
• Cargols a la llauna (bordas and traditional restaurants): snails roasted in a flat tin tray over the fire with salt, pepper and herbs, then dipped in allioli.
• Embotits (everywhere): cured and fresh pork sausages, including botifarra (fresh sausage for grilling), botifarra negra (black pudding) and llonganissa (a long cured sausage), often served as a starter board.
• Formatge de tupí (mountain restaurants): a pungent Pyrenean cheese, crumbled into an earthenware pot (the tupí) with olive oil and brandy or anise and left to ferment. It is spread on bread and is an acquired taste.
• Truita de carreroles (spring and autumn): an omelette with carreroles, small wild meadow mushrooms. In autumn, look for other wild mushrooms (bolets) such as ceps and saffron milk caps.
• Truita de riu (river restaurants): river trout, usually pan-fried with ham or almonds. In Catalan, truita means both omelette and trout, so check which one you are ordering.
• Pa amb tomàquet (everywhere): bread rubbed with ripe tomato, olive oil and salt, eaten with almost every meal and with cured ham or sausage on top.
• Civet de senglar (winter): a rich wild boar stew slow-cooked with red wine, onions and herbs, a hunting-season favourite in mountain restaurants.
• Crema catalana (everywhere): a set custard flavoured with lemon and cinnamon with a burnt sugar crust, the Catalan cousin of crème brûlée.
• Mel i mató (everywhere): fresh, soft curd cheese drizzled with honey, a simple Catalan dessert that suits mountain dairy country.

How to read a Catalan menu in Andorra

Catalan is Andorra's only official language, and menus are usually written in Catalan with Spanish alongside. In the ski resorts and near the French border, many menus also have French and English. Spanish is spoken almost everywhere, French is common, and many restaurant staff are Portuguese, so you will rarely struggle to order. At lunch, most restaurants offer a menú del dia, a fixed-price meal with a first course, second course, dessert, bread and often a drink, and it is the best value way to eat in Andorra.

Tipping, paying and meal times

Menu prices in Andorra include service and IGI, Andorra's general indirect tax, which is much lower than VAT in Spain or France. There is usually no cover charge, although a few restaurants charge for bread. Tipping is optional: locals round up or leave a few euros, and around 5 to 10 percent is generous for good service in a sit-down restaurant. Our guide to tax and service charges on menus explains how these lines work in other countries.

Andorra is not a member of the European Union, but it uses the euro (€) and has its own euro coins. Cards and contactless payment are accepted almost everywhere, including ski area restaurants, although a few small bordas and village bars prefer cash. When a card machine offers to charge you in your home currency, choose euros: our guide to paying in local currency explains why. Because Andorra is outside the EU, mobile roaming deals for Spain and France may not cover it, so check your phone plan before you rely on data.

Meal times follow Spain more than France. Lunch is the main meal and runs from about 1pm to 3:30pm, and dinner starts from about 8:30pm. In the ski resorts, mountain restaurants serve from late morning and the busiest lunchtime is around 1pm, so eat early or late to get a table. Tap water is safe and comes straight from the mountains. Restaurants are busiest during the ski season from December to April and in July and August, and some resort restaurants close in May, June, October and November.

Where to eat in Andorra, parish by parish

Andorra is divided into seven parishes strung along a few deep valleys, all linked by one main road and a good bus network. The capital and Escaldes form one long town in the central valley, while the ski villages and mountain bordas spread out along the side valleys. Jump to a destination:

• Andorra la Vella
• Escaldes-Engordany
• La Massana and Ordino
• Canillo and Soldeu
• Pas de la Casa
• Sant Julià de Lòria

Where to eat in Andorra la Vella

Andorra la Vella is one of the highest capital cities in Europe, and most visitors know it for the shops along Avinguda Meritxell. Behind the shopping streets is the Barri Antic, the old quarter of stone houses and narrow lanes around the Casa de la Vall, the old parliament house. This is the best area in Andorra la Vella for traditional cooking, with small restaurants and bars serving trinxat, escudella, cargols, embotits and grilled meat, plus wine bars where you can order a board of cured sausage and cheese with pa amb tomàquet.

The rest of Andorra la Vella is busy with tapas bars, pizzerias, Spanish restaurants and Portuguese cafés that serve the large Portuguese community, often at good prices. At lunch, look for the menú del dia chalked on boards outside, which gives you three courses for much less than ordering from the main menu. The restaurants right on the main shopping street cater to day trippers and are less interesting than those in the Barri Antic or the streets around Plaça del Poble, the square on the roof of the government building with views down the valley.

Where to eat in Escaldes-Engordany

Escaldes-Engordany runs straight on from Andorra la Vella, and the boundary is hard to spot. Escaldes is built around hot springs and is home to Caldea, the large glass-spired thermal spa, and the pedestrian section of Avinguda Carlemany, the main shopping street. Many of Andorra's larger hotels are here, and with them some of the country's more refined restaurants, serving modern Catalan and Pyrenean cooking with local lamb, beef and mushrooms.

For everyday eating in Escaldes-Engordany, the streets near the river and the old part of Escaldes around the church have bars, bakeries and family restaurants. This is a good part of Andorra for a long Sunday lunch, and for a late-afternoon coffee and pastry after a spa visit. If you want a borda meal without driving into the mountains, the slopes above Engordany have several old farmhouse restaurants a short taxi ride from the centre of Escaldes.

Where to eat in La Massana and Ordino

The northern valley of La Massana and Ordino is where Andorra feels most like a mountain village. It is the best area for bordas, old stone hay barns and farmhouses converted into restaurants with wooden beams, open fireplaces and a big grill over wood embers. A borda meal usually starts with pa amb tomàquet, embotits or snails, then moves on to carn a la brasa, and finishes with crema catalana or mel i mató. Many bordas sit on the roads between La Massana, Ordino and the villages of the Vall d'Ordino, so a car or taxi helps, and booking ahead on weekends is wise.

La Massana is also the base for the Pal and Arinsal ski areas, and Arinsal in particular has a lively après-ski scene with bars and simple restaurants. Ordino is quieter, with a well-kept old centre of stone houses and a few restaurants that serve trinxat, game stews and wild mushroom dishes in autumn. In summer, the valleys are full of hikers, and a long lunch in Ordino after a morning walk is one of the best things to do in Andorra.

Where to eat in Canillo and Soldeu

Canillo and Soldeu sit in the eastern valley on the way to France, and in winter they are the heart of Grandvalira, the largest ski area in the Pyrenees. On the slopes, mountain restaurants serve everything from self-service pasta and burgers to sit-down meals of grilled meat, fondue and trinxat, with terraces in the sun. Lunch on the mountain is expensive, so many skiers pack a sandwich and save their money for dinner in the village.

Soldeu is popular with British and Irish skiers, and its main street has pubs, bars and restaurants serving international food as well as Andorran dishes, with a busy après-ski scene. Canillo is calmer and more local, with a few family restaurants on the main road and bordas in the side valleys. In summer, Canillo is a good base for walking, and the Sanctuary of Meritxell, Andorra's patron shrine, is nearby.

Where to eat in Pas de la Casa

Pas de la Casa is a ski and shopping town right on the French border, above 2,000 metres, and it feels different from the rest of Andorra. Most visitors are French, so menus here are usually in French first, prices are often lower than across the border, and the food leans towards crêpes, tartiflette, burgers, pizzas and quick meals. The main streets are lined with supermarkets and shops selling alcohol, tobacco and perfume at lower prices than in France.

Pas de la Casa is not a destination for traditional cooking, but it is lively in the ski season, with bars and late-night spots that fill up after the lifts close. For a more Andorran meal, the restaurants on the road down to Encamp and the village of Encamp itself, linked to the ski area by a gondola, serve trinxat, grilled meat and menú del dia lunches for local workers.

Where to eat in Sant Julià de Lòria

Sant Julià de Lòria is the southern parish, the first town you reach from Spain, and it is a good place to stop for lunch before the shopping crowds of the capital. The small town centre has bars and restaurants serving Catalan cooking and menú del dia lunches, and the old tobacco factory is now a museum about the crop that once supported the parish. Andorra also produces a small amount of wine from high-altitude vineyards, some of them on the slopes around Sant Julià.

The hills above Sant Julià de Lòria have bordas and country restaurants with views over the valley, and the road up to the Naturlandia adventure park passes several of them. From Sant Julià it is less than an hour's drive to La Seu d'Urgell in Catalonia, a market town with a twice-weekly market and cheese shops selling Pyrenean cheeses, covered in our Spain food guide.

Vegetarian, vegan and allergy tips

Andorra is a meat-heavy place, and vegetarians need to ask questions. Trinxat is usually topped with pork belly and often fried in pork fat, escudella is made with meat broth, and many vegetable dishes include ham or bacon. Grilled vegetables (verdures a la brasa), salads, omelettes, wild mushroom dishes and pasta are the safest choices. The Catalan word for vegetarian is vegetarià (vegetariana for a woman), and the Spanish is vegetariano. Vegans can ask for dishes sense carn, peix, ou ni formatge (without meat, fish, egg or cheese).

Watch for allioli, the garlic sauce served with grilled meat and snails, which is often made with egg in restaurants. Almonds and other nuts appear in desserts, picada sauces and trout dishes, and many stews are thickened with bread. Gluten-free is sense gluten in Catalan, and larger restaurants in Andorra la Vella and Escaldes understand coeliac needs. Our guide to eating abroad with food allergies explains how to explain an allergy clearly when you do not speak the language.

Useful Catalan phrases for ordering

Bon dia / Bona tarda "Good morning / Good afternoon", a polite greeting as you walk in

Una taula per a dos, si us plau "A table for two, please"

Què em recomana? "What do you recommend?"

Voldria això "I would like this" (pointing at the menu)

Teniu menú del dia? "Do you have a menu of the day?"

Sóc al·lèrgic / al·lèrgica a... "I am allergic to..." (al·lèrgic for a man, al·lèrgica for a woman)

El compte, si us plau "The bill, please"

Moltes gràcies, estava boníssim "Thank you very much, it was delicious"

How swap.menu helps you eat in Andorra

Andorran menus mix Catalan, Spanish and French, and the traditional dishes are listed under Catalan names that even Spanish speakers may not know. Photograph the menu with swap.menu and every dish appears in your language with the original name beside it and a short explanation, so you know that trinxat is cabbage and potato cake with pork belly, that formatge de tupí is a fermented cheese spread, and whether truita means omelette or trout. Every price is converted from euros to your home currency, and swap.menu points out any bread charge or extras on the bill.

Tap the dishes you want, add a note such as "no pork" or "I am allergic to nuts", typed or spoken, and swap.menu translates your order into Catalan, Spanish or French. Show the waiter your phone, or let them scan the QR code and read your order on their own screen. Try it on a sample menu with the free demo, or see travel pass prices.

Andorra food FAQ