Today we woke up to some big news: El Nacional has dedicated an article in La Gourmeteria, its gastronomy section, to Appetece. And it's not our first time in the media — back in April, The New Barcelona Post told the story of how we're changing the way people choose where to eat on weekdays in Barcelona.
This post is our little scrapbook. We'll keep updating it every time someone writes about us.
What El Nacional says
In the article, written by Oriol Foix, El Nacional introduces us as "the free app created in Catalonia to discover the best menús del día in Barcelona". Hard to sum it up better.
The piece covers the essentials of Appetece:
- Free for anyone looking for a place to eat, on the web and in the mobile app.
- Free for restaurants too, which publish their up-to-date menú del día at no cost; those who want more can share their full menu and manage direct reservations.
- Over 1,000 registered restaurants, and counting.
It also points out what sets us apart from Google Maps or The Fork: specialisation. We're not trying to be a guide to everything — we're the tool for one very specific question millions of people ask themselves every lunchtime: where am I eating today?
And it lands on an idea that defines us: beyond being a showcase for the local food scene, Appetece acts as a bridge between diners and restaurants.
What The New Barcelona Post reported
A few months earlier, in April, Carmen Curt wrote in The New Barcelona Post a more in-depth profile: "Appetece, a new way to choose where to eat on weekdays in Barcelona".
The article explains the problem that got us started. Menú del día information lives fragmented: on a chalkboard in the street, in an Instagram story, in a PDF buried on a website. In the words of our founders, Marc Boada and Gonzalo Polo:
"What we're after is centralising the information in a single app. You have little time and you don't want to wander around wondering where to eat."
It also highlights how we help restaurants digitise their menu — with AI tools that turn a photo of the menu into a published menu — and our philosophy at this stage:
"Right now we're not focused on monetising, but on growing."
From 100 to over 1,000 restaurants in four months
Read side by side, the two articles tell a story we're especially proud of: the growth picture. When The New Barcelona Post wrote about us, we had just over 100 establishments in Barcelona. El Nacional now talks about more than 1,000 registered restaurants.
That growth has a simple explanation: the menú del día is Spain's best-loved food ritual, and nobody had built a tool worthy of it. We wrote at length about why it deserves defending in is the menú del día going extinct?, and about what a set lunch costs in each neighbourhood in our price guide by barrio.
See for yourself: today's menus
The best way to understand what both articles are talking about is to see it live. Here are some menús del día published today in Barcelona:
Today's menús del día in Barcelona
4 Latas Hostafrancs
4 Latas Fleming
4 Latas Beethoven
Pizzamarket Diagonal
Pizzamarket Muntaner
Pizzamarket Sarrià
Data updated in real time from Appetece
To Oriol, Carmen and their newsrooms: thank you for telling it so well. And if you run a restaurant and want the next article to mention your menu too, publish it for free on Appetece.
Still don't know where to eat today? Find out on Appetece — menús del día updated every morning, near you.