Located in the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district of Barcelona, Ultramarinos Marín resembles a traditional neighborhood bar at first glance. In the front, there is a bar counter from the 1970s, while in the back, a quieter asador section operates around a wood fire. However, the kitchen's operational system is more comprehensive than that of a classic bar-restaurant.

According to the venue's official statement, the kitchen uses pine, oak, and olive wood fires; the wood oven, smoking equipment, grills, and various cooking surfaces are activated according to the product's structure. The establishment claims to prepare delicatessen products, cured meats and fish, pickles, terrines, smoked products, pickles, and various sauces as much as possible in-house.

Gambero Rosso's review dated August 25, 2026, also describes Ultramarinos Marín as a restaurant that emphasizes product and cooking technique rather than flashy fine dining, standing between a bar and a Basque-style asador. The publication notes that the venue has high visibility among local gastronomy professionals and chefs, attracting attention from names like Ferran Adrià.

However, what is particularly interesting from StaffMag's perspective is not the restaurant's popularity. The model of Ultramarinos Marín separates high product quality and serious production techniques from expensive service rituals, bringing it into a more casual venue format.

Bar in the front, asador in the back

The venue is physically divided into two different service experiences.

According to Ultramarinos Marín's own description, the front section retains the noisy and lively structure of old Barcelona bars. In the back, there is a more controlled dining experience around an open fire and grill. Although both sections are connected to the same kitchen, the way customers use them differs.

This distinction is significant in terms of restaurant management.

A business does not need to offer the same seating time and service style to all customers. While the bar section can create faster turnover and spontaneous consumption, the back section can provide space for longer dining times and higher average bills.

Thus, different customer usage patterns can be created within a single location.

However, for the model to operate effectively, strong communication between the kitchen and service is essential. When the order flow and staff coordination falter in the high-paced bar setup near the open kitchen, the restaurant's energetic atmosphere can easily turn into service chaos.

The production system comes before the menu

The key factor that distinguishes Ultramarinos Marín from many product-focused restaurants is not just its purchase of good raw materials; it also attempts to process a significant portion of the raw materials in the kitchen.

The establishment's official statement indicates that products are taken as raw as possible and processed in their own production areas. Alongside pickling, curing, smoking, and delicatessen production, garum is particularly important as a technical area. The restaurant states that it has over ten years of experience working with garum and has developed numerous applications with mackerel, meat, Iberico products, and various raw materials.

Chef Borja García Ordoño also described the restaurant's fundamental approach through craftsmanship in an interview with El País in 2025; he mentioned that the production of everything from pickles to delicatessen and sauces is centered on being done as much as possible in-house.

The critical point here is not the romantic side of the saying "make everything in-house," but its impact on the business economy.

When the establishment prepares its own delicatessen products, sauces, or pickles, it can reduce dependence on external suppliers and create unique products. In return, more space for production, trained staff, food safety procedures, maturation time, and stock tracking are required.

Therefore, vertical production is not automatically a cheaper model.

Simple plates, complex back operations

50 Best Discovery lists Ultramarinos Marín in its 2026 current guide, noting that Borja García Ordoño has a background in kitchens like Dos Pebrots, Etxebarri, and Noma. The guide defines the restaurant's kitchen particularly through its product-focused Mediterranean approach, seafood, and meats prepared over fire.

In this culinary language, rather than showcasing numerous elements on the plate, raw materials and techniques take precedence.

However, the simple plate seen by the customer does not mean that there is a simple operation in the kitchen.

Maturation of a fish, curing of meat, production of garum, preparation of pickles, or managing wood fire for different products requires serious mise en place and process control.

For this reason, labor in product-focused restaurants should not only be calculated based on the minutes visible during service. The production time that starts days or weeks before the product reaches the customer's plate is also part of the real food cost calculation.

Wood fire creates identity but also limits capacity

One of the restaurant's primary cooking tools is fire.

The use of different woods is not just a matter of aroma preference; it is directly related to temperature management, ash, airflow, and service pace.

In fire-centered restaurants, the chef's experience can become more decisive compared to standard electric or gas equipment. When the weight of the product, fat content, and service intensity change, it may not be possible to leave the cooking process to an automatic program.

This situation creates both a brand advantage and a human resource risk for the business.

From the customer's perspective, products cooked over fire can be a strong differentiating factor. For the business, maintaining the same quality across different shifts requires trained teams.

Becoming overly dependent on the personal experience of a few key staff members can complicate scaling.

When production space is insufficient, a second business emerges

One of the most notable developments in Ultramarinos Marín's growth was the opening of the Ultrapaninos Marín project right next door in 2025.

According to La Vanguardia's assessment in April 2026, the new space is not just a second restaurant selling sandwiches; it operates as a kind of "arm" that expands Ultramarinos' production capacity. Due to the inadequacy of the old production area, some of the delicatessen, pickles, butter, marinated products, and other preparations have been moved to the production infrastructure in the adjacent space.

Time Out also reports that the project aims to redirect some of the queues, reservations, and high demand at Ultramarinos to a different format. At Ultrapaninos, many products, from bread to delicatessen and sauces, are again prepared in-house.

This approach is different from the classic "opening a second branch" strategy in restaurant growth.

The new location does not simply copy the same menu. It creates a different format that solves the bottleneck of the existing restaurant — production space and customer capacity.

From this perspective, the fundamental question of growth is not "where will the second Ultramarinos open?" but which operational function can be separated from the existing business to create its own revenue model?

A production center can also turn into retail

With the opening of Ultrapaninos, some products in the Ultramarinos ecosystem began to move outside the restaurant.

The separate retail value gained by their homemade garum, pickles, delicatessen, sauces, and similar products is independent of the restaurant's intellectual and technical production from table sales. La Vanguardia and Time Out report that homemade delicatessen and bread are particularly emphasized in this second business.

This model is an important scaling option for independent restaurants.

A successful restaurant does not necessarily need to open many branches. If its strength is a particular sauce, bread, delicatessen product, or recipe, this product can be transformed into a separate sales channel.

However, here, production regulations, packaging, shelf life, and HACCP procedures can become more complex than restaurant service. The transformation of products made in small quantities in the kitchen into commercial retail products requires a new operational discipline.

Product quality alone does not solve price perception

Current customer data regarding Ultramarinos Marín also shows another side of the model.

As of August 2026, the restaurant has an overall rating of 8.7/10 on TheFork; the food score is 9.1, higher than the service and atmosphere scores. Some user reviews on the platform find the product quality strong while evaluating the portion and price relationship as more debatable. These should be read as subjective opinions regarding customer experience, not verified financial or operational data.

This distinction is important for product-centered businesses.

Using high-quality raw materials and intensive labor can explain the restaurant's price, but it does not automatically guarantee the value perceived by customers.

If the restaurant's service style is quite informal, some customers may compare the high bill with fine dining service standards. Other customers, on the contrary, may evaluate the price directly based on the quality of the raw materials and the kitchen's technique.

Therefore, the price communication of the concept must be clear.

How should it be interpreted for independent restaurants in Turkey?

It is not correct to say that Ultramarinos Marín is a restaurant model that should be copied exactly.

Barcelona's product supply, customer profile, wage level, and gastronomic tourism differ from Turkey. Additionally, the model of producing high-quality seafood, long-term fermentation, and its own delicatessen requires serious expertise.

However, there are three strong takeaways for independent restaurants in Turkey.

First, differentiation may not only come from producing new dishes. Developing the establishment's own sauce, pickle, bread, or specific production technique can create a more lasting identity.

Second, growth does not always mean opening a second branch of the same concept. Production space, takeaway, retail, or more accessible sub-brands can solve the main business's capacity problems.

Third, there must be real operations behind the "product-focused" narrative. For businesses that use the same label but cannot standardize product supply, recipes, and staff training, this expression can quickly turn into a marketing cliché.

According to Stafflink

The most instructive aspect of Ultramarinos Marín is that behind a seemingly simple restaurant lies a high level of production complexity.

In our opinion, for the "we do everything ourselves" approach to be successful in independent restaurants, it must first be calculated which productions truly make a difference to the customer. Making every sauce, bread, or delicatessen product in-house does not automatically provide an advantage to the business.

The question that needs to be measured is more concrete: Does this production differentiate the brand, increase the contribution margin, or ensure customer return?

The second location of Ultramarinos is even more interesting from this perspective. The second restaurant has not been opened by copying the success of the main restaurant; instead, another business has been designed that solves production and capacity bottlenecks while also creating a new revenue channel.

This approach may be valuable for independent restaurants planning to grow in Turkey. Finding which function of the main business is worth scaling before opening a second branch can create a more controlled investment model.

The other critical issue is human resources. Relying on the personal skills of a few individuals for techniques like fermentation, curing, delicatessen, or wood fire creates risks for the continuity of the business. Without recipe records, food safety procedures, production schedules, and team training, craftsmanship can easily become dependent on individuals.

Therefore, the model of Ultramarinos Marín tells more than just the romance of the "old-fashioned bar": it shows that craftsmanship can turn into a business model when systematized.