Lleida is the capital of one of Spain's great agricultural regions — the plains and irrigated orchards of the Segre valley produce extraordinary fruit, vegetables, and game. Local cooking is hearty and unfussy, rooted in Pyrenean tradition: snails cooked over fire, salt cod prepared a dozen ways, lamb and rabbit from the hills, and the famous Lleida pears and peaches that supply supermarkets across Europe.
The snail festival, L'Aplec del Caragol, takes place each May and draws hundreds of thousands of visitors — if you are here then, eating snails is not optional. The rest of the year, look for restaurants that serve cargols a la llauna (snails grilled in a tin), bacallà (salt cod), and xai (lamb). The pedestrian streets of the old quarter and Rambla d'Aragó have a good density of restaurants.