Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Barcelona
I share some of my favourite places to eat and discover in Barcelona, one of the world’s culinary capitals.
When it comes to cities for a food tour, it’d be hard to beat Barcelona as one of Europe’s top destinations for the hungry. Catalunya’s capital has long been one of the top tourist destinations in Europe, and it is not hard to see why. A magnificent cultural and historic jewel on the Mediterranean, Barcelona ticks all the boxes for a weekend, or longer, getting lost in a foreign city; it has it all; art, history, sunshine, beaches and perhaps most importantly, food,..oh, and some pretty special libations to keep you hydrated.
Tapas, along with Jamon and the afternoon siesta, are truly Spain’s gifts to the world. What can be better than a balmy summer night spent bouncing through medieval laneways with a crew of friends, hopping from one bar to the next, sampling bite after bite of wondrous local delicacies, ice-cold beers flowing, loud conversations spilling out onto the streets, shouting and gesticulating wildly, amongst hordes of locals hanging out around the many plaças and neighbourhood backstreets. To me this is heaven.
In Barca, like much of Spain, the food can be exceptional, but with so many tourists flocking to the city, it can also be crap. However, the sheer number of bars and taverns means that the chances of a bad meal are low, but like all foreign city visits, the golden rule applies; get off the main streets and tourist traps and explore.
I am blessed to have visited Barcelona countless times and there are too many places to indulge one’s whims to list here, so I’ll just name a few of my ‘go-to’s’. But do some research, learn a few simple Spanish or better still, Catalan words, and go and get lost. Power Tip: never, ever visit a foreign city without first learning how to say ‘please’ ‘thank you’ and ‘2 more beers please’ in the local language. Trust me, it will serve you very well.
Breakfast in Barca is usually coffee and a sweet pastry, with more substantial food ramping up throughout the day, however, the coffee revolution that has swept the globe over the last decade has well and truly hit Barcelona too, so good caffeine is never too far away. For a shot of coffee with a side of cool, you can’t go past Satan’s Corner on L'Arc de Sant Ramón del Call 11. Tucked away just behind the tourist area here you’ll find everything you need to get you jacked up and ready to explore this beautiful city. They also have a second outlet at the uber-cool boutique hotel, Casa Bonay (which also just so happens to have one of the city’s best roof terraces for evening cocktails). Another caffeine dealer that is well worth a visit is Nomad Coffee in El Born area at L'Arc de Sant Ramón del Call 11. These guys know their beans and will hook you up with the good stuff and send you on your way with a smile. Do as the locals do for breakfast; get your caffeine fix then hold out till 11 a.m. when you’re pretty much free to start stuffing your face with amazing food throughout the rest of the day and well into the evening.
Mid-morning in Barcelona is tortilla time, or truita, as the Catalans call this famous dish. This quintessential dish is indicative of Spanish food across the country; take a few simple ingredients, in this case, eggs, potato, oil and salt, and produce something spectacular. As a mid-morning snack, ideally taken with a ‘caña; a small glass of beer, or two, will top up the tank and put a smile on your dial as you continue with your city tour. Countless places will have a tortilla or two on the bar, but for an authentic institution, you can’t beat The Xampanyet at 22 Carrer de Montcada in El Born just around the corner from the Picasso Museum. Given its location, it is one of the most popular bars in Barcelona so it can be packed with patrons, locals and tourists alike. They are famous for their anchovies and Cava (the bar name is ‘Champagne’ in Catalan) but they also serve a mean tortilla.
Wandering around the medieval quarters of El Raval, El Born and the Gothic quarter you’ll be tempted to drop into one of the seemingly never-ending numbers of bars for a drink and a bite, and you should as often as you can. Maybe a couple of beers or wines and some chorizo or Jamon, to tide you over until lunch. But be careful, you don’t want to spoil lunch as you’ve got a long day of eating ahead and peaking too early is simply not an option in a gastronomic nirvana like Barcelona.
Catalans, and Spanish people in general, don’t follow the breakfast, lunch, and dinner gustation framework that much of the world does. Instead, they tend to graze throughout the day, what we would call ‘late lunch’ at 3 pm being the main meal of the day. Promptly followed by a siesta. Anyone who has spent more than a few weeks in Spain will often return to their homeland unable to function without the daily kip they’ve become accustomed to. A few hours of sleep just after a big meal, and often during the hottest hours of the day, not only helps digestion but arguably makes for greater personal happiness back at work in the afternoon; work through the morning, head home for lunch, then jump into bed with your loved one for a few hours before returning to work in the evening? What’s not to love about that?!
You’ve made it to lunch and again, the options are endless. Any trip to Barcelona must include a wander through La Boqueria Market, just of La Rambla. You’ll jostle for space to move as throngs of tourists take insta-porn photos of the product, but there’s a great little bar called Pintxo Bar that serves some great tapas and plates with beers served by the smiling owner who is possibly one of the most photographed men in the city. Try the razor clams, the ‘head and leg’ of pork and when in season, the ‘caracoles’ snails.
Another option in the El Born area is Cal Pep (Plaça de Les Olles, 8) This place is an institution and revered by both locals and tourists alike and serves some of the best tapas in the city. Be warned though, it gets rammed at lunchtime. You will wait for a seat at this unsuspecting place, but it is worth it. The menu is long and has a solid seafood selection, but the best way to enjoy Cal Pep is to let Pep himself order for you, just let him know what you feel like eating and sit back and enjoy the show. Be sure to try the botifarra sausage with beans, whitebait, calamari and clams. Hell, it’s all amazing.
Time now for one or two post-luncheon glasses of wine or vermouth before that all-important siesta. If you’re around the city centre you’ll have no shortage of places to wet your whistle but a seat on one of the many terraces on Plaça Reial is a great place to relax amongst the palms and watch the city roll by. You can forego the siesta if you wish, but the day is young and it is going to be a long night, so high-tail it back to the pad for some much-needed Z’s. At 2 am when you’re scoffing wine and eating slices of Jamon you’ll be thankful you did.
Around 5 pm the city begins to slowly gain momentum, dusting off the afternoons snoozing, the long warm evenings are made for socialising. While the city centre has plenty of places to check out, do yourself a favour and head up to Gracia for the evening and night. A couple of stops on the metro train (or a lovely 30-minute ramble up the hill) and you’ll find a pocket of Barcelona that is a destination unto itself. I’ve been to Barcelona over two dozen times and I rarely find the need or desire to leave the small Gracia neighbourhood.
Many years ago Gracia was a small satellite village on the outskirts of Barca. Time has seen it swallowed up as the city grew and spread her wings further. It is having its moment in the sun though as uber-cool boutique fashion shops spring up amongst the even more uber-cool creative studios and yoga studios. Within this small ‘hood’ you’ll experience real Barcelona village life with numerous food markets, ‘carniceria’; butchers with their legs of Jamon and chorizo hanging from the ceiling, traditional bakeries and some of the best restaurants in the city, all nestled in its narrow streets and laneways, and all reachable on foot in an evening bar-hopping. Perfecto.
Start (and potentially finish) the evening with vermouth at one of my favourite Gracia bars; Puigmartí, on the street of the same name at 12 Carrer de Puigmartí - Agusti, the owner, serves up some great tapas and his energy, and drinks, makes it hard to leave. If you can manage to drag yourself away head to one of the many plaças in the village. It’s where the locals hang out and so should you. Kids, families, grandparents; if they live in Gracia, come evening time you can find them here. Lining these many plaças are some fantastic tapas bars. Cadaques bar on Plaça de la Villa serves delicious fried calamari and the service is friendly and quick, so your beer is always full. Grab a table on the terrace and soak in the Gracia life.
For more serious ‘dinner’ options you can’t beat Bar Extra (Carrer del Torrent de l'Olla, 79). Sister restaurant to La Pubilla, also in Gracia (and incidentally one of the best lunch spots in the area) they serve skilled and creative tapas with an extensive Catalan wine list which translates to you finding it hard to stop ordering and easily spending a few hours here feasting. I had here a tapas dish of pressed potato terrine with chorizo and a cured egg yolk which I am still raving about 6 months later. Sublime.
Just up the road is Viblioteca (Carrer de Vallfogona, 12) where you’ll find a cheese and wine menu that can be a good option if you have shown little restraint throughout the day and do not feel like eating much. They have about 50 different cheeses from all over Europe, but again the local Catalan produce is what you want to be trying; their wines are magnificent but hard to find on London menus that are often dominated by Rioja’s and Albariño’s so take the opportunity to drink local.
As the evening kicks on in earnest, be sure to drop by Plaça del Sol and join the hundreds of locals who take over the square and hang out each evening. With many people living in small apartments, this is where they come to socialise and spend time with friends and family outside on a hot, balmy evening. You can grab a seat at one of the many bars on the square if you want table service, or just sit down in the middle of the square as the locals do and buy cans of beer from the shop on the corner. If you feel more like some late-night cocktails then head up the street to Velcro Bar (Carrer de Vallfogona, 10) where you’ll get served strong cocktails and huge ballon-sized gin & tonics, all served by a friendly crew behind the bar.
From here, Barcelona has you now and will undoubtedly tempt you into staying out longer. You can wander the streets into the wee hours hopping from bar to bar, plaça de plaça, then it’s just a matter of a short cab back to the pad for rest before doing it all over again the next day.
Come to think of it, I think I may just have to move to Barcelona permanently.
