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Cafés, tapas bars and
restaurants
G
ood cafés, tapas bars and restaurants are easily found all over the city,
though you’ll probably do most of your eating where you do most of
your sightseeing, in the old town, particularly in the
Barri Gòtic
.
However, if you step no further than the
Ramblas
or the streets
around the cathedral, you are not going to experience the best of the city’s
cuisine – in the main tourist areas food and service can be indifferent and
prices high.You need to be a bit more adventurous, and explore the backstreets
of neighbourhoods like
Sant Pere
,
La Ribera
,
El Raval
and
Poble Sec
,
where you’ll find excellent restaurants, some little more than hole-in-the-wall
cafés or traditional taverns, others surprisingly funky and chic. Most, but not
all, of the big-ticket, destination-dining restaurants are found in the
Eixample
,
though here you’ll also discover plenty of bargains in places aimed at lunching
workers.
Gràcia
, further out, is a nice village-like place to spend the evening,
with plenty of good mid-range restaurants. For fish and seafood you’re best off
in the harbourside
Barceloneta
district or at the
Port Olímpic
.
Cafés and fast food
There are thousands of
cafés
in Barcelona and you’re rarely more than a step
away from a coffee fix or a quick sandwich. In terms of what’s available to eat
H
Starting the day
Unless you’re staying somewhere with a decent buffet breakfast spread, you may as
well pass up the overpriced coffee-and-croissant option in your hotel and join the
locals in the bars, cafés and patisseries. Two or three euros should get you a hot
drink and a brioche, croissant or sandwich just about anywhere – many advertised
deals run until noon.
Ensaimadas
(pastry spirals) are a popular choice, while
xocolata
amb xurros (chocolate con churros
– long, fried tubular doughnuts with thick drinking
chocolate) is a good cold-weather starter. The traditional country breakfast is
pa amb
tomàquet
(
pan con tomate
) – bread rubbed with tomato, olive oil and garlic, perhaps
topped with some cured ham or sliced cheese. Otherwise, breakfast sandwiches are
whatever can be stuffed inside a
flauta
(thin baguette), from ham to
truita
(
tortilla
). For
toast, ask for
torrades
(
tostadas
).
CAFÉS, TAPAS BARS AND RESTAURANTS
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Cafés and fast food