Barcelona

I didn't notice any one overall Barcelona topic, so this can be a catchall. We just got back after a week there, so here's my report...

We flew on Friday from Chicago to Munich to Barcelona (inflight meal on United economy was either chicken or pasta, both ways, and was uninspired, but fully edible – even on short flights, Lufthansa gives you a snack – we had sandwiches, choice of turkey, cheese or ham)

That first night on Saturday we went to Cal Pep for dinner. (Plaça des les Olles 8 ) We lined up at a little before 8, and were among the first seated. All tourists, the regulars come later. Even later, though, there’s a wait. The food here is quite good, and it’s a lot of fun. The guidebook says to sit at the seats in the front of the bar since no one waits behind you there, but Pep himself hangs out near the back of the bar, so I think it’s a bit more interesting there. In the middle you can see the cooking most easily, so any seat can be a good one. The specialty is seafood, but we really liked the sausage with white beans and the little fried green peppers.

Sunday night we had dinner at Senyor Parellada (Carrer Argenteria 37) – a traditional Catalan restaurant. It was a sit-down, white tablecloth kind of place, but not stuffy or expensive. It has a distinct advantage of being open on Sunday, many places aren’t! I had lamb with 12 cloves of garlic, DH had duck with mushrooms. Both were very good.

Monday we had dinner that night at bubo bar (Caputxes 10), which was mentioned by the NY Times. It was hip, I guess, but the food was only OK, and the service was spotty – even when the guys weren’t being distracted by the girl from Bubo (connected pastry shop) bringing them the leftovers from the bakery. Half the clientele seemed to be tourists who’d read the Times article, the other half were chain smoking locals.

Speaking of smoking, they do have non-smoking places now. I think I saw fewer people smoking, but those who did smoke seemed to be doing enough of it to more than make up for the ones who had stopped.

Tuesday we rented a car and went out to visit a winery, Parés Baltà ( http://www.paresbalta.com/ ) in Penedes. We had a great tour by one of the owners, Joan, and tasted their wines. He showed us their bee hives, and told us how the wild boars eat the ripe grapes. He spent a great deal of time with us, and it was very kind of him. Lunch was at Cal Xim (Pl. Subirats, 5 - Sant Pau d'Ordal (Subirats) near Vilafranca – WOW! A teeny place with a huge open wood burning oven/grill and a great wine list. Everything was seasonal and local and simply cooked. DH had duck and I had the rarest pork I’d ever seen (they offered to cook it a bit more for me, but I managed to eat about ½ of it). The best was the grilled artichokes. Soaked in olive oil and salt, and left to slowly roast over wood coals. Yum.

Dinner – hisop (Passatge Marimon 9). Nearly empty, sigh. Perhaps because it was Mardi Gras? Anyway, a very good value – there was a tasting menu for about 48 Euros. There were 2 starters, then an appetizer, a fish dish, a main, cheese, a few desserts. Quite good, though not as good as Cinc Sentits. They have an a la carte menu, but we figured the tasting menu was probably the best way to try the most things. The only other 2 people there were 2 guys who represent Jose Cuervo – one from Chile who works in Barcelona, the other one an Italian guy who works in Milan (did you know that the Greeks are the world’s largest consumers of Tequila and the Spanish are second? Not sure if that is per capita or simply by volume).

Wednesday we took a cooking class and tour of the Boqueria market. First we had a Xuxo (cream filled pastry) and coffee at Bar Pinoxio in the Boqueria market, a place that is not famous for their pastry (which they don’t make) but we started out at the market, and like the guy there, so… The cooking school - http://www.cookandtaste.net/ - is located right above La Ramblas. This was a good place, since as the day went on more and more Liverpool football fans gathered below, drinking more beer than you’d think possible, singing songs and getting ready for the match against Barcelona that evening. We cooked paella, crema catalan, a tomato soup, it was very tasty. There were 3 women from New York City, one on her own, the other were a mom and her daughter who is living in Paris teaching English. Also there was a woman and her god-son from Belgium, who had come in for the football match with a group. And us.

After that we weren’t hungry until very late, and didn’t know what we wanted to eat, so we ended up at Cal Pep again some time after 10. Luckily we didn’t have to wait for seats, but people after us did. And we ended up closing the place down! Once again, the food was very good. Once again lots of tourists, but more locals too.

Thursday again we rented a car and went out to Tarragona to visit wineries near there. We had a nice lunch in Falset (nothing extraordinary) and visited El Masroig ( http://www.cellermasroig.com/ ) and Capçanes ( http://www.cellercapcanes.com/ ) - which apparently produces some outstanding Kosher wine. For dinner we went to Cinc Sentits (C/Aribau 58 ) which was amazing – right up until I had some sort of allergic reaction to the roast pork (done sous vide) and we left. I guess we kind of expected them to pro-rate the cost a bit, at least on the wine pairings we never got to, but they didn’t. Oh well!

Friday we went to a bunch of different places – lunch at TapaÇ24 (Calle Diputació 269) which I think had the best tapas of all the places we had them. Really amazing fried artichokes – they sliced baby artichokes paper thin, so they were like artichoke chips. Oh so decadent! And we didn’t have to wait for seats, so that made for a good experience as well.

For dinner, we started at El Xampanyet (Montcada 22) – a bar filled with drunken British women (seriously, about 15 of them in a place that is very small). They had a sparkling house wine (in addition to a lot of other wines, cava, etc) that we tried. It was OK, but not as good as cava. Almost all the food was preserved – good food, but in cans that they just stuck on a toothpick and served. A lot of people have raved about the place, but I just didn’t get it. We figured maybe it would have been better to go during the week when it wasn’t overrun, or later in the evening (I think we were there around 8, it opens at 7). We also went to Taller de Tapas (a mini-chain with several locations) and Euskal Etxea (Placeta Montcada, 1-3 ) Taller has small plates like Cal Pep and Tapac24, but the menu is in Spanish, Catalan and English, so it’s easier to figure out what you are ordering. The food was fine, but it definitely felt more designed and touristy than TapaÇ24 or Cal Pep. Euskal is a Basque place where it’s pinchos – little bites on bread with different colored toothpicks. At the end they count your toothpicks and that determines your bill. There’s also a restaurant in back, but no one was in there. I really liked the red peppers stuffed with tuna, and a ham sandwich on a poppy seed croissant.

Other places we ate – Origen 99’9 – a mini-chain that serves traditional Catalan dishes in tapas sizes. Supposedly 99.9% of their items are local and seasonal. It was quite good and we had lunch there twice. One of the locations has a little shop attached, selling wine, oil, cookies, nuts, etc. Viena – another mini-chain that has what Mark Bittman of the NY Times calls the best sandwich in the world. I don’t know about that, but they do have a darned good ham sandwich done on excellent skinny baguette with Iberian ham.

leek wrote:Wednesday we took a cooking class and tour of the Boqueria market.

I have never been to Barcelona, but here are a few great photos of that market.

I was in Barcelona a few years ago...we stayed at a hotel just off of La Boqueria. Fantastic.

That place is a food porn palace.



I think my favorite part, aside from all the cheeky produce, is the peroxide-blonde, fully-manicured or pink-glove-wearing, hatchet-wielding ladies of the fish stalls.



We trekked north to Roses for a few days as well. This was before Ferran Adria was on my radar, so we didn't do El Bulli. But we did have an insane meal at a place called Taverna Gallega. Two plates piled HIGH with all sorts of aoli-grilled seafood grilled. I thought surely the meal would set us back at least $100 (pre-Euro currency conversion=not my forte), but when we got home and checked the credit card, the grand total: $35.

On our trip to Spain, we spent 5 nights in Barcelona. Our lunches (with a couple of exceptions) were mainly eaten on the go, but I planned our dinners carefully.

Probably my favorite dinner was at Paco Meralgo.

Paco Meralgo is an upscale tapas restaurant, and one of the few restaurants in town open for dinner on Sundays. The atmosphere is sort of diner-esque, with waiters yelling at the kitchen and each other. The food, though, rises well above diner level (the restaurant actually reminded me a lot of Avec).

We started our dinner with a couple of steak tartars served on toast. The tartar was outstanding and a great way to start the meal.

The rest of the meal I snapped pictures of...


Cod salad with tomato and olive oil - The cod, I believe, was raw which emphasized just how fresh and high quality the fish was. The tomatoes, olives, and olive oil all worked to bring the fish together. Very light, very refreshing.


Jamon - Ah, the obligatory plate of jamon. I believe this was bellota, but we at so much ham while in Spain I can't be sure. This jamon was as good as any we had. With a better camera, I could have gotten some absolutely filthy ham-porn shots. The fat literally melted in my mouth.


Razor clams - We at almost as many razor clams as jamon. These were fine specimens, plump and briny. Like much of the seafood at Paco Meralgo, a very simple prep (grilled with olive oil, lemon, and some salt).


Squid with white beans - I had no idea how good the squid was going to be over there. Everyplace we got squid it was tender and delicious. This dish was no exception. I'm not really fond of beans, but the beans in this dish were quite good.


Oysters - Not sure what kind of oysters these were but they were delicious. Not sure if the picture shows it well, but the amount of liquor in the oyster was most impressive.


Foie on toast - Big hunk of seared foie gras on toast. Rich, fatty, wonderful.


"French toast" - I can't remember exactly how this was listed on the menu, but it is Paco Meralgo's version of french toast. A good, not overly sweet dessert (even my wife liked it and she's no dessert fan).


Fresh cherries - It takes an enormous amount of confidence in the quality of your products to serve this as a dessert. These cherries tasted like they could have come of the tree minutes ago. They were plump, sweet, just a bit tart, and like no cherries I've ever tasted in the US.

Along with a nice bottle of Spanish white this meal came to all of 87 Euros. The current exchange rate makes the price a little less reasonable, but given the quality of everything we ate, this was probably the biggest bargain of all of the dinners that we had. Of all of the restaurants we went to for dinner (more posts coming), Paco Meralgo is probably the only one that I would consider going back to.

Paco Meralgo
http://www.pacomeralgo.com
Carrer de Muntaner 171
08036 Barcelona, Spain
+34 934 309 027

I mentioned in my last post that most of our lunches were grabbed on the run while in Spain, but the two that I did plan for were Cal Pep and La Boqueria.

As others have mentioned, Cal Pep is one of those love it or hate it places. It's filled with tourists, but plenty of locals eat there too. Some people think it's overpriced, others think it's well worth it.

We tried going one day (arriving the requisite 30 minutes before opening time to guarantee ourselves seats at the bar) but they were closed for a holiday. We went back later in our trip and were rewarded.

We took our seats at the end of the bar, and let our waiter Paco do the ordering for us...


Paco working the bar


Assorted fried seafood - Served fresh from the fryer, lightly salted


One fried fishie


Clams and ham - How can you not love this country?


Monkfish - Paco decided that we needed a whole fish


Veal - not quite full, Paco brought us this for dessert

Put me in the camp that loves Cal Pep. I don't remember exactly how much this meal was (I think around 70 euros), but it was certainly more than our other lunches...and well worth it.

Cal Pep
Placa de les Olles 8
http://www.calpep.com

Our other planned lunch was at La Boqeria, Barcelona's crazy huge market right in the middle of town.

There are five or six lunch counters at the market, some thought of more highly than others. We got to the market pretty hungry, so we didn't really have the patience to stakeout seats at a specific counter. We pretty much just walked around until we found a couple of empty seats.


I don't remember the name of the place we wound up, but it was pretty good. We had some marinated anchovies, a plate of country ham, fried baby squid, and grilled local sausages.

The anchovies (really all of the anchovies we had) were nothing like the anchovies that we normally get here. Since they are mostly packed in olive oil, they rarely had that fishy/salty taste we're accustomed to. The ham and the squid were both pretty good. The sausages were fantastic. They were a bit like breakfast links, but with a milder spice and more pronounced pork flavor.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, a bit of additional Boqueria porn...

When people write about the seafood palace Rias de Galicia, the word that comes up most often is "referential". In other words, if you eat a clam at Rias de Galicia, that's what a clam is supposed to taste like. Of course, that sort of experience comes with a price. This restaurant is the home of the 72 euro plate of barnacles (about $100 at the current exchange rate). While I can't argue with the "referential" nature of the food, the atmosphere and the service left me cold, and not terribly thrilled about spending 200 euros on dinner in a town where a better overall experience can be found for less money. Not sure if it was the economy or not, but the restaurant was almost completely empty from the time we arrived for our 9:30 reservation until we left at around 11 or 11:30.


Clam amuse - Not sure what type of clams these were, but they were barely cooked with some olive oil and chili flakes. Probably one of the highlights of the meal.


Tuna and seabass tartar with miso (half portion) - Bright and fresh tasting, the textures of both types of fish really added to this dish. Probably the least "traditional" dish we had at Rias.


Fried baby squid (half portion) - Good, but no better than anywhere else where we had the same dish.


More clams - The clams themselves weren't as good as the first clams we had, but the sauce was unbelievable.


Grilled shrimp - The wife's dinner. She said they were good, but I didn't have any because I was more than occupied with...


Mixed grilled seafood - Multiple types of clams, scallops, shrimp, crab, small lobster...who even knows. All grilled simply with olive oil and sea salt, and all unbelievably delicious.

Finished off with a simple dessert of pastries filled with fresh cream and chocolate sauce.

So, again, I can't really argue with the quality of the seafood. I just felt like something was lacking here (soul, heart?). Our dinner at Rafa's the next night was probably at about the same level in terms of quality, but left me much more satisfied overall (and at about half the price). I'm glad that we went to Rias, but I probably wouldn't go back.

Rias de Galicia
http://www.riasdegalicia.com
C/ Lleida 7
+34 934 234 570

Invaluable posts, Josh - many thanks for the time, photos, and obviously careful notes you were taking. Particularly evocative for me are the squid with white beans (classic Northern fare) and the single lonely fried fishie.

Thanks for the kind words. I actually didn't take notes, so the trick is getting all of this posted before I forget any more details.

Still a couple more coming on Barcelona and one on Madrid.

No pictures of this one, but on our first night in Barcelona we went to Dos Palillos.

Dos Palillos is a relatively new restaurant, opened by Albert Raurich. Raurich was Chef de Cuisine at el Bulli for a little less than 10 years before deciding to move on and open Dos Palillos.

The restaurant is intended to showcase Spanish/Asian fusion tapas (the name translates to two sticks, referring to both chopsticks and the toothpicks that some tapas are eaten with). I think fusion might be exaggerating what's going on at Dos Palillos as I found most of the food to be pretty firmly in the Asian camp.

Without notes or pictures I can't really give a terribly detailed account of our meal, but I will say it was fun. Some of the courses were pretty pedestrian if you're used to eating in Asian restaurants, like a plate of stir fried vegetables. Granted, the vegetables were really really good, but it was still just a plate of veggies. Other more interesting courses included monkfish liver, razor clams with seaweed salad, slow cooked egg in dashi, and a make-your-own toro handroll (absolutely fantastic toro, quickly torched to really bring out the oils in the fish). We also enjoyed a plate of fried sea anemone, not realizing it would be the first of two anemone encounters on our trip.

All of the seating is at a counter and you can watch all of the cooks work (they also present the food). In this way, it was actually a similar experience to eating at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. The price, however, is considerably lower. We had the shorter of two tasting menus which was reasonably priced at 45 euros.

A fun meal at what appears to be a Barcelona hot spot (numerous diners were turned away at the door for lack of reservations, almost all of them tried dropping names of people at or associated with the restaurant in order to get a table). Not sure if I would go back since there are so many more restaurants to explore in Barcelona, but overall an enjoyable experience.

One warning on the location...the restaurant is located on a small sidestreet off of Las Ramblas. The street, however, is not Elisabets when it hits Las Ramblas. It actually turns into Elisabets after it passes by a small square. Unfortunately, I can't find the name of the street before it turns into Elisabets.

Dos Palillos
http://www.dospalillos.com
C/ Elisabets 9
08001 Barcelona, Spain
+34 933 040 513

Contemporary cuisine is a big part of the Barcelona food scene. One interesting aspect of the movement is the bistronomica. Bistronomicas are generally small, inexpensive places serving food at a more ambitious level than their price point or atmosphere might suggest. Schwa might be the best comparator here in Chicago. One night in Barcelona we decided to try one of the better thought of examples of this genre, Hisop. Results were mixed.


Foie gras "after eight" - Seared foie gras with mint air and chocolate sauce and chocolate shavings. Fantastic dish. My one complaint is that the mint air had such a delicate flavor it was almost completely overwhelmed when eaten in combination with the chocolate. Eaten on its own, the flavor was striking.


Anchovy, tomato and strawberry salad - I was able to steal a couple of bites from my wife. Yet another example of the superiority of anchovies in Spain. Few restaurants could get away with serving this type of dish in the US. The salad was garnished with the fried bones of the anchovies.


Fish (monkfish, maybe?) with summer truffles in truffle soup - My main course (and probably the least photogenic thing I ate in Spain). The fish had been cooked sous vide which resulted in a pretty slimy texture (I'm no fan of fish cooked in this style...meat is fine, fish not so much). The dish was garnished with a strip of crispy skin which provided a much needed textural contrast to the rest of the dish.


Scallops with pork jowl and caviar - This was my wife's main course and the clear winner of the two. The scallops were served raw and were dead on fresh. The pork jowl was the perfect foil to the scallops, and I'm never going to complain about the inclusion of caviar. Really a very nice dish.

Desserts were undistinguished. I had some sort of molten chocolate cake, and I can't remember what my wife had.

Travel note: Hisop is a bit of a hike from the nearest Metro stop. If you're not staying nearby either be prepared for a walk or consider taking a taxi.

Hisop
http://www.hisop.com
Passatge Marimon 9
+34 932 413 233

jesteinf wrote:Travel note: Hisop is a bit of a hike from the nearest Metro stop. If you're not staying nearby either be prepared for a walk or consider taking a taxi.

Hisop
http://www.hisop.com
Passatge Marimon 9
+34 932 413 233

There are busses up and down Avinguda Diagonal that work on the same metro pass.
There's also a trolley that runs between Maria Cristina metro stop (and points further west) and the Place de Francesc Marcia.

Why do I know this? I needed emergency dental work when I was in Barcelona last December, and Hisop appears to be around the corner from the clinic (by the way, emergency dental work in Barcelona is uber-cheap). I'll be back there in September, this sounds like a place to try. Any idea what their opening time is? I'm not the kind of person who can wait until 9PM for dinner.

JoelF wrote:

jesteinf wrote:Travel note: Hisop is a bit of a hike from the nearest Metro stop. If you're not staying nearby either be prepared for a walk or consider taking a taxi.

Hisop
http://www.hisop.com
Passatge Marimon 9
+34 932 413 233

There are busses up and down Avinguda Diagonal that work on the same metro pass.
There's also a trolley that runs between Maria Cristina metro stop (and points further west) and the Place de Francesc Marcia.

Why do I know this? I needed emergency dental work when I was in Barcelona last December, and Hisop appears to be around the corner from the clinic (by the way, emergency dental work in Barcelona is uber-cheap). I'll be back there in September, this sounds like a place to try. Any idea what their opening time is? I'm not the kind of person who can wait until 9PM for dinner.

Good call. We were all over the trains, but pretty much ignored buses. Anyway, according to Google they open at 9pm for dinner Monday-Saturday, but obviously checking with the restaurant would be a good idea.

On our last night in Barcelona, my tummy was trying to tell me that it had had enough. I briefly thought about canceling our final dinner reservation and just going with a simple tapas meal. But instead I decided to tough it out and go to our final destination, Comerc 24. Unfortunately, this was a bad choice.

Comerc 24 is helmed by Carles Abellan, another el Bulli alum who has moved on to open their own restaurant. Abellan also opened Tapac24, the tapas bar that is the sister restaurant to the more formal Comerc 24.


Bread service came with a selection of olive oils, all of varying levels of intensity.


We started with an amuse of vichyssoise with shaved truffles. Good, but nothing special.


Next we were served a series of snacks (evidence of Abellan's el Bulli background). Snacks included flaky pasties filled with cheese, "golden" macadamia nuts, and olives stuffed with anchovies.


Tuna tartare topped with row and served in an egg yolk vinaigrette. Not the most mind-blowing creation in the world, but probably the highlight of the meal. The tuna was exceptionally fresh and the row added a nice, crunchy note.


Lobster and avocado roll. Bland. That is all.


Spheres of quail egg yolk, parmesan, and black truffle awaiting consomme.


Spheres with consomme added. The consomme was very rich, but was just ok with the spheres of flavor that were the center of this dish. The spheres exploded when you bit into them releasing the flavors into your mouth. Theoretically an interesting dish, but the whole thing left me kind of cold.


Salmon neck with salmon row. Just a greasy, chewy mess. Not good at all.

Comerc 24 was probably my least favorite meal of our trip. I'm not sure if it was because we:

a. Ordered poorly
b. Ate at a crummy restaurant, or
c. Had palette fatigue at the end of our 10 days spent eating our way through Spain

My suspicion is that it was a combination of all three factors that led to a less than enjoyable experience. Whatever the culprit, this is not a restaurant I'll be going back to anytime soon.

Comerç 24
http://www.comerc24.com
C/ Comerç 24
+34 933 192 102

for what it's worth re: Comerc, I was in Barcelona recently and heard from most that it was overrated. Tapas(Tapac) 24, on the other hand, was really delightful - all basics but well done and great atmosphere.

as a long-time lurker but rare poster on LTH, I've been rather shy about posting any news from the recent (aforementioned) Iberia trip - though I did have some really remarkable dining experiences, including a stop at the holy grail - El Bulli. if anyone is interested, I can post more, or we can chat offline?

I think you should post more BCN is one of my favorite cities. We also enjoyed Tapac 24 very much.

well for anyone who's got the interest/patience, here's the full photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/aadamany/Ib ... fKm-oO3eA#

El Bulli pics start at 213 of 278 - but there are some other good meals thrown in there as well. included:

Portugal eats

Lisbon-
Solar dos Presuntos
Bomjardin
Versailles
Pasteis de Belem

Cascais-
Furnas do Guincho

Madrid-
tapas crawl

Barcelona-
La Boqueria
Pla
Cinq Sentits
Tapac 24
Pinxtos in El Born

and, of course, El Bulli!

AlyOx,

Thanks for sharing your pics. I also had the opportunity to eat at el Bulli this season (report here). It's interesting to look at how the menu has evolved, even though a very short amount of time has passed since my meal there. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on your dinner there.

Josh,

Great to see your photos as well - my boyfriend and I had a very similar experience, planning our 10 day trip around a reservation request for "anytime in July or August." I noticed that even during our meal, other tables received a few different courses, or slightly different preparations, so it seems that the menu is an ever-evolving process. Looking at your photos, I'm jealous over a few things I didn't get to try! I do agree that overall, it was the best (high-end) dining experience I could have imagined - the service, setting, and of course the food made it an experience of a lifetime. But I also didn't swoon over every course. The "cockles" course, in particular, was a tough one for me to get through.

Has anyone been to Barcelona lately? I'm heading there (and Madrid) over the holidays and would love some suggestions!!

Hi jblagg,

I just returned from a week in Barcelona and have some recs to update this thread. We didn't have a single bad meal in Barcelona - it was undoubtedly one of the best food trips of my life. Some notes and recommendations. Note that we ate much more food at these restaurants than what I'm listing - these are just some notable dishes.

La Flauta: I heard about this one through LTH. A very local-type place. Clearly lots of repeat customers. Great food here:
- French fries topped with fried eggs and crispy Jabugo ham - awesome
- Oyster mushrooms cooked a la plancha - big meaty slices of shrooms, best mushrooms of the trip
- Pan con tomate - had this with most meals in Barcelona - they served the standard type here
- Butifarra - sausage and beans, good rendition of a classic

Cerveceria Catalana: This one skews more trendy, but the food was very good here as well. Long wait to get in, but Estrellas and claras (Estrella Damm shandy) out on the sidewalk helped pass the time.
- Squid Andalucian-style: they used tiny whole squids here, eyes and all. Good stuff - in fact, good squid everywhere we ordered it in Barcelona
- Camembert - this is the second place we saw this bizarre (but common?) preparation - a rectangular cube of camembert coated in some type of chopped nut, then possibly deep fried (or baked?), then topped with a squirt of strawberry jam. This was an interesting prep and is worth trying. People were ordering this like crazy at La Flauta.
- Shrimp a la plancha
- Razor clams a la plancha
- Tiny hot dogs (with bacon) and hamburgers - they were serving a lot of these, and they were perfectly tasty.

Onofre: This one is more off the beaten path - we were the only table besides one other, but the food was very good here, the wine selection was large, and they had some more un-traditional preparations in addition to the standards.
- We had a sort of Queso de cabra with crispy Iberico ham and a pink peppercorn-honey vinaigrette that was really nice
- Piquillo peppers stuffed with tuna and served in a cazuela
- Nice cheese plate
- Patatas Bravas
- Pan con tomate
- More great dishes that I can't remember - we ordered a lot. Everything was good.

Bar Lobo - this is right off La Rambla. Looking at the place, you wouldn't possibly think it would be a food destination, but indeed it is.
- Patatas Bravas - bar none, the best prep of this standard we had
- Squid a la Andalucia - deep fried squid - I think we ordered this dish 4 separate times in a week. Simply served with lemon, but this is probably the best squid prep I've ever had
- Cod with garlic mousseline and roasted red pepper - fantastic flavors on this
- Ham croquettes - we ate these everywhere, and this was probably my favorite version

El Xampanyet - I can't stop thinking about this place. This is a must visit for any LTH reader visiting Barcelona. It's right by the Picasso Museum and Santa Maria Del Mar. We stumbled upon it after exiting the museum. This is one of those bars I'd want to visit weekly if I lived in the city. We were there in the afternoon and stopped in for some short pours of Estrella (side note: if you're ordering beer in Barcelona, you're pretty much good just saying you want a cerveza. No need to specify - they serve Estrella everywhere and it's cheap.)
- Thin sliced Spanish chorizo served room temperature with pan con tomate - YES!
- Iberico ham on bread
- Spicy piquillo peppers stuffed with tuna and served on bread - our waitress warned me that these are very hot, so she gave me one mild and one hot. After trying them both, I immediately ordered two more hot. These were lip-tingling spicy - perfect drinking food. They just call these "picante," and you can order them that way.
- Olives (good olives everywhere we ordered them)

Taller de Tapas - We went here our first night in town. I guess there are numerous locations in the city. In retrospect, their renditions of the standards seem a little safe. But everything we ordered was good here and I'd recommend it.
- Spinach with garbanzos and crispy ham
- Arugula salad with goat cheese, quince jelly and almonds
- Butifarra
- Razor clams a la plancha - these were pretty sad in comparison to the more robust razor clams at Cerveceria Catalana. Probably skip these here.

Anima - We didn't research this place, we just stumbled upon it. This one skews a bit hip, but were thrilled with the service and the food.
- Bruschetta with crispy Jabugo ham, pesto, tomato and mozzarella. Awesome.
- Mussels with tomato vinaigrette

We ordered patatas bravas, ham croquettes and pan con tomate almost everywhere. Wine was fairly priced - we drank a bottle of cava with almost every dinner. Drinking Estrella throughout the day is perfectly reasonable. And if you're starting to drag, just grab a cafe con leche at an outdoor cafe. Have fun on your trip!

jblagg wrote:Has anyone been to Barcelona lately? I'm heading there (and Madrid) over the holidays and would love some suggestions!!

Do note: Spanish restaurants can have wacky hours. Some close on Sundays/Mondays.

In Spain, my favorite foods were pimientos de padron (small fried green peppers where the occasional one is spicy), grilled squid, grilled razor clams, poached octopus Galician style, fried croquettas of jamon, thinly sliced jamon iberico on its own, seared foie gras on toast, toasted bread rubbed with tomato and olive oil, chorizo, thick bittersweet chocolate with fresh churros, torrija (Spanish french toast), creme catalan (Spanish creme brulee), and cafe cortados. Many photos are here.

When I went in 2009, I enjoyed Cinc Sentits (our splurge meal - excellent), Quimet i Quimet, Cacao Sampaka (chocolates), Tapac24 (probably would be where I'd go now that Inopia has closed), Hisop (though Cinc Sentits was much better), Escriba (chocolates/pastries), La Granja (hot chocolate, Carrer dels Banys Nous 4) and the churreria a few doors down, and Cafe Viena (overrated by Mark Bittman in the New York Times but fine for a jamon sandwich on a tourist stretch of town). We didn't make it Jamonissimo.

Go to Paco Meralgo for your seafood fix. Great grilled clams. Best pan con tomate I've ever had. Excellent torrija. And they're open on Sundays (many Barcelona places aren't). And they take reservations. I've sent multiple friends there and they've always come back in love with the place.

I liked Bar Pinotxo in the Boqueria for breakfast/seafood as well. Garbanzo beans with blood sausage for breakfast! Croquettas! Breakfast/lunch only. We didn't get to try El Quim or Kiosko Universal.

Quimet y Quimet is wonderful. I'm surprised there's no mention of it on this thread so far. Be prepared to squeeze in and fight for a prime spot at the standing room only counter. The smoked salmon, yogurt cheese, and truffle honey montadito is a thing of beauty. We also liked the air-dried beef one (cecina) if you want something non-canned. All the toasts we tried were fantastic though; we went back twice in the span of five days.

La Granja for hot chocolate with a stop at the generic looking (but delicious) Xurreria for churros next door. La Granja is at Carrer dels Banys Nous 4. They will let you bring in the churros from the xurreria. La Granja also specializes in Melindros which are sort of like a ladyfinger.

La Pallaresa might be worth a stop, too, for their ensaimada pastries, a Mallorcan specialty filled with almond paste.

Escribà for fancy desserts and chocolates.

I would also personally try to get into 41 Degrees and/or Tickets, but it may be too late since you're going so soon.

And the tap water in Barcelona strongly tastes of chlorine, just so you know. We usually ended up ordering bottled water (sin gas aka non-carbonated).

kathryn wrote:

jblagg wrote:Has anyone been to Barcelona lately? I'm heading there (and Madrid) over the holidays and would love some suggestions!!

Quimet y Quimet is wonderful. I'm surprised there's no mention of it on this thread so far. Be prepared to squeeze in and fight for a prime spot at the standing room only counter. The smoked salmon, yogurt cheese, and truffle honey montadito is a thing of beauty. We also liked the air-dried beef one (cecina) if you want something non-canned. All the toasts we tried were fantastic though; we went back twice in the span of five days.

It's been four years since our last Barcelona visit, but Quimet y Quimet is the one place I consistently recommend to friends and I can't imagine it's changed much since our visit. It's the kind of place that may never change, and it would likely be my first stop on a return trip. While there are plenty of domestic spots trying to do Spanish food, I've yet to find anything even close to what QyQ does.

We also fondly recall our stop at Jamonissimo. They weren't really set up for dining, but happily obliged upon request. They spent time with us, explaining the various types of jamon, including talking about the different flavors from a single leg. It was worth the splurge.

Safe travels,
Ronna

I'll also second Paco Meralgo. It was absolutely fantastic when we were there. I sent a co-worker there more recently (in the last 6 months or so) and he loved it as well.

OhMiGosh!
What a great resource my fellow posters are!
We are planning a trip that includes 3 days in Barcelona this September...
I am so excited reading over this....

we will be availing ourselves of billions of Hilton points for our hotel..
does anyone know which Hilton is better situated?
Hilton Barcelona- Avda Diagona 589
or Hilton Diagonal Mar (closer to beach , has a pool) Passeig Del Taulat 262
neither one seems closer to the Rambla than the other but maybe there is another factor I am missing....
Thanks

irisarbor wrote:does anyone know which Hilton is better situated?
Hilton Barcelona- Avda Diagona 589
or Hilton Diagonal Mar (closer to beach , has a pool) Passeig Del Taulat 262
neither one seems closer to the Rambla than the other but maybe there is another factor I am missing....
Thanks

or in general the best part of town to stay in? I will be there over labor day.

I would personally recommend the Diagonal Mar if points work at both; I'm sure you're checking Tripadvisor, but a quick peruse reinforces my memory of the scene. The Hilton Barcelona is a business hotel*, closer to the airport; it's about 4 km from La Sagrada Familia, which is equidistant from the Diagonal Mar in the other direction. The latter is slightly farther from La Rambla / Gotic, but you'd likely be taking public transportation from either Hilton to the main city sites. If you're going to be eating and shopping in the historic centro, you probably won't be spending much time in your room anyway, so why not have the benefit of a pool and beach access and escape route up the coast** for the time you are there.

*which has just been renovated, so might be better than the reviews reflect, see press release from yesterday.

**northeast of Barcelona is glorious, on the road or inland. I highly recommend Figueres, with the touristed but highly worthwhile Dali theatre-museum, and why not dinner at Duran, where the master used to break bread; rent a car at the hotel, 90 minutes, maybe for a longer future trip. Jealous.

jfibro wrote:

irisarbor wrote:does anyone know which Hilton is better situated?
Hilton Barcelona- Avda Diagona 589
or Hilton Diagonal Mar (closer to beach , has a pool) Passeig Del Taulat 262
neither one seems closer to the Rambla than the other but maybe there is another factor I am missing....
Thanks

or in general the best part of town to stay in? I will be there over labor day.

Near La Rambla puts you close to the zoo, aquarium, Gothic quarter restaurants and sites, Santa Caterina market, central transportation hubs, and not too far downhill from La Sagrada Familia and the Parc Guell (though I wouldn't walk that personally these days). In another life, I put clients at the Hotel 1898 fairly regularly. If modern is your taste, the Casa Camper is hot. B&Bs abound, and I hope the declining Euro and sore need for tourism benefit both of you. Note that resort-focused folks often pick locations way up in the hills or way down (or up) the beach instead, so YMMV.

We stayed at the Petit Palace Museum. Good location near Las Ramblas (and several Metro stops), and all of their rooms come equipped with laptops with internet access. It made planning our days and nights very easy (without having to schlep our own laptop along on the trip). Of course, that trip was pre-iPad so this may be less of an exciting feature now.

irisarbor wrote:OhMiGosh!
we will be availing ourselves of billions of Hilton points for our hotel..
does anyone know which Hilton is better situated?
Hilton Barcelona- Avda Diagona 589
or Hilton Diagonal Mar (closer to beach , has a pool) Passeig Del Taulat 262
neither one seems closer to the Rambla than the other but maybe there is another factor I am missing....
Thanks

I stayed at the Hilton Diagonal Mar when I was in Barcelona Feb of last year. I remember it being out of the way, but there is a shopping mall nearby. Didn't notice the beach at all, maybe because it was in Feb! It was convenient enough with the subway a 10 min walk away. I remember it being very quiet at night when we returned from dinner though.