Eating in Barcelona

Food is very important in Barcelona and going out for a meal, especially in the evening,  is a serious social act for the people of this city. The number of restaurants, sophisticated or simple cases de manjar, is really impressive and could well be a world record among large cities in relationship to its population.

I have made a first selection with the places I found in several online guides or blogs, some Spanish, some international, some based on customers reviews, some based on their own critics. They are quoted in each message that I have published.

This first selection is not a personal choice but only a list of the places with good ratings and critics in as many guides as possible. It will help us make our own choices and share it. If you do some research on your own, you might find good places that I missed. There are probably more than 5000 eating places in Barcelona, Trip Advisor alone has a list of 4338 today and it keeps increasing.
 

During this analysis I rapidly convinced myself that for each criterion we will have the choice between 2 options that reflects the labels I am using  :

Restaurant or Tapas bar ?

Basically tapas are plates with small portions that the locals have with their drinks and for that reason are salted or spicy rather than mild or sweet. They are taken standing or seated on stools at the counter although quite a few places have some tables. Most places don’t take reservations and people are queuing. One can find thousands of tapas bars in Barcelona. I have listed a little more than 20, all highly recommended. Restaurants have tables, take reservations, serve large portions although some have set menus in a tapas style, with many courses of small portions, to offer the possibility to taste many of their creations. Each place is tagged either "Restaurant" or "Tapas" and you will find these 2 categories on the right column of my blog. A click on these labels gives you access to all restaurants or tapas bars, when the other labels are more selective.

Traditional or innovative ?

Catalunya has an old tradition of countryside cooking that some restaurants have adapted to our times and made their specialty, with some borrowing from other parts of Spain like rice dishes ( from Valencia ) or sausages ( from the Basques ). They are labelled "Tradition". Other places, labelled "Innovative", have chosen to innovate from a traditional base or entirely from scratch, following a movement initiated in France 20 years ago and, for some, surpassing their masters in innovation. I have included all types in my list with a bias for traditional ones.
 

Expensive or very expensive ?

It sounds like a joke, but when you select places which are widely favored by customers and critics that’s what you end up with. I read that 10 - 15 years ago prices were reasonable but when Barcelona started to accumulate Michelin stars and became a destination of choice for international gourmets the prices increased in every restaurant with a reputation. More and quicker than would be in other places of the world because the Catalans are not only excellent cooks but also good businessmen ( In fact they are good in many disciplines : design, innovation, sport...). The most common comment I’ve read is “good but expensive” and sometimes worse comments like “check your bill twice”, “never accept a waiter’s suggestion or a change in the menu without asking for the price”. Fortunately there are exceptions in this first selection, some restaurants with both good ratings and reasonable prices, but not too many. I have labelled them "Quality/Price"
Tapas places are generally cheaper but the dishes are small and if you try to eat the same quantity of food as in a restaurant the bill is not that much different.

My perception of very expensive is above 50 €, more or less the same as Zagat. I have not included in this list the very famous and extremly expensive places. 

Dinner or lunch ?

At first I said to myself : tapas for lunches, restaurants for diners! Then I realized that some of the best restaurants, with the label "Lunch", are offering set menus for lunch at interesting prices ( good business people, I told you ) and that the locals are swarming the tapas bars in the evening. Combined with the sad consideration that, getting older, I cannot eat as much in the evening as I used to, I said to myself : why not half restaurants, half tapas bars for lunches, and vice versa for dinners ?

Breakfast : salt or sugar ?
There are several tempting places, labelled "Breakfast", that offer a nice alternative to hotel breakfast : pastry shops, with only sweet offerings, and tapas bars, with almost 100% salted or spicy dishes. 

With a decor or minimalist ?

I like food, I appreciate the talent of an excellent cook, and at home this is my main criterion when I am going out. But, visiting a foreign city, I also give a lot of importance to the decor of my restaurants of choice. I have got the impression that in Barcelona it often one or the other. Fortunately there are many exceptions and I have used 2 labels to describe them. Label "Decor" means traditional, ancient, historic. Label "Chic" is synonym of modern, elegant, clear.

With a view or not ?
Some places offer also a nice view on the outside either because they are located in altitude ( top of a building or top of a hill ) or on the seaside. No surprise, the corresponding label is "View"

For a real meal or just a pastry, a drink ?
Included in the list are a few places like pastry shops, bakeries, chocolate confectioners, ice cream artists ( "Pastry/chocolate" ) or bars, cocktail lounges... ( "Cocktail" )
 
Quiet or busy ?

Barcelona is a busy city, the tapas bars are crowded and even some restaurants seem to be packed with customers. I have tried to include also in my list some quieter places. I like both. Sometimes I appreciate a cosy dinner in a place where I can speak softly and sometimes I enjoy a place with a lot of action and a lot of people. But I have tried to eliminate those where the affluence of customers seems to be an excuse for bad service ( according to customers or critics reviews, like everything in my list ).

Use the labels...

Each post of the blog presents a restaurant or a tapas bar with pictures, clickable reference to the different reviews ( to access their original web page ), a link to the restaurant web site, if any, and a MAP IT link to the Barcelona map where the great majority of them are indicated by Google ( or at the point of a black arrow that I have created when they are not ). 
Use the labels to select the restaurants / tapas bars by the categories listed at the top of the right column of this blog. To see the details of a specific place click on the name or on the "Read more >>" link. To come back to the list click again on the label.

Use the comment area... 

I suggest that we use the comment area of each post to record our reactions, preferences, choices....