Area: Poble Sec-Montjuïc.
Booking tel.: 934 423 142
Price: From 20-30 Euros. (Precio medio 30 €)
Open: Monday to Friday from 12-16 hr. and from 19-22:30 hr. Saturday from 12-16 hr.
Closed: Saturday night. Sunday. August.
TripAdvisor : 4.5/5 rank 13 / 4338 374 reviews Yelp : 4.5/5 47 reviews Qype : 4/5 17 reviews
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Situated on a street between the lively heart of Poble Sec and the busy, wide avenue of Parallel this bodega serves exquisitely prepared plates of tapas. It’s a busy, bustling little place, with no seats and only two small tables – it’s shoulder to shoulder standing-room only at Quimet i Quimet. There’s often a small crowd on the street outside.The bodega serves its own-label Belgian bottled beers and its own labelled cava. The walls are lined from ceiling to floor with bottles of beers, wines and spirits from around the world. But it’s the food that makes this bodega very special – simple, but delicious cheeses, cold meats, canned seafood, caviar and vegetable patés served on bread or with bread sticks and transparent fruit flavoured jelly conserves, all lovingly arranged on the plate like an artwork. If you’re a foodie you’ll know the name Ferran Adrià – see this link – this bodega is one of his favorite spots for tapas in Barcelona. It’s not a place for a meal – just a bite or two before dinner. It’s situated just a few doors up the street from Rouge (see the Rouge article) so you could make an evening of it: drop by at Quimet i Quimet for a bite then call into Rouge for drinks, music and atmosphere. Be aware that Quimet i Quimet is only open until four in the afternoon on Saturday, and does not open on Sunday.
Lined from floor to ceiling with wines and spirits from across the globe, this lively bodega is justly famed for its unique and exquisite montaditos modelled from wicked combinations of salmon with truffled honey, tuna dotted with caviar and balsamic syrup, and plates of pungent cheeses served with transparent fruit jelly, glazed chestnuts and pickles arranged like artworks. And, there's mojama (salt-cured, air-dried tuna), canned seafood and croquetas. Can't make up your mind? Ask the maestro behind the bar to assemble you a plate. Intense flavours create an unforgettable experience. Don't expect fried fish, or fried anything. Blonde, brown and black beers on tap. They serve their own-label Belgian beer, excellent wines and cavas. Standing room only. • Carrer del Poeta Cabanyes 25, +34 93 442 3142. Open Mon-Fri noon-4pm, 7pm-10.30pm, Sat noon-4pm, closed August
Frommers
This is a great tapas bar with the finest selection of cheeses in Barcelona. Built at the turn of the 20th century, the tavern in the Poble Sec sector is run by the fifth generation of Quimets, and their wine cellar is one of the best stocked of any tapas bar. If you're not watching the calories and cholesterol, try the prized four quesos (cheeses) on the same plate: Nevat (a tangy goat's cheese), cabrales (an intense Spanish blue cheese), zamorano (a hardy, nutty sheep's milk cheese), and torta del Casar (a soft, creamy farm cheese). Or chance the tou dels tillers, a cheese stuffed with trout roe and truffles. Other delights include mejillones con confit de tomate y caviar (mussels with tomato confit and caviar), navajas (razor clams), and even esturión (sturgeon).
You can see this tradition, from its simple beginnings to its most elaborate current form, at Quimet y Quimet, perhaps the quirkiest restaurant I know. A representative of the fourth generation of the Quim family works behind the counter in a space about the size of a standard living room. The walls are lined to the ceiling with bottles and cans, the bottles mostly of wine — some quite inexpensive, some unknown, some famous — the cans, of vegetables, seafood and meat.
(Spain produces what is probably the highest quality and most expensive canned food in the world, and many tapas bars rely on it. Though much of it is good and interesting, for the most part I don't get it, since Spain also produces among the highest quality fresh food in the world. This is as true in Barcelona — which has farms within its city limits — as it is elsewhere in the country.)
Standing in a crowd around the stainless-steel counter, glass of wine or beer in hand, you may get a piece of good bread with some garlicky beans on it, or little assemblies of ham and tuna; mushrooms, butter and tuna; pressed beef with a mix of tomato jam (this, very sweet, is fantastic) and tapenade; bacalao in a few forms; an odd, sort of New Yorkish combination of cream cheese, smoked salmon and honey; a piece of toasted bread with a mussel, that tomato jam again and a spoonful of caviar.
Mr. Quim improvises as many as a hundred types of these montaditos a night, on the spot, from the ingredients spread in front of him. There are also classic tapas like potato croquettes, fried empanadas or cheese with sweet grilled peppers, well executed. The whole meal here — you can spend as little as 10 euros, or as much as 35 (about $15 to $50), even more if you start asking for the canned goods — will take you a half hour and, though tapas are not, in theory, lunch or dinner, it's unlikely you'll go out for a “real” meal after this.
A genuine spot that has been already run by four generations of Quimets. It offers delicious tapas, good wines and good humour. With only two tables and a bar, this tiny old wine cellar is always crammed with people who enjoy a really informal atmosphere.
this tiny bar-wine house delights its loyal clientele qith amazing classic and signature tapas and dishes cooked with market produce. It is literally a sin to miss the smoked products, cheese selections or montaditos like the one with anchovy and yoghurt. The wine list plays a really important role also. Here, even the wine of the house is astonishing. With a busy, friendly atmosphere, Quimet & Quimet is definitely a must.
One of the prettiest wine bars in the Poble Sec. Quimet i Quimet is a family owned bar always well visited by great experts and chefs. Good quality tapas with cheeses and great mussels, montaditos de foie and a very wide selection of wines, makes it worth a visit, though the service sometimes is under critic. Prices are good compared to other places.
Barcelona Life
Like most of the most-talked-about restaurants in Barcelona, Quimet i Quimet is no grandiose affair of starched linen and stuffy waiters, but a down-to-earth local bar in the rugged Poble Sec district where patrons lean on the counter to eat. Family-owned for four generations, Quimet i Quimet owes its sterling reputation to delicious tapas, such as mussels and tomatoes, navajas (razor shells) and improvised montaditos (mini-sandwiches), as well as its amazing cheeses, such as tou dels tillers, a cheese stuffed with trout roe and truffles.
The walls are lined floor-to-ceiling with wine and liquor bottles, and sure enough, you'll find an impressive selection of Dionysian treats to go with your tapas. Deservedly famous.
Barcelona Metropolitan : Lunch with Tahir Shah
“This place feels to me a bit like liquid compressed in a syringe,” Shah explained, gesticulating dangerously with a toothpick speared with succulent preserved vegetables which Quim created as a little taster-menu of his legendary montaditos. “It’s a total distillation of the raw sense of Barcelona. High intensity Barcelona if you like,” Shah mused, calling for another glass to go with the piled high open-sandwiches before us. Soft cream-cheese topped with a plump pink prawn (the only shellfish Shah will eat), a dollop of mullet roe and some truffled honey. Mojama (air-cured tuna) on a rough salsa verde sweetened with a half teaspoon of tomato ‘caviar,’ a wedge of coarse pork pate topped with candied chestnuts and a glob of unctuous Torta de Casar cheese to finish. “This,” Shah declared, throwing his arms wide as if to embrace the entire place and all the people in it, “Is why we love to eat. It’s not to survive. It’s because it makes us feel alive in that very real and tingly sense.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. And that’s why Quimet Quimet is getting five stars. Happy eating!
Time Out
Packed to the rafters with dusty bottles of wine, this classic but minuscule bar makes up for in tapas what it lacks in space. The specialities are 'conservas' (shellfish preserved in tins), which aren't always to non-Spanish tastes, but the 'montaditos' (sculpted tapas served on bread) are spectacular. Try salmon sashimi with cream cheese, honey and soy, or cod, passata and black olive pâté. Get there early for any chance of a surface to put your drink on.
