Barcelona is foodie heaven! This trip however we didn’t eat out nearly as much as I would have liked to!! Our focus was on doing a lot of the touristy things as it was our first time in this beautiful city! Also we had breakfast included in our hotel…which honestly took care of breakfast and lunch! So that only left us with having dinner and the occasional late afternoon quick bite!
I’ve written a separate post on the things we did in Barcelona which could be helpful specially if its your first visit!
We had some amazing meals and some not so amazing ones! So here’s a summary of some of the restaurants we visited…
Tapa Tapa – Glories Shopping Mall
This restaurant has a lot of mixed reviews! The day we reached Barcelona – after checking into our hotel we were all very hungry and keen to have a quick bite before starting to explore this beautiful city! Tapa Tapa was very conveniently located just a few minutes walk from our hotel. The menu looked good and the place was buzzing so we popped in. I wouldn’t say its the most authentic Spanish tapas experience! However the service was friendly and the food was reasonably good though not brilliant! I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here again but if I’m looking for a quick bite and there’s a Tapa Tapa in the vicinity I wouldn’t mind popping in!
Poke Si – El Mercat, Glories Shopping Mall
El Mercat is a beautiful gastronomical space located at the Glories Shopping Mall. Its full of little eateries giving you lots of options of local and global cuisines! We looked around at the various eateries before choosing ‘Poke Si‘. I wanted something nice and healthy and Si wanted to eat salmon! You make your own Poke Si Bowls and salmon was one of the protein choices so Si decided we are all eating here! I was quite happy with her choice as the food looked and tasted amazing! I would love to go back sometime and have another ‘make your own’ Poke Si Bowl – so, so good!!!!
Luzia Street Grill – La Rambla
After a fun touristy day of going on the hop-on hop-off bus around Barcelona we had planned to spend the evening in the heart of the city – the buzzing ‘La Rambla’ area. I looked up some restaurant suggestions and read some amazing reviews of Luzia Street Grill so we decided to head there!
It was very crowded, and we didn’t have a booking but they accommodated us right away. Great first impression!!! Such a lively, vibrant and friendly place with amazing food. The kids also had a lovely time which always makes me happy! Highly recommended and we would certainly go back!
La Tagliatella (Tibidabo)
After a very busy day spent at Park Guell (first half) and Cosmo Caixa (second half) and lots and lots of walking we were all very, very tired and looking forward to a lovely relaxing meal.
We were at an area we hadn’t been before and I hadn’t done any research on restaurants so after looking around a bit we popped into ‘La Tagliatelle‘ which looked very inviting from outside!
We were not disappointed!!! The restaurant was very crowded and we were luckily given a corner table away from the main crowd. Si and Ri were very hungry so quite well behaved and we welcomed the quiet corner and extra space to enjoy our meal in privacy!
We ordered two pastas and a risotto for all of us to share. Some local Spanish white wine for us and juice for the kids. The portion sizes were very generous and both the food and wine were amazing! A perfect end to a busy, tiring day! Would highly recommend this restaurant…
Casa Massana – Poble Espanol
We spent an evening at Poble Espanol which is a beautiful reproduced Spanish village representing various regions of Spain!
And of course we had to eat at one of the restaurants there…we choose to go to Casa Massana!
A lovely friendly little cafe and I had the most amazing vegetarian paella!!! As I’m typing this I wish I could have some of it right now!! It was so good!!! I was so hungry that I forgot to take pictures when it was served….so here’s a pic of my half eaten paella!! lol….
San Tomassino at El Meerkat
El Meerkat at Glories Shopping Mall was our comfort zone – right next to our hotel…..and we popped in here late one evening for a quick meal after a long touristy day!
We ordered two pizzas and a pasta….it was a quick meal but quite satisfying!
Hotel Novotel – New Year’s Eve Meal and Birthday Celebration!
It was tricky to book a restaurant anywhere on New Year’s Eve! Plus it was by little boy’s 4th birthday! We finally decided to have tapas and sangria at the hotel and enjoy some family time! In hindsight it was a lovely decision as most restaurants would be too crowded and noisy! And nobody would really welcome children on that day!
Escriba Xiringuito
You can’t visit Barcelona without going to the beaches – so what if its winter! After a lovely day strolling around and enjoying the lovely winter sun and the beautiful cool sea breeze we had our evening meal at Escriba Xiringuio!
And we didn’t just happen to walk in here…..I had read so much about this restaurant as an absolute must visit for the best authentic Spanish paella we thought we should try it out. We originally planned to have lunch there but it was so crowded that there was no table available for several hours!! Seeing the buzz and the crowds tempted us to book a table for later in the day!
Finally at our table in the evening we were ready to order! Their squid ink sea food paella was very very talked about. And if we looked around practically every table had one of these paellas. Neel was very keen on trying this….though while I didn’t mind having a bit of the squid ink paella I was really keen to have one of their vegetarian paellas.
And now a technical issue which we hadn’t realised earlier is that most authentic Spanish restaurants make sharing paellas (2-4 people)….they don’t serve single portions! Arggh!! Neel and me both wanted something different (as we usually do!) and the kids weren’t really that hungry!! And looking around the portion sizes were huge! And yes, the paellas are quite expensive so we didn’t want to order two large portions when a lot of it would just get wasted! So after a bit of arguing we decided to only order one paella and I gave into Neel’s logic of ordering what this restaurant is really known for – Squid ink seafood paella!
We had very high expectations – and I must say we were both disappointed! Me much more than Neel as I really wanted to order something else! It was my first time trying anything ‘squid ink’ and its possibly an acquired taste but I didn’t enjoy it at all. So gutted I didn’t order the vegetarian one….I’m quite sure I would have enjoyed it!
What I did really enjoy however was the White Wine Sangria! That was a revelation! I’ve only ever had red wine sangria….and the white version was amazing! I generally love white wines….and I’m certainly going to make some white wine sangria once it starts getting a bit warmer!!! So, so good!
So while I didn’t enjoy the paella….I’m not putting down the restaurant as we didn’t try any of their other food…..and I don’t think its fair to judge a place by just one dish!
I think I might go back if I’m ever in Barcelona with a larger group so you have a chance to order a few things!
Cafe de L’Opera – La Rambla
We visited this quaint cafe the day we were leaving. We had already had a large breakfast at the hotel so no one was really hungry but we just felt like a last round of tapas and churros before bidding adiós to Barcelona. We had a couple of hours before leaving for the airport so headed to the most happening street in Barcelona – La Rambla!
I had read about the ‘Cafe de L’Opera‘ and we popped in there for some quick tapas and churros! Yum!!!
