A Foodie’s Guide to Barcelona: Tapas and More, Barcelona, Spain

It had been 15 years since I was last in Barcelona, and my only real memory of the city was walking down La Rambla and having the life frightened out of me by a guy dressed as an ostrich racing up behind me and screaming in my ear. This happened three times, and no, I wasn’t high. However, I did vaguely remember some tasty tapas, nice wine and a cathedral or two, so it seemed like the sort of city I should revisit with more time, better research, and a hearty appetite. Needless to say, my efforts were (in the main) very well rewarded, which is why I’m now proud to bring you my Barcelona Food Guide…

The thing about Barcelona (and about Spain and many other southern European countries generally) is that proper restaurant-restaurants don’t open for dinner until 8.30 pm or even later. Thankfully, for those of us whose stomachs rumble several times between lunch and dinner, the tapas bars seem to be open at all hours of the day – meaning you can pop in for a drink and a snack whenever suits. And in fact, you might be more likely to score a table at 7.30, à la British-Dutch person. What’s more, the tapas in Barcelona doesn’t stop at patatas bravas and Padron peppers; many Catalan chefs are doing exciting, creative, fusion-style tapas that means you won’t get bored even if you find yourself eating at tapas joints every day (as I did). Not surprisingly, there are probably more tapas bars in Barcelona than there are bikes in Amsterdam, so to imply that I found the “best” in the city is a wild over-statement when I obviously barely scratched the surface. However, the tapas places that follow were recommended to me by trusted sources and were by no means all of those that I tried – so you can be fairly sure that these are a good bet. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).