BARCELONA . O3 . Bcn gastrotour
A week of eating and drinking in Barcelona.
BENVINGUTS A BARCELONA
SPENDING
one week in Barcelona for the 50 Best Bars Awards was a great opportunity to explore the city food and drinks.
Here is our very personal guide to some of the City Restaurants and Bars. They are not “The Absolute Best”, just the ones we tried and liked.
Disclaimer : the two Barcelona bars in the 50 Best Bars list 2022, Paradiso and SIPS (respectively number 1 and 3) deserve a separate post.
HOTEL DUQUESA DE CARDONA
OUR
Stay for the week was Duquesa de Cardona, a nice, friendly Hotel with a wonderful Rooftop, located in the Passeig de Colon.
Not much else to say about it, but since Vincent illustrated it, I had to mention it :)
QUIMET I QUIMET
THIS
is the place in which we spent MOST of our time in Barcelona. I mean, literally.
We came here four times, maybe five … wasn’t it six ?
The concept of this tiny familiar restaurant is simple: they serve “conservas”: foods preserved in cans and jars, in three different ways:
Combinados (Assorted)
Tapas (small portions)
Montaditos (the same thing on a piece of bread)
Sounds simple, and it is, but the quality of the products and the creativity of the family behind the kitchen makes you want to try them all (w did).
Foie-gras & mushrooms, stuffed baby squids, Razor Clams, Cecina with almonds, medlar with anchovies, Tuna and sea urchin, salmon yogurt and truffle honey, … should I continue ?
CONFITERIA 1912
1912
Is the year this sweet shop -recently turned into a cocktail bar- was opened. If you like vintage furniture and cocktails you will be like a kid in a sweet shop…
The space really makes you travel through time and Cocktails are refined classics.
VINYA DEL SENYOR
JEREZ
to you might be the name of a city in Andalusia, but to us is a taste of one of our favorite things in the world: Sherry ! Fino, Oloroso, Amontillado, Palo Cortado, since we visited Jerez in 2021 we keep collecting and drinking these amazing aged wine spanning from crisp-salinity to mellow-nutty to woody-oxydative.
We came here almost every day for an aperitif.
Our best discoveries: Grand Barquero Fino and Toro Albalá Palo Cortado.
BAR DEL BORN
THE AWARD
for the best counter goes to “Bar del Born” they might not serve the best drinks, but they still use the marble counter of the previous fish shop. If it wasn’t that heavy we would have stolen it.
For the most funny high-energy bar in town go next door to Creps al Born. This place is the demonstration that when the staff is having fun, the clients also do.
Drinks are great too!
LA COVA FUMADA
LA BOMBA
is the name of the most emblematic croqueta of this place from 1944, way before La Barceloneta became fancy. If you want a true tapas experience, with no frills, hard-to-decypher-menu, bottled beer, your-clothes-smelling-of-grilled-calamari, this is the place.
Perfect if you are in a “fed up with Michelin restaurant, let’s get back to the basics” mood.
BAR BRUTAL
ORANGE
Wine. Before we learned to love the “Lord of the Hype” of Natural Wines, this is the first place where we tasted Orange Wine, some 10 years ago. Many Natural Wines opened since, but this is still our favorite, for the quality of their cellar, the food and the vibe. We could spend hours in places like this (and we did, actually).
We had a super elegant Riesling from Barranco Oscuro, a small producer growing crazy varieties growing at high altitude (above 1.000 on sea level) in Granada.
