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Spain
This is a bar that I would dearly love to have just down the road at home!
Small, cosy and intimate, playing great music from Joy Division, The Smiths, Bowie, The Sex Pistols, etc.. An indie mecca for music.
Friendly bar staff, cheap prices and never that concerned about closing! I left there at gone 2am and there was no sign of people leaving, in fact others were still coming in!
Do yourself a favour and discover this little gem!
It's a website with around 100 reviews of bars in most parts of the city but especially the more touristy areas! It's very detailed and simple to use.
The Born area is a lovely area of Barcelona, with loads to do, great boutique shops, cafes and general vibe that is hard to beat. Ate lunch in a small restaurant close to Santa Maria del Mar called La Luna which had a €12 menu which was a treat and great food. That night we wandered the Born again to bump into a lively joint called La Fianna, full with a great atmosphere and the best cocktails in the world! Oh I love Barcelona what about you!
Check out their websites...
www.lalunabcn.com
www.lafianna.com
Best mojito cocktails on the planet. The restaurant was lively, great and unique atmosphere at a relatively affordable price and nice looking people too... Oh la la what a treat.
15 Banys vells Barcelona. The Borne barcelona.
www.lafianna.com
A friendly, bohemian cafe-bar in the Gothic quarter, just off Carrer de Ferran. Expect to be sitting alongside writers and artists - writing and drawing, no less - during your stay. Food is reasonably priced (eg soup and a main - the 'combi of the day' - for 6 euros). Plus the staff all seem to know English, but avoid speaking it if possible - usually a good sign.
5 Calle de Arai
The hotel Omm is one of the coolest in the city with a price tag to match. In the lobby is the restaurant Moo (equally expensive) and also brasserie Moovida.
Although having different names, the restaurant and brasserie tables are almost next to each other so there's not too much difference in atmosphere, the food and wines (try the rose) are delicious and it's a fraction of the price.
Perfect place for taking friends to impress them!
Lobby of Hotel Omm. Rosselló, 265, Barcelona, Barcelona 08008.
Amazing food, cooked in front of you. All ingredients sourced a few feet away as it is in the heart of the Mercat Bocceria. Quite intimidating having to wait behind someone sitting and eating - you have to 'bags' your seat in this very un-English way! But the food was gorgeous.
The prices are high - we had two beers (on tap, San Miguel) a basket of lovely bread, one plate of gambas in burnt garlic and chilli and four tiny but exquisite croquettas and it came to 25 euros...considering our dismal experience at Les Quinze Nits, worth every penny and the five euro tip! Real Catalan through-and-through.
Mercat Bocceria, just off La Rambla
Boadas cocktail bar is the oldest in Barcelona and does not have a list of cocktails. Just ask for anything or describe your mood and the bartenders will mix you the perfect drink.
If you can't afford to stay at the luxury Arts Hotel on the marina, you should definitely pop in for a couple of drinks and use the terrace.
Drinks aren't expensive. In fact, they were cheaper than our three-star hotel!
Pile 43: the best mojito I've ever had, in a cool bar that doubles as a furniture shop, or is it the other way round?
For an alternative bar, filled with grungy Spaniards and cool European types, with a DJ playing cool indie tunes, try Cafe Flamingos, in the heart of El Raval, just 5 mins walk from Las Ramblas.
A terrific little Catalan bar that is practically an institution in the art of frying lightly battered fresh sardines. They are fried to perfection every time, and you can eat the whole thing, spine, head and tail!
Sardines are in season now and at their most delicious, and whats more, a plate of hot fish washed down with a glass of cold white won't cost you any more than 3 euros!
Mercé 28, 08002, Barcelona.
Tel: 933 151 009
Metro: Jaume 1/Barceloneta
Medium size, you can usually get a seat although it gets quite packed.
Gritty with a good healthy crowd, DJ spinning at the back with a very good taste funky/disco/indie rock.
Film projections on the walls. Drinks are cheap. Dirtily-hip, a lot of skaters hang out here, quite like the Raval neighbourhood. Info on BCN areas:
www.way2stay.com/area-info-Barcelona-en-52.htm
Manolo bar is Moog's answer to pre-club bar as you can pick up the free entry fliers here. Shuts at 3am.
It's 2 minutes from Las Ramblas.
Turn onto Nou de La Rambla off Las Ramblas. Take the first street on your left, Calle Lancaster, its 20 metres down on the left.
Tapas Bar, small atmospheric bar, wonderful house tapas, friendly service, great cava in wide champagne glasses, don't forget to leave room for the sweet biscuits and a glass of sweet sherry to dip them in.
C.Montcada near to the Picasso Museum
Discreetly hidden away in a quiet backstreet is this cultural centre and lounge club built into an old warehouse.
They publish an online magazine, screen films and run a funk, soul, hip-hop & rare groove session at Apolo. During summer 2006 it proved the ideal venue for Spain vs France in the World Cup. Don't lose heart as you head up Calle Fontrodona, it is there and the cava is at knock down prices.
Calle Fontrodona 33; Metro: Parallel L3; www.maumaunderground.com
This is one of the loveliest places in Barcelona to hang out and daydream. Strictly speaking, the Bar del Pi is just off Placa del Pi in Placa Sant Josep Oriol. Bar del Pi features art donated by locals over the years and has always been a bohemian hangout popular with an over-25 crowd.
On Sundays in the square, there are often art fairs and you can buy yourself a comic from the legendary Makoki comic shops - I recommend 'El Bueno de Cuttlass', a hilarious stick cowboy who has a girlfriend called Mabel and an obsession with Kraftwerk.
The old town to the left of the Ramblas. If you stand at the entrance to Liceu Metro station, facing the Colon statue, and turn left down the nearest side street, you'll find the Placa del Pi. Otherwise, it's reachable from the other end from the Cathedral.
This is a place you must go to if you are in barcelona for a short break. The tapas are fabulous, and the restaurants are in fantastic locations. It's not expensive either.
A fantastic traditional Barcelona deli. I went for breakfast and had a delicious smoked herring, pepper and onion bocadillo (baguette), and the classic cured ham and tomato bocadillo (pan tomaca). They make it at the counter and bring it through to you in a back room, where vintage Catalan gentlemen are already on the cava (this at 9:30 am)
Calle Girona, 70.
tel: +34 93 2655105
Behind the bars and cafes that front Barcelona's marina in the redeveloped old port, the five and six storey blocks, once home to seamen and dockers in the nineteenth century, now house a mix of workers, students and a few self-catering tourists, like us.
Vaguely uneasy on our first evening in the dark narrow streets, we heard the jazz from "el fil Ferr" and went for a beer in the lively bar. Run by an energetic young trio, it offers light meals - meat if you want it, but try the deliciously varied vegetarian plate.
The wall posters speak of leftish politics; the clientele seemed to be doing the same, but exchanged smiles and a few friendly words in English in return for our attempts at Catalan. No other Brits in sight.
Two minutes from Barceloneta beach; closed Mondays; el fil Ferr, carrer Sant Carles 29, Barceloneta; Tel 93 221 98 36
Fabulous bar and restaurant - owned by the lovely Alex with excellent cocktails from their (very lovely) bartender. Relaxed, sophisticated - go for dinner and find yourself staying all evening.
Consill de cent 211 - five minutes from the Plaza de Cataluna.
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