Eating in Barcelona

Finally, I'm all caught up with my Barcelona posts! This is the last one of some of the food we ate there. The afternoon we arrived, we had bocadillos (sandwiches) at a small neighborhood bar.


For dinner, we ate at Can Culleretes, a really old restaurant serving traditional Catalan food. Oh, I just found out it is the oldest restaurant in Barcelona, and the 2nd oldest in Spain. We weren't sure what to order, but the zarzuela Stef ordered was not bad. It is a traditional Catalan fish stew with assorted seafood like shrimp, fish, shellfish and squid. The catalan soup I ordered was all weird and watery, but the grilled shrimp dish was good. It was late and we were tired and hungry so I forgot to take pictures. But I did regain my senses in time to take a picture of the crema catalana we had for dessert. This was the real deal!


On another night, we decided to try out Bar Inopia, a tapas bar opened by the brother of Ferran Adria, chef/owner of famous El Bulli restaurant, which had been judged the 'best restaurant in the world' for the past 4 years. Since we couldn't afford the average 250 euro cost of a meal at El Bulli, not the mention how impossible a reservation is, this place seemed like a good alternative.

We arrived around 8pm, which was still early for dinner, so we managed to be seated right away. The staff was friendly and we enjoyed the tapas. We had patatas bravas, fried sardines, the russian (potato) salad, meat skewers... There were many tourists, but just as many locals dining there.


When we left, there was a huge crowd waiting outside and even a rope to hold the crowds back. I thought the food was good but not that fantastic.


One morning we had breakfast at one of the many outdoor cafes just a few steps from our hotel, with the Sagrada Familia in the background. My cafe con leche was excellent.


The afternoon before we left, we had lunch/dinner at La Fonda, a restaurant we had spotted the night. We had walked past one night around 10pm and there were literally 100 people standing in line outside this restaurant waiting to get in. The menu and prices in the window looked decent so we decided to try it out.


At 3pm, we only had to wait 10 minutes for a table. The fish soup Stef ordered was really good. The seafood fritters I had wasn't bad either.


We had to try paella at least once, unfortunately, it wasn't the best here. But overall, the ambience was nice and the prices decent at La Fonda.


Until our next visit to Barcelona, adieu...