What I ate in Barcelona

Food, glorious food. What a delicious essential for survival. One of the best things about going abroad, besides all the sightseeing and sunning yourself up, is having the chance to try the amazing cuisine that is on offer!

On my recent holiday to Barcelona, I opted for a non all-inclusive hotel, which meant I got to out for a meal most nights. This allowed me to explore the amazing food that this Spanish city had to offer. I had some delicious meals…and a few that were somewhat underwhelming. So I wanted to write a blog post to give an honest review of the few restaurants I tried!

Chéri

We started as we meant to go on with this first restaurant. It was quite late in the evening, but I found throughout the holiday that restaurants were serving much later than the UK which was perfect as we were so busy in the day!

I often feel like I can’t eat as much in the heat so I was looking for a light bite, and this salmon dish was perfect. I would go as far as to say that this salmon was the nicest I have ever had! With a cute lit-up terrace, this place was ideal for a romantic meal.

Price: €€

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Tuscania food and wine

If you visit Barcelona, the likelihood is that you are going to do A LOT of walking. On the day that we decided to visit the famous Sagrada Familia, it was boiling hot and we had done just about as many steps as we could manage before we decided that the need for food was URGENT.

So we stopped off at this unassuming little cafe at the side of the road. However we soon learnt not to judge a book by its cover. With delicious handmade pizzas and chips/wedges, this place was great for a lunch time pit stop.

Price: €

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NBA CAFE

This restaurant wasn’t just food…it was an experience. I talked about it in my travel guide to Barcelona if you want more info, but as you can see, this place had the coolest/most unusual cuisine!

We may have been in Barcelona but we had the all-American experience here, complete with KissCam breaks and head-to-toe basketball decor…we even had to dribble the ball to our table! I highly recommend this place!

Price: €€

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MARIS CO

The entire holiday we had been saying how we wanted to try lobster for the first time, and this restaurant gave us the perfect opportunity to do so. Perhaps not a place for the squeamish, in this place you go up to the bar and choose your own fish…including your (live) lobster.

The slight language barrier meant that we made a classic ‘panic order’ at this restaurant, so instead of having normal lobster, we ended up having it in a sort of paella/broth. This was still fine for me, however I do wish we had just gone for the grilled lobster.

Nevertheless, this restaurant was beautiful and had a lovely outdoor seating area, very aesthetically pleasing.

Price: €€€

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iTAPA

I simply couldn’t leave Barcelona without trying some of its famous paella. So on this day we decided to lunch down La Rambla.

This restaurant was cheap and cheerful, providing a deal that included a (random) selection of 4 tapas, with your choice of paella or pizza. They also served HUGE cocktails as you can see from the photo (although already half-finished by me).

Sadly, I don’t think this was the place to find Spain’s finest paella, and I didn’t particularly enjoy my meal. However, I think in this scenario, you pay for what you get. So if you are wanting to try a great paella, you might need to splash out a little more.

Price: €

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Olofson

On this evening we decided not to get a proper meal. Instead we just had a small selection of dishes including Iberian ham, a cheese board and some bread.

Although this place was lovely to sit at, I personally feel that it was a bit pricey for what we got. We ended up paying the same price for small dishes that we would for a proper meal. So despite it’s good presentation, I wasn’t particularly overwhelmed with this meal.

Price: €€€

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La Pampa

One of the best things about La Pampa was that it was the first restaurant to offer us complimentary bread with our meal. Not only this, but the bread came with an amazing garlic dip that I was obsessed with.

Besides that, this bustling restaurant served us delicious steak and chips and extremely cheap wine! Being in the centre, this place was quite busy so it would be unlikely that you could go as a large group without booking first, but for two people it was only a short wait.

I would highly recommend this place for its location and atmosphere, it was a great restaurant to enjoy our last supper in Barcelona!

Price: €-€€

Writing this post on an empty stomach has been a tremendously bad idea. But I hope that you enjoy reading it and can go out and enjoy the amazing food that the city has to offer!

Do you have any restaurants in Barcelona that you would recommend to me?