Category: Bite-sized Reviews

Napoli’s finest pizzeria lands in Barcelona’s Eixample district. The Southern-Italian charm is impossible to import fully but the pizzas have survived the journey. Bite-sized Review: L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele Barcelona, Eixample, Barcelona Recently, I posted about the time 20 years ago when I visited L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele in Naples. In short, it played a part in…

Ca l’Isidre restaurant in Barcelona updates its decor but keeps what makes it great: high-class cooking. Bite-sized review: Ca l’Isidre restaurant, El Raval, Barcelona I wrote a full review of Ca l’Isidre restaurant in 2015. To read it, click here. Consider this post (based on a visit in early May) a minor update. It is…

Cecconi’s Barcelona, the restaurant attached to Soho House Barcelona members-only club, offers its quality northern-Italian cuisine to the general public.. Bite-Sized Review: Cecconi’s Barcelona Italian restaurant, Soho House, Gothic Quarter, Barcelona Soho House Barcelona is a members-only club in the Barri Gòtic. It’s a delightful place to spend time, either to work or play. It’s…

UPDATE 2018: La Falconera has closed permanently La Falconera specialises in traditional tapas and hearty, nose-to-tail stews despite its fashionable location in Barcelona’s Eixample.  Bite-sized review: La Falconera restaurant, Eixample, Barcelona Trad is trendy again. Even so, there aren’t many places in the upper reaches of Barcelona’s Eixample that specialise in stews and similar rib-sticking…

La Panxa del Bisbe restaurant in Gràcia, Barcelona is a little treasure, serving Mediterranean cuisine with successful creative twists. La Panxa del Bisbe restaurant, Gràcia, Barcelona When La Panxa was at its previous location, a block away on Carrer Rabassa, I used to go fairly regularly. It was tiny, cramped and always full, but the…

Modern market cooking in Barcelona’s recently renovated Mercat del Ninot Review: El Ninot Cuina restaurant, l’esquerra de l’Eixample, Barcelona Take a walk around the newly renovated Mercat del Ninot, near Hospital Clinic, and you can get a literal taste of the future of Barcelona’s markets. The old atmosphere of haphazard hustle and bustle has been replaced by…

Burgers and cocktails beside the beach at Barcelona’s W Hotel.  Bite-Sized Review: Salt Restaurant and Beach Club There’s no shortage of good places to eat in and around the 5* W Hotel. Bravo 24 offers outstanding tapas and traditional Catalan cuisine, while the beachfront Pez Vela serves rice and seafood in a laid-back, beachfront setting. Salt…

Bags of character, sterling service and super sandwiches, but be careful with the bill at this baps-and-tapas bar. Entrepanes Díaz (Bite-Sized Review) Despite its vintage appearance, Entrepanes Díaz hasn’t been around long. It has, however, already earned a regular spot on my mental map of places to pop into if I’m goin on a tapeo …

Superior sushi, sashimi and more at The Tatami Room in Barcelona’s Poble Sec district. Bite-Sized Review: The Tatami Room Japanese restaurant, Barcelona I had dinner last month at The Tatami Room with its owner, Hugo. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re correct: Hugo is not a very Japanese name. Hugo the owner is, however,…

A traditional Catalan restaurant in Gracia that offers great value – if you don’t mind queuing. The first time I tried to eat at Cal Boter (C/ Tordera 62, 08012, Barcelona, (+34) 934 58 84 62, closed Sun. and Mon nights), the queue was out the door. I tried again another day, earlier, only to find…

‘Mumbai street food’ in Barcelona: a modern Indian restaurant for relaxed snacking. Surya (C/ Pau Claris 92, +34 936 678 760 Barcelona isn’t the typical flock-wallpapered Barcelona Indian restaurant that transports you to the bad old days of 1980s Britain. The first thing that you’ll notice, apart from the bright murals, is that there’s a bus parked…

Some things should never change, and Ca l’Estevet (C/ Valldonzella 46, +34  93 302 4186) in the Raval is one of them. Unmoved by the tides of gastronomic fashion, it has been turning out old-school Catalan cuisine to devoted regulars since long before I first ate there over 15 years ago. It may be just around the…

I was in Gracia, hungry and in a hurry, when I stumbled across Piras Brasería (C/ Montseny 10, +34 93 218 26 05, closed Tuesdays). I’d just visited Barcelona’s best (and only) English-language second-hand bookshop, Hibernian Books just a few doors away on the same street and I was lured inside Piras by the smell of…

For a straightforward, fresh, top-value lunch in Barcelona’s Barri Gòtic, close to Plaça Sant Jaume, it’s hard to beat Café d’L’Academia (C/ Lledó  1, (+34) 93 319 8253, reservations required). This old favourite has seen dining trends come and go and ignored them all, staying packed every day with tourists and loyal locals in search…

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Dayna Kurtz who was in town ahead of her concert appearance with soul & gospel legend Mavis Staples at the Sala Apolo. Dayna is, in my opinion, one of the best unsung (pardon the pun…) jazz/alt-country/Americana talents in the world – go and buy some of her music then…

The first in my new category of bite-sized Barcelona restaurant reviews is, appropriately enough, a tapas restaurant. Well, almost. La Taverna del Clínica, (C/ Rossello 155, +34 93 410 4221) is so-called because it looks out onto the Hospital del Clinic in the left Eixample area of Barcelona. I’ve been back to La Taverna many times over…