Its very easy to find somewhere to eat in central Barcelona, there are countless tapas bars, falafel outlets, international eateries and very posh looking restaurants, but having said that one night during our recent stay we wanted something a bit different. We asked our hotel reception staff to recommend somewhere romantic but Spanish to help us celebrate our honeymoon. They suggested Ānima.

Going from there meant it was bit further to walk to but gave us the advantage of exploring this entirely different district. With trusty guide book in hand we also found many bars and places of interest along the way which meant we spent an entire evening in this area. You are often warned in guide books that the Raval district is not a completely safe place to be after dark as it used to be Barcelona's red light district and still attracts "unsavory characters" - me and Lee for a start, but don't be put off just be wary as usual. You will see the people who actually live in Barcelona out and about and normal life going on.

We perused the menu whilst munching on delicious varieties of bread and oil. As this was going to be a romantic meal we were prepared to pay a bit more than usual but were pleasantly surprised as it all seemed moderately priced, while looking like quite an expensive place to eat. As far as I can remember the starters were under 10 euros (or £7) and mains between about 10-20 euros (£7- £15). The menu is quite short and there aren't endless choices so make sure you have a look beforehand. The cuisine is called a Mediterranean Fusion blend which we found we liked very much indeed. It included fish, meat and duck and vegetarian. We ordered a bottle of house red wine which was fine and improved with drinking.

My main course was a feta cheese and spinach ravioli pasta dish, with thin savoury biscuits. The pasta was very tender and melted in the mouth and again was very nicely presented.

Desert - this was a gorgeous, dark chocolate sponge pudding with a warm chocolate syrup oozing out of it when cut into, served with vanilla ice cream. Lee had ice cream which was no match to mine but was still very nice!!

I did enter the restaurant to nip off to the loo before we left - very advisable because you don't know when you're going to find the next one in Barca and can say that the toilets are very clean and swish. They're quite well hidden too so if you're sitting near them you wouldn't mind. At the back of the restaurant you can see the through an open archway window into the kitchen and watch the chefs preparing your meal. The window feels like part of the decor.
The type of people we saw eating at this restaurant were mainly young trendy people, some Spanish, some holiday makers. Myself and Lee are in our 30's, not particularly trendy, only speak pigeon Spanish but we didn't feel out of place here and it wouldn't matter what age you are as long as you want a little bit of sophistication. We throughly enjoyed our whole experience of this restaurant and recommend it for the way it made us feel when we left - very content, happy and romantic. You can easily walk back to La rambla and carry on your night or find local bars to drink in afterwards as we did.

Again, you should probably write a review having visited somewhere more than once, but it left such a memorable impression on us we'd like to let people know about it. It's nice to find your own places but also to have a recommendation.