Barcelona Restaurants

Thank Cod for La Bodega

Advantages: Fabulous food - plenty of things you don't find every day
Disadvantages: It's not somewhere you could afford to go too often.

...The restaurant they chose was La Bodega on Plaza Molina in the Sant Gervasi area of the city. This district lies to the north of the Diagonal so not really in a typical tourist area. The Sant Gervasi metro stop is across the square from the restaurant so if you like what you read, it shouldn't be too hard to find it but keep in mind that this place is fiercely popular and you will probably need to make a booking. If you're travelling with a car, ...
...softness for romantic encounters in La Bodega. We settled at our table, had a good nosey around and the owner popped back to be charming, something that didn't seem to be a challenge for him. We really were made to feel like four of his nieces popping in for dinner and he was irrepressibly jolly. We ordered cava to sip on whilst we looked at the menus which are apparently available in 17 different languages. I could have tried to work out WHICH ...

koshkha 17.10.2009 · Read full review
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Review of La Bodega, Barcelona

Pintxos Heaven at Taverna Basca Irati

Advantages: Really tasty, well-presented grub
Disadvantages: Can easily spend more than you planned

Although Taverna Basca Irati has a formal sit-down restaurant, I can’t comment on the menu. Instead we stood at the bar and did what the local do – we chose from the mouth watering selection of pintxos. What are pintxos? Quite simply they are the northern Spanish equivalent of tapas, small dishes of tasty morsels to accompany drinks. They are really a Basque thing from that area in the Spanish Pyrenees but they are widely eaten in Catalonia too. ...
...was a bit doubtful about Taverna Basca Irati at first because it all looked a bit new and I thought it might have been a chain. We were walking past while strolling the back streets just off the Ramblas and the sight of these titbits piled up on plates and displayed on an eye level counter made up stop for a better look. The same items fill each plate but there were over twenty different plates on the counter. The vivid colours of the salmon, the ...

fizzytom 13.06.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Taverna Basca Irati, Barcelona

Not All Secrets Are Worth Knowing

Advantages: Creative decoration and some good dishes
Disadvantages: I wouldn't squeeze 22 five-year old around the table they gave us

Da Greco came with quite a recommendation; our big boss had been twice and had apparently liked it very much. And he's Italian – so the local guys figured it must be a good Italian restaurant if Marco liked it. So when the monthly business review meeting went to Barcelona, the locals booked Da Greco (well the results hadn't been great in January so thet thought they'd better give the boss his favourite restaurant!) Finding It We all hopped ...
...a great location on the Passeig de Gracia (although their business card says Paseo de Gracia). From the outside I would never have guessed there was a restaurant behind the blanked out windows. For all we could see it could have been a shop, an office, or anything else inside. To say it's discrete and unassuming would be fair – if you didn't know the restaurant was there, you'd not be likely to notice it. There's no board outside or menu to tempt ...

koshkha 28.02.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Da Greco Restaurant, Barcelona

You don't HAVE to love raw fish - but it helps

Advantages: Fantastic food, subtle service, great ambiance
Disadvantages: So understated that it's easy to miss

...a bit un-nerving picking a restaurant in a foreign city even if it's only for a couple of people. When you need three restaurants on three successive nights and want them to satisfy a very mixed group of people (12 to 36 of them depending on the night) then it's natural to be a bit worried because no restaurant is ever going to please them all. I just accept before I even start that someone will hate whatever I pick but if I'm paying, they can lump ...
...a time when no Barcelona restaurant is ready for action. Understated or just plain hiding? We were dropped directly outside the restaurant - or to be more precise, dropped at the restaurant's address where, despite standing right outside, we still couldn't find the place. To say that Negro is understated is - predictably- an understatement. There's no big sign, no colourful frontage, just a big metal door. From the outside, it could have ...

koshkha 15.10.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Restaurant Negro, Barcelona

Eat it or Climb it? There IS such a thing as too much food

Advantages: The food is good but there's too much of it
Disadvantages: The waiters are pushy, there's far too much waste

La Barca del Salamanca is one of many seafood restaurants in Barcelona's Port Olymico, a trendy place to eat and drink and watch the world go by. Back in September 2008 I was organising a training course for about 40 people and our local secretary recommended this for one of our evening meals. Since no bars or restaurants really get going in Barcelona until at least 9pm, we'd all been out touring the city in Go Cars (cute little vehicles with on-board ...
...there at around 9.30pm. Finding La Barca del Salamanca wasn't too difficult because we had some local colleagues with us but I think even without their help, we would have found it hard to miss. We were given a massive table seating about 40 people which was located in an enormous tented seating area. Despite the weather outside being wet and miserable, the tent was quite cosy, no doubt due to environmentally callous patio heaters. The night before ...

koshkha 21.08.2009 · Read full review
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Review of La Barca del Salamanca, Barcelona