Eating at the best Barcelona tapas bars is one thing all of our guests want to do when visiting! Here are 4 of our favorites, each located near some of our best Barcelona apartments to rent.
Bar Calders
Carrer del Parlament de Catalunya, 25. Ph: 933 29 93 49
If this isn’t already in the latest Barcelona guidebooks – or listed on the grooviest Barcelona sites (like ‘Spotted by Locals‘) – then it will be by this time next year! Expect Bar Calders to be the standout mention in any travel guide’s updated section on eateries and in lists of the ‘best of’ Barcelona tapas bars (you heard it hear first Lonely Planet!). This charming tapas bar is on the increasingly cool (“guay“) street of Parlament in the city’s premier foodie-neighborhood of Sant Antoni (Eixample Esquerra). The owner’s art fills the walls and decorates the toilets (make sure to poke your head in). Over 15 gins are on hand to try, and the tapas menu runs all night for a pre-dinner or late night visit. Get there early in summer to grab a courtyard table so you can watch as a projector flashes cheeky visual eye-candy onto the cement wall opposite the outdoor dining area.
Moritz Barcelona
Ronda de Sant Pau, 5. Ph: 934 43 65 17
The recently reopened and completely renovated beer brewery venue Moritiz Barcelona is one of our new favorites, and was worthy of a blog entry to itself. If you are planning on snacking before catching an English-speaking movie around the corner in Floridablanca, or if you need somewhere to relax on a sociably Spanish Sunday afternoon, Moritz Barcelona is the perfect choice in the city center.
Sesamo
Carrer de Sant Antoni Abat Ph: 934 41 64 11
This hidden gem is just a few doors down from Sant Antoni’s historic 24-hour El Tres Tombs Cafe (which is so famous it even has its own street parade each year). A narrow bar at the front for drinks and nibbles opens into a full dining room in case you and your company end up deciding to make a night of it here. Each day, Sesamo chooses a seasonal produce from the local markets and creates a specials menu that showcases the chosen item in a variety of cooking methods and flavor mixes. It is usually only after a full meal of delicious tapas here that you realize when you leave that it has been an all vegetarian menu on offer: each tapas plate being so delicious that meat and seafood isn’t even missed.
Golfo de Bizkaia
Carrer Vidriera, 12. Ph: 932 684 888
While there are plenty of Barcelona tapas bars near our apartments in El Born worth mentioning, our favorite is Golfo de Bizkaia, down a laneway from the stunning Catedral Santa Maria del Mar. The service is always welcoming and the available selection of tapas treats is bountiful. This is a Euskal-style tapas bar (meaning it serves tapas in the northern Spanish style, on bread and pierced with a toothpick). Ask for a plate when you arrive and select your tapas treats from the freshly filled glass shelves. Our favorites include the cod-filled red peppers and the shrimp-wrapped-in-bacon that is offered up hot every hour or so (or you can ask for them to make it at no extra cost). At the end of your dining, simply show the bartender the number of toothpicks you’ve amassed to calculate your bill.
What are amongst your favorite Barcelona tapas bars? Share them with other readers in the comments below or on our Facebook page…