GR8 2CU BCN: eating & drinking in Barri Gotic

For the first few days in Barcelona we were joined by our Spanish friend, José. Even as a Madrileño, José admits that Barcelona is his favourite Spanish city and was happy to travel over from Madrid on the new high-speed train line linking the two rivals. He was one of our many friends who were flabbergasted to hear we'd been to Madrid twice before visiting Barcelona, so he was keen to show us why he so much enjoyed visiting the city.

Some of the rain from Lisbon had followed us to Barcelona and the first full day was a bit drizzly. José complained about the amount of rain and the chill in the air, although it was nothing compared to the deluge we'd endured in Portugal and it felt comparatively dry and positively balmy compared to the weather back home in Manchester.

José lived in Barcelona for a few years while growing up, but the tangled streets of the Barri Gòtic were difficult even for him to navigate. We probably passed the city's cathedral about three times before paying it a visit (more on that in a future post). Along the way we stopped into tapas restaurant near the cathedral; we entered on a whim after José admitted that he was more familiar with the modern Eixample neighbourhood and did not have any particular place in mind locally for a bite to eat.

Tapa Fina on Plaza del Angel turned out to be rather average, but we polished everything off without complaint: small beers, ham croquettes, cod croquettes and a selection of typical Basque-style tapas (pintxos) with chorizo, Iberian ham, tortilla etc skewered onto slices of bread. 'Not the proper recipe' was José's verdict on the potato omelette.

Thanks to the wet weather, it wasn't long before we found an excuse to pop into a small bakery called La Pallaresa on Carrer Petritxol. José is hypoglycemic and said he needed a small cup of thick Spanish hot chocolate to keep his energy levels up. Christian and I shared a spiral doughnut dusted in powdered sugar. José said they were a traditional dish from Mallorca, where they were the size of a plate!

As we wandered around the Barri Gòtic, we passed the enormous queue for the Picasso Museum. Honestly, it was several blocks long and probably took about five minutes to walk from the end of the line up to the ticket window. Another time?

Later on, we took José back to La Bodegueta where we had previously enjoyed tapas, but it was far more livelier this time and would have involved a long wait. It's always the case, you can't visit the same place twice and be guaranteed the same experience. So again we had to pick a place on a whim because we were starving, but unfortunately ended up having to put up with mediocre food. The establishment shall remain nameless, because I neglected to keep the receipt and had no desire to recall anything about the place.

Compared to Madrid, it seemed more difficult in Barcelona to find a decent place to eat, although admittedly I had put more research into finding places to dine when in Madrid. Clearly the tactic of wandering around Barcelona at random was not necessarily going to find us any back street gems, but having said that we did stumble across a simple bar in the Barri Gòtic called Bar Les Tapes at 4 Plaza del Regomir which ended up having a great atmosphere, cheap cava and (by the looks of it) delicious food.

Cava is the champagne of Catalonia, a sparkling wine (usually white) which is served cold and drank by the locals much the same way as other nationalities knock back iced tea or lemonade. I'm told it's even drank at breakfast! In the shops we saw bottles selling for €2 and even less, whereas in most bars it costs €2 to €3 per glass (you do have to help pay for keeping cold, you know).

At Bar Les Tapes we paid €9 for what amounted to a full bottle, which allowed five glasses between the three of us. On the telly in corner we spotted Janet Leigh in an episode of Colombo which triggered a chat about Hitchcock; during this we finished off our cava and José announced that we were 'heavy drinkers.' Who knows what he'd make of a typical English night out? Beer in Britain comes by the pint, not the thimble as in Spain, and a couple glasses of sparkling wine in the afternoon would only amount to a warm-up for most Brits heading out on the piss.

Click back again soon and you'll find out where we eventually did find a place that served beer by the pint (much to José's horror), plus where we finally had a meal that earned our Spaniard friend's seal of approval.