Ok, so it’s not the Ritz, and probably one of the scruffiest bars you’ll visit when in Barcelona – but it is, as they say, More than a bar.

It’s called Oller but everyone knows it as Pep’s – after its illustrious former owner who still pops in now and then. If you look around the walls you’ll see pencil portraits of Pep.

Opened in 1929 – as you step into the bar look down at the pavement – you’ll see a plaque celebrating the bar’s contribution to city life.

It’s fairly quiet during the morning and a good place to chill with café con leche, a croissant and a newspaper.

The terrace is perfectly positioned to get the best of the afternoon sunshine.

In the evening it’s a different place altogether – ram-packed with friends and neighbours meeting up for a beer, a bite and a chinwag after work, and good music.

The mix of local characters: writers, photographers, musicians, journalists, teachers, artisans and builders make this a lively place to meet up before dinner or going out on the town.

Tapas and sandwiches available: croquetas, bombas (balls of potato filled with meat and rolled in breadcrumbs), tortillas, cheeses, chorizo, fuet and llonganiza (cured meat sausages) and, uniquely, mini filo pastry wraps filled with emmental cheese, frankfurter and sobrassada (pressed pork).

It’s just around the corner from restaurant Can Josep (see Can Josep article) so you may want to pop in for an aperitivo before going on for a meal.

Voll Damm on draft available.

Be aware the bar is closed Mondays.

Imagine you could visit one of the most fascinating, and most popular, buildings in the world. And then, after your visit, imagine you could take a pleasant six minute stroll, leaving the crowds behind you, and find a comfortable, relatively quiet, tree-screened, shaded restaurant terrace. Imagine sitting at a table and being served excellent, fresh little bites by a friendly and attentive waiter or waitress. Imagine the experience costing a lot less time, hassle and money than many popular, crowded, noisy city centre restaurant-bars.

Well, you don’t have to imagine – you can do it.

Tossa serves deliciously fresh tapas all day long. Their homemade croquetas (€ 1.10 each served inside and € 1.15 served on the terrace) are filled with foie gras, mushrooms, chicken, cheese or vegetables. They are possibly the best croquetas in Barcelona. They also serve a good selection of hams and cured meats (fuet, lloganiza, etc), sausages, jacket potatoes stuffed with tuna and topped with cheese, clams, baby clams, mussels, cheeses, potato salad, Russian salad, Greek salad, lovely omelettes, exquisite asparagus dishes and other delights.

Very friendly and helpful staff, and a relaxed family friendly atmosphere – good at any time of day – from breakfast to supper.

Tossa closes at 17:00 on Saturdays and is not open on Sundays.

¡Bon profit!

This is something special. Not your ordinary. Not your regular, but somewhere to visit maybe three or four times a year. Exquisite food prepared by Robert Gelonch, one of the most inventive chefs currently trading in the city, coupled with a strong wine-list.

Though the entrance colourways and typography suggest a kind of 70s retro vibe (and hints of Clockwork Orange) the very contemporary tastes you’ll encounter when dining here will disabuse you of the notion Gelonch is some kind of throwback.

You have a choice – a lunchtime menú del día for just 19 euros, or an evening special 9 course tasting menú for 52,50 euros . You will not be disappointed. How could you be disappointed with such dishes as frozen apple coconut foam, iced mint, lemon confit, caramelized cream and black olives? Yep, that’s right – black olives in a dessert.

There are so many intriguing combinations in each dish – artichoke stuffed with mushrooms, pig’s trotters (pigs’ feet) with prawns – cookie-sized pizzas – that every bite is a pleasant surprise.

Some claim the food here is the culinary equivalent of a pointillist painting. It’s a good analogy. Each component has individual flavour – but it’s the inventive combinations which delight the palate.

It may seem expensive – but, honestly, when compared with other establishments in the city, (where often the food is mediocre) it’s surprisingly good value for a memorable experience.

Gelonch will soon, I’m convinced, have an international reputation — so, get here ahead of the herd.

¡Bon profit!

You’ll come across dozens of Basque tabernas (restaurant-bars) as you stroll across the city.With over 100 tapas available, for variety, quality and overall value, Maitea is among the very best.

The cold montaditos, or pintxos (slices of bread piled with an endless combination of toppings and speared with a toothpick), are arrayed along the counter.

Cheese and quince jelly? Yep. A slice of bacon with fried quail’s egg? Check. Smoked salmon wraps stuffed with crab? Of course. Goat cheese with ham? You got it. Creamed goat cheese with walnuts? No doubt. Tuna salad with anchovies? Yes. Potato, sobrassada (pressed pork) and grilled Gruyere cheese? Why not? Red pepper stuffed with creamed minced cod? Sardines? Obviously. And these are just a few of the cold pintxos.

Grab a plate, wander along the counter, help yourself to whatever you want and put in on your plate. Every now and then the friendly, helpful staff will offer you a selection of hot pintxos: a date wrapped in bacon, choricitos (spicy mini-chorizo-like sausages), or a mini-cheeseburger.

All the pintxos are the same price – €1.55. Every item you choose will be speared with a toothpick – keep the toothpicks. At the end of your session the toothpicks will be counted.

Drinks on offer include cidra – a naturally fermented apple cider very different to fizzy English ciders – txakoli – a dry sparkling white wine – along with some very good reds from Rioja and Navarra – and Almogàver beer on draft. 

MiTO is my current favourite contemporary art gallery in Barcelona. I really like the people who run it. I like the space. I like the artists who show work here. I like the artwork that’s shown here. And, I like the people who go along to view, and possibly buy, the artwork here.

And, what I really like about the gallery is that the exhibitions always surprise and challenge.

The gallery shows work from an international roster of artists, including U.S. based Brian Dettmer, Chambliss Giobbi, Erik Mark Sandberg and Christian Rex Van Minnen; Spanish artists Carlos Forns Bada and Javier Velasco and U.K. based Antony Crossfield among dozens of others.

A lot of the work shown here makes the work of the YBAs (Young British Artists) seem timid and stunted, trapped within a very English frame of reference. Some of the work shown here could be characterized as kitsch with kick, or glitz with guts. Bright and brash, dark and moody; all the work shown here challenges viewers’ perceptions and understanding of the human condition and the world around us.

I always look forward to exhibitions here.

Food for thought.