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.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Bar Oller | Bars, Snacks | Draft beer € 1.20
Passeig de Sant Joan 146 | Eixample | +34934578159
Tue – Sat 09:30 – 22:00, Sun 10:00 – 15:00

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!

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Tossa | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Spanish/Catalan) | Croqueta € 1.10
Nàpols,291 | Eixample | +34934576510
Mon – Fri 07:00 – 23:00, Sat 07:00 – 17:00

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!

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Gelonch | Restaurants | 9 course tasting menu € 52.50
Carrer Bailén, 56 | Eixample | +34932658298
Tue – Sat 13:30 – 15:30 & 21:00 – 23:30

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. 

Details about this spot (Show on map)
MAiTEA | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants (Basque) | Montadito € 1.55
Casanova, 157 | Eixample | +34933219790
Mon – Sat 11:00 – 00:00

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.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
MiTO | Art & culture | Free
C/Roselló, 193 | Eixample | +34932179012
Tue – Fri 10:00 – 14:00 & 17:00 – 20:30, Sat 10:00 – 14:00

There’s one item in the Mediterranean-Spanish cuisine that is very sought-after: paella. Actually, in almost any restaurant in the city you can ask for this combination of rice with meat and some vegetables. However, you can’t expect all of them to be good: especially when some are obviously taken directly out of the freezer.

In my first job at the city, I had a very picky boss that said this was the best paella restaurant in the city. Even if I really didn’t love the guy, I believed him and could confirm he was speaking truth when I went in for the first time. You know you’re not there for the looks, that’s for sure, but the ultra fresh, homey paella is almost perfect. The whole menu is prepared with basic ingredient – local, but with great care and elegant simplicity.

I always recommend paella as a midday menu, because it can be difficult to digest – especially in the quantities they serve at Castell de Xátiva. If you go with somebody else, make an experiment and try more than one variety (this is one of the few places where rices don’t have to be for two or more people). Especially nice for me are the typical paella with rabbit and chicken, the black rice and the fideúa, a sort of seafood paella but with noodles instead of rice.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Castell de Xàtiva | Restaurants (Paella) | Lunch menu € 16
Valencia 360 | Eixample | +34934583418
Tue – Sun 13:00 – 16:00 & 20:45 – 23:30, Sun 13:00 – 16:00

In 1969 the U.S.A. supposedly first landed men on the Moon. They stopped going there in 1972. They’d visited the place just six times. Why did they stop going there? There was no atmosphere they said.

Well, there’s lots of atmosphere at this little moon – morning, day and night.

Tucked inside a cozy basement on the busy corner of Provença and Balmes, Moon is one of a few places I know of which, regardless of the time of day between 8.30 and 01:30, you can rely on getting a bite, a drink and atmosphere.

There are loads of spots which are good for an early morning coffee and a pastry, and a fair few places which are good for an esmorzar later in the morning. There are innumerable places for a good menú del día; and a good many spots good for an afternoon beer, coffee or tea – or berenar/merienda. There are a host of good places for an early evening vermut, or tapas; dozens of places for dinner, and loads of places for an after-dinner drink or cocktail. At Moon you can get it all – from breakfast coffee to after-midnight snacks and cocktails, complete with books, magazines and music.

The hamburgers and vegetarian burgers here are really very good, as are the salads. And their menú del día is very good value.

Try it, and, unlike the U.S.A., you’ll find you’ll want to go back time and again.

You can rely on Moon – it’s a very good, conveniently located, all-rounder.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
MOON Café-bar | Bars, Coffee & tea, Snacks, Restaurants | Menú del día € 9.95
Provença, 213 | Eixample | +34934881721
Mon – Fri 07:00 – 02:00, Sat 09:00 – 03:00, Sun 17:00 – 03:00

An exhibition space I visit regularly – sometimes re-visiting the same exhibition three or four times – is situated in La Pedrera – the famous apartment building designed by Gaudí.

They have an excellent exhibition programme with related talks, debates and activities.

Well worth a visit.

Though a tour of the building, and spectacular rooftop, will cost you 11 euros entrance to the exhibition space is FREE.

The exhibition programme promotes a good balance of solo retrospectives and shows about movements or moments in art history. The shows, always accompanied with well-written notes, help you re-appraise or re-contextualize work by artists often overlooked because they didn’t quite fit with the prevailing mood or movement of the time. I’ve learned a lot about art from attending exhibitions here.

The staff here are friendly and helpful, and will look after your bags and coats at no charge. And, just so you know, the exhibition space has a public toilet, handy if you’re on the Paseo de Gràcia, as most of the cafés now only allow customers to use their facilities.

If you can understand Spanish it’s worth doing one of the free guided tours of the current exhibition on Fridays at 18:00.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
La Pedrera | Art & culture
Passeig de Gràcia 92 | Eixample | +34902400973
10:00 – 20:00 daily

This welcoming bar-restaurant, one of three of a small chain, with its bohemian vibe and quirky art and decor, has become one of my favorite places for meeting up with a friend for a drink, a bite and a good old chinwag. There’s no TV blaring away in the corner, no slot machines and no crap music. But there is good, reasonably priced food and drink and friendly service.

The owner is an artist-photographer and the collection of artwork is worth a closer look. The rooms at the back are cosy and intimate, ideal for project meetings or just gossip.

Try one of their sartens (small frying-pans) of provolone cheese, served with breadsticks, or chorizo or morcilla (black pudding) with scrambled egg or ciervo (venison)- delicious. The menu is refreshingly different – and the wines are very good value too.

And, as a bonus, they serve probably the best gin and tonics in the city. Honest. Even if you don’t try one – just watching the bar staff prepare them is fun.

And, if you’re interested in architecture then another bonus is that Salvador Valeri i Pupurell’s magnificent Casa Comalat is just a hundred meters away, on the opposite side of the street.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Úbeda | Art & culture, Bars, Snacks, Restaurants (Spanish) | Sarten € 5.00
Còrsega 339 | Eixample | +34934152537
Mon – Thu 07:30 – 00:30, Fri – Sat 09:30 – 13:00 & 20:00 – 02:00

It’s a weekday, you’ve agreed to meet a friend for lunch, you’ve got €10 in your pocket, you’re hungry, but you feel like something different. Well, you could do a lot worse than try Wok Yutaka – an all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. And, there’s a good sample of Argentinian and Spanish food on offer too.

There’s been quite a few all-you-can-eat buffets open up over the past couple of years but, so far, Wok Yutaka is the best I’ve found in terms of variety, quality and value. The range and quality of food on offer is staggering – noodles, rice, salads, seaweeds, as well as clams, frogs’ legs, mussels, octopus, prawns, tuna, salmon and, of course, sushis, makis, tempuras and terriyakis.

They also have two barbecue grills – one for meat, the other for fish, seafood and veggies. Put what you want cooked – tuna steak maybe, or a seafood brochetta, or ribs and a spicy sausage (criollo) on a plate and pass it over and they’ll cook it there and then.

Excellent value. It is a very popular lunchtime spot, so be prepared to wait for maybe 10 minutes or more for a table.

Because of their undeniable success there is now a Wok Yutaka II (check the Wok Yutaka II article). You’ll find Wok Yutaka II on the same street, a few blocks over, at C/Rossello 373 , on the corner with C/Napols.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Wok Yutaka | Restaurants (Japanese) | Lunch € 9.50
Carrer del Rosselló, 307 | Eixample | +34934580494
13:30 -16:30 & 20:00 – 00:00 daily