El Borne Barcelona – All our local tips

Thanks to the globalization you don’t have to travel to Marrakesh or Dubai anymore to experience an arabic bath.

After spending a chilly winter day at the beach and in Park Ciutadella, you should try the new “Hamam” (relaxing hot steam bath in silence) located in El Born neighborhood right in front of the Park.
Taking a bath there is probably one of the most enjoyable experiences ever.

Have an Arabic mint tea on the warm luxury benches after enjoying aromatherapy, bubbles, candles, massages on hot stones etc. in the ambience of a beautiful ancient remodeled Spanish wine-cellar.

The prices are decent, a Hamam costs 25 euros without massage and with massage 36 Euros.

Aire de Barcelona also offers gift vouchers ranging from 25 Euros up to 81 Euros.
Giving a voucher to friends became my gift-idea-number-one in the last few month as the temperatures are falling….

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Aire de Barcelona | Relaxing | Bath with aromatherapy € 25.00
Paseo Picasso 22 | El Borne | +34902555789
Sun – Thu 10:00 – 23:00, Fri – Sat 10:00 – 02:00

You’ll maybe see a few strolling by but you won’t see or hear many tourists in Casa Albert – they’re all too busy spending their money in the nearby overpriced trendy bars and restaurants. For about the same price of a starter (€7.20 incl.tax) at a nearby ‘name’ restaurant you can sit yourself at a table in the small square just around the corner from the grand church of Santa Maria and enjoy a three-course lunch complete with bread, water and a bottle of table wine.

This unassuming restaurant-bar serves locals good, cheap traditional wholesome food.

You’ll have a choice of five or six first courses and five or six second courses and a selection of desserts (including homemade chocolate mousse).

You won’t have to make a reservation, you won’t have to join a line, and you won’t have to pay a supplement to eat on the terrace.

Probably the best lunchtime deal you’ll find in the old part of the city (Barrio Gotico and El Born). It’s not fancy but it’s friendly, and the waitress will speak English if you need help. A good place to eat and drink while watching the world go by. ¡Buen provecho!

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Casa Albert | Restaurants (Catalan-Spanish) | Mon – Fri lunch menu € 7.20
Plaça de les Olles 4 | El Borne | +34933191040
09:00 – 00:00 daily

This excellent Japanese-Brazilian fusion restaurant-lounge bar is situated on the very edge of El Born.

The first thing you’ll notice as you approach the door are the big fat carp swimming on the floor – you have to walk over the fish when you enter.

Watch as your steps create ripples in the pool and the fish scatter in all directions. Kids (like me!) love it, and keeps them amused during the short wait for food. And, when tired of the swimming touch-sensitive fish you can watch a large-screen projection of life under the ocean. Amusingly the undersea scenes are cut in with a live feed from the kitchen – so you can watch the expert chefs prepare your sashimis, tempuras, makis and sushis.

The food here is excellent. A very good friend (Hi Krystyna!) who loves Japanese food, and has probably visited most Japanese restaurants in the city, eats here every Friday lunchtime. The lunchtime set menu is only 12 euros and worth every cent.

Good, lively, very friendly atmosphere. And it has already gained a deserved reputation among locals for excellent food, friendly service and good value. If going in the evening you’ll probably need to book ahead or be prepared to wait for a while.

p.s. My taste must be impeccable – four months after posting the above (and less than a year after Iki Bana opened) Time Out Barcelona magazine voted it as one of the best 50 places in Barcelona to eat sushi  – even though they don’t specialize in sushi! Go there, try it, you’ll see and taste why.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Ikibana – Japanese | Bars, Restaurants (Japanese-Brazilian) | Daily menu € 12.00
Passeig Picasso 32 | El Borne | +34932956732
13:00 – 16:00 & 20:00 – 02:30 daily

I know a place for readers and writers, to take the kids to play football and run around, for families to have a picnic, a place for the elderly, for lovers and friends.

La Ciutadella Park is where everything is possible if the weather’s on your side and this is easy to find in Barcelona where almost never rains.

La Ciutadella Park is one of the most beautiful parks in Barcelona and it’s plenty of cosy corners to talk and spend the time laid over the grass, sit at some bank or walk around through sculptures, statues and trees.

You will find the Museum of Modern Art, The Geology Museum, the Zoo, a greenhouse and a castle called “Three Dragons Castle” where’s also placed the Zoology Museum. This park is a gorgeous open space behind El Borne; it’s close to the France Train Station, the Olympic Village, La Barceloneta, the peer and the beach.

If you use this park as a shortcut to anywhere you’re going, I’m sure you will feel invited to stay. There’s a place for you too. I know.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
La Ciutadella Park | Art & culture, Relaxing
Between Pujades and Picasso streets | El Borne
08:30 – 22:00 daily

Nakupenda is an exotic salads, sandwiches, soups, cocktails and smoothies day and night/ summer and winter bar.

The name means ‘I love you’ in Swahili, but if when courtship dancing or just flirting you share a huge cup of mango madness, banana kiss or vanilla sky smoothie with two straws words might become unnecessary. It could end up in the most wonderful and chaotic way of starting a relationship. But you take the risk of losing every breath of life at the gate of climax.

It may seem as something planned, and you may look like a brazen-faced, but there’s nothing you can do about it.

You can sit on the terrace when there is good weather or find that cosy corner inside.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Nakupenda | Bars | Smoothies € 3.00
Av. Marques de Argentera 7 | El Borne | +34932680435
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 03:00, Sat – Sun 10:00 – 03:00

This bar is located North of El borne, a small neighbourhood called la Ribera and well-known for her multicultural restaurants from all over the world. This restaurant is a Spanish restaurant and one of the best places to eat seafood in Barcelona (and the relation price-quality is also good)

With a long bar where you can eat and also a big dinning room, this place is very welcoming with a loud atmosphere. It’s a place you go to have a good dinner and fun at the same time.

The food is incredible and has a very good reputation in Barcelona: grilled razor shells (absolutely delicious), grilled calamaris, prawns, potatoes “bravas” (a mix sauce of tomato and mayonnaise…yummy!) to eat with a good white wine the waiter could recommend you.

This is one of those authentic places in Barcelona. On weekends, you might have to wait a little bit until they give you a table.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
The Mundial | Restaurants (Seafood) | Meal & drinks € 20.00
Plaza de Sant Agusti Vell 1 | El Borne | +34933199056
Sun 13:00 – 18:00, Tue 13:00 – 18:00, Wed – Sat 13:00 – 18:00 & 21:00 – 0:00

Africa in the heart of El Borne. Yes you can do it! In a very small and peaceful street of the most fashion neighborhood of Barcelona, you find this very simple place with a few wooden tables and a few pictures hanging on the walls.

From the outside, you couldn’t tell what’s going inside. Actually, not a lot, it’s a calm place that doesn’t take itself very seriously and where you can go for a fantastic lunch or dinner and an interesting conversation.

The food is just fantastic. The menu consist on 4 cards the waiters put on your table, you can choose between a “Thebudien” (fish and rice in the African way), a “Yassa chicken”, a spinaches and yucca plate or a “Maffe”. They are all absolutely amazing and the prices are ridiculously low…

Before your meal you can also enjoy African vermouth with ginger that is supposed to be aphrodisiac. Or you can try the hibiscus flower juice, typical of this place…

Details about this spot (Show on map)
The Teranga | Restaurants (Senegalese) | Meal € 10.00
Calle de la Nau, 3 | El Borne | +34933103365
Wed – Mon 13:00 – 17:00 & 20:00 – 00:00