The Spanish Mains (Restaurants in Barcelona in general)

Member Name: buttonman

Product:	Restaurants in Barcelona in general
Date:	19/07/02 (3830 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Varied

Disadvantages: Waist line

Heading to Barcelona? Fearful of Tapas, things with tentacles and snippy waiters? Well fear not for here are three eating establishments, which will make any meal a treat or at least a hazy memory. We generally ate well during our weeklong stay but generally faired (fayred!) better at dinner rather than lunch.

As you are no doubt aware the Spanish generally eat Tapas for lunch which is basically little bowls of snacks. Some of these such as potato salad and Feta cheese are well known to us but others can be a bit more of a gamble. As it was we generally got three good ones out of five which meant McDonalds had to make up for the shortfall. Evening meals were generally better and although we didn't go totally ethnic we did try to stay away from egg and chips. That said my first offering is a steak house, but it wasn't exactly a Berni Inn!

STEAK and SALAD Dr. Rizal 20 (Diagonal Metro)
============================================

Maybe you don't think that's a clever name but it's akin to calling your Glasgow eatery 'Entrocot con Ensalada' or something like that. The website we consulted www.seebarcelona.com before visiting gave a brief but positive write up and gave what turned out to be lacking directions. From Diagonal Metro stop head north on Rizal and it's on the second side street on your left. In truth we missed it first time and only stumbled across it when I went to investigate a nearby Peep show!

This place is small and appears to be a one-man operation. The dining area is unfussy and like most great steak houses the focus is on food rather on décor.

We by tried to order our steak and salad together but the salad arrived as a starter. We had a Catalonian salad which was plentiful and appeared to have bits of every meat and seafood you could think of and a Greek salad which had rather chewy but still tasty feta cheese. Both there were a meal in themselves and a bargain at 5 Euro (
about £3.50).

For my steak course I ordered a T-bone. Despite the place being quiet and it only being 8pm the man had to go back and see if he had one. My girlfriend thought he was going to the dog pound but happily one was found. Me lady had a sirloin and both arrived quickly and cooked to order. They came with few adornments but the meat was excellent. He brought over some sea salt and wasn’t happy until we'd sprinkled the meat in this and in his special spicy herb sauce. The food was excellent and we paid about 40 Euro including coffee and a litre of pretty good wine. £25 bargain - highly recommended!


MIKEY’S Las Ramblas
====================

I couldn't find any internet listings for this place, which was a surprise given its prominent location and the quality of its nosh.

My address isn't detailed but you'll find it. Las Ramblas is the main hub of activity in Barcelona and a walk down it is an experience in itself. Traders, street performers, bird sellers and beggars all vie for your entertainment Euro. The street must be two kilometres long with this place near to the southern end towards the docks. If you start from the docks area it's five minutes up Las Ramblas on your left.

We originally headed out for Chinese but given the great atmosphere and weather we decided on an open air dinner. Lots of restaurants are situated on this street and have rows of tables on the centre thoroughfare. To be honest Mikeys was a last gasp choice but it turned out to be a good one. It looks like an American diner but the food is mainly Spanish although Pizzas and burgers were also available.

We went for Paella being tourist types. Not being a fish fan we'd never had this due to it normally being a two person dinner. Here they offer portions for one so we got one mixed and one chicken. We had to wait 25 minutes for our dinner but it was worth it to see the food and been made to or
der in individual dishes.

The waiter arrives with the dish, picks out all the meat, assembled it tastefully before piling on the rice. A great show and brilliant food. The rice was spicy and the chicken just fell off the bone. The seafood offering seemed too much work though with one man wrestling with a giant crayfish throughout our meal.

A word also for the beers here. Sadly I'd ordered wine before seeing the enormous jugs on offer. They must have been two litres easy with one old boy struggling to get it off the table. You also get a lot of street performers doing their thing as you eat. Fine for the nice Latino band but not so good when a man was balancing on a whisky bottle over spikes!

The paella was great and so filling the promised sweet didn't happen. A bill of 35 Euros for a really memorable dinner was a great bargain.


THE SECRET CAVA BAR Reia Cristina
=================================

Although not strictly a restaurant this place has to get a mention and it is compulsory to eat anyway!

Not listed in the guidebooks I was made to promise to seek this place out by a friend who raved about it. It doesn't have any sign outside and 'Secret Cava bar' may even be a name made up by tourists to give it a point of reference. It's near the docks on Reia Cristina and we spent 30 minutes seeking it out. When we passed it first it looked like a house party spilled onto the street but after muscling our way to the bar we saw why it was packed out with locals.

The booze is frighteningly cheap! They only sell Cava, which is like Spanish Champagne. Their cheapest bottle is 2.10 Euro which is less than £1.50. If you go mad the luxury 'Brut' is 4.20 Euro - less than three quid! There is a catch though if you want a bottle you have to eat too. We went after lunch and after the barman explained by pointing to a sign on the wall I agreed to two 1.30 Euro Frankfort. Despite not
being hungry we soon polished off these lovely sausages and headed back for more. The food is all fast and handed to you in a napkin in a Sunday school barbecue fashion.

We were the only tourists there but didn't feel excluded. The also sell glasses of the stuff at 20p a go and this certainly had the desired effect on the locals - and us! The Cava was great especially the mid range 'Rosat' variety. We went three times never spent more than a tenner and always got both full and drunk!

Although a bit untidy and knee deep in napkins the place has real charm and spotless toilets. All ages were there and my only wonder was how they can hope to turn a profit. At the back of the bar was a Deli counter from where you could buy even cheaper Cava (!) and some excellent Choritzio sausages which we had for our tea last night. A truly wonderful place - cheap booze and compulsory sausages!


All in all Barcelona choice of eating establishments was the best and most varied we’d come across. Close to France and Italy the food was clearly European unlike some of the stuff we had in Seville which was frankly weird! Give it ago you won't regret it and if you do the golden arches are never far away!

Summary: