Where to Eat in Barcelona: El Nacional, Tapas, Vermouth and Churros

Eating well in Barcelona is easy once you know the rhythm: a vermouth at midday, a long lunch, a walk, then tapas late in the evening. This guide starts with one place that does a bit of everything under one roof, El Nacional on Passeig de Gràcia, then covers vermouth, tapas, churros and doughnuts, and the meal times that surprise most visitors from Cyprus.

Check for direct flights from Larnaca on your dates before you book; if nothing suits, connecting via Athens is the usual alternative. Our Barcelona destination page has the basics.

El Nacional: four restaurants and four bars on Passeig de Gràcia

Where: Passeig de Gràcia 24 bis, near the bottom of the avenue. The nearest metro is Passeig de Gràcia (L2, L3, L4). When: open every day from midday until late. Each restaurant and bar keeps its own serving times. Booking: only La Llotja and La Braseria take reservations; everything else is walk-in.

El Nacional is a good answer to "where shall we eat?" when everyone wants something different. The building began as a theatre in 1870, which later burned down, then became a leather factory (the roof survives from that time) and later a car dealership and garage. It opened as a food hall in 2014 and is protected by the City Council for its industrial modernista style. Walk in from Passeig de Gràcia and you find a long hall of about 3,000 m² under a vaulted roof, with plants overhead and counters on every side.

The spaces

Vermouth hour: "fer el vermut"

In Barcelona, vermouth is less a drink than a habit. Fer el vermut, "having the vermouth", means meeting friends for a drink and a nibble before lunch, and the classic slot is Sunday between 12:00 and 14:00. Saturdays are busy too.

• How it comes: red vermouth, well chilled, often with a splash of soda from a siphon, ice and a slice of orange. Some old bars serve it neat in a small glass.
• What to eat with it: olives, crisps, tinned seafood such as mussels and cockles, anchovies, and the gilda, a skewer of olive, anchovy and pickled pepper.
• Where it's from: Reus, in southern Catalonia, is home to well-known vermouth makers such as Yzaguirre and Miró.

Three classic places to try it:

• Bar Casa Almirall, Carrer de Joaquim Costa 33 (Raval): one of the city's oldest bars, with modernista decor.
• Bodega Marín, Carrer de Milà i Fontanals 72 (Gràcia): a grocery shop from 1916 that became a neighbourhood bodega.
• Senyor Vermut, Carrer de Provença 85 (Eixample): a family-run bar with many vermouths and well-known patatas bravas.

Our Barcelona food markets guide has market counters that also pour a vermouth, and the Sant Antoni Sunday book market is a good warm-up.

Tapas basics

Tapas are small dishes to share, and in Barcelona you'll see them everywhere from old bars to food halls. The ones to know:

• Pa amb tomàquet: bread rubbed with tomato and olive oil, the base of Catalan eating and a breakfast staple too.
• Patatas bravas: fried potatoes with a spicy sauce, sometimes with alioli. Quality varies, so look for a bar known for them.
• La bomba: a fried ball of potato stuffed with minced meat, topped with alioli and spicy sauce, with roots in Barceloneta, the old fishermen's quarter.
• Jamón ibérico de bellota: acorn-fed ibérico ham, the top grade.
• Buñuelos de bacalao: salt-cod fritters.
• AnchoviesBest with pa amb tomàquet.
• Pintxos: a Basque speciality of small bites on bread held together with a skewer; Barcelona has plenty of pintxos bars.

How to order: for a group, order three or four dishes, see how hungry you are, then order more. Standing at the bar is perfectly normal.

Churros and doughnuts

Xurreria Trebol

Where: Carrer de Còrsega 341, in Gràcia, near Diagonal (L3, L5) and Verdaguer (L4) metro stations.

Xurreria Trebol fries classic thin churros, thicker porras and filled churros, including dulce de leche, and savoury fried snacks such as salt-cod fritters and pork crackling. It's known as the place for churros after midnight, with late opening at weekends. Check the hours before you make a special trip.

In Spain, churros are a weekend breakfast or afternoon treat, usually dipped in thick hot chocolate. Sunday afternoons from October to March are the busiest time at the city's chocolate shops.

Boldú doughnuts

Boldú is a family of bakers whose shaped, brightly decorated doughnuts have become a Barcelona favourite, with about 16 shops in the city. The best known is the Bolduman, a smiling doughnut figure first made in 2012 from an old family recipe. Doughnuts can be personalised with a name and glaze, and the shops sell gift boxes with messages for birthdays, thank-yous and more. A box makes an easy present to carry home to Cyprus.

Meal times in Barcelona

Barcelona eats later than Cyprus, and the city is also an hour behind, so your body clock will tell you it's even later.

• Weekday lunch menus: many restaurants offer a fixed-price lunch menu on weekdays, often the best-value meal of the day.
• Eating early: if you'd like dinner before 21:00, a food hall such as El Nacional, which serves from midday, is the easiest option.
• With children: a big lunch and a lighter tapas dinner works well. Our guide to things to do with kids in Barcelona has more family tips, and for planning a school-holiday trip see our half-term trips from Cyprus.

Related guides

• Barcelona food markets: Ninot, Boqueria, Santa Caterina and Sant Antoni
• A walk along Passeig de Gràcia
• Barcelona weekend from Cyprus: flights and a two-day plan
• Where to stay in Barcelona
• Barcelona destination page