Barcelona Restaurants
 

I am arriving in Barcelona on a Sunday for a cruise that leaves Monday. When checking out restaurants all the featured ones seemed to be closed for Sunday dinner. Does anyone know of a great restaurant close to the Old City that is open Sunday for dinner? Something that reflects the best of Barcelona? Want to make the best of the only night there! Any help is much appreciated...thanks

It's not in the Old City, but close in the Eixample--Paco Meralgo. It's an upscale tapas bar with fantastic food, pleasant service and best of all open Sunday night. We've been to Barcelona 3 times in the past 3 years and have eaten at lots of places there. This remains one of our very favorites. Here's the review from one of my trip reports:

Paco Maralgo is a another tapas restaurant quite close to Granados 83 and I’d read about it in the Maribel guide—and practically everywhere else—so I had the hotel book us for our first BCN dinner there. Wise choice. This time I got to sit while eating tapas AND be in the center of the action. The place is very bright and cheerful, modern with high stools at the bar and at small tables for two across a narrow “waiter route” from the bar. Everything is written on the blackboard but you also get a menu. The waiters will guide you but my guess is you can’t go wrong no matter what you order. We had both razor clams and tiny regular shaped clams (btw razor clam shells, if you’ve never had them, are pencil shaped about the circumference of a human finger or thumb and range in length from about 4 to 7 inches and their meat is very sweet and unique). I had a bikini which is what they call a ham and cheese sandwich, fried so that the cheese melts perfectly, a little like the perfect little sandwiches they charge so much for at Harry’s Bar in Venice. We shared Galician crab which was the big winner, and had sausage from the sausage making town of Vic which seemed a lot like Italian salami, steak in garlic and, of course, anchovies in garlic and another bottle of cava. DH was in tapas heaven. Service was terrific. The staff, all male, seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves and their enjoyment was infectious. With reservations at 8 p.m. we pressed our noses to the door and were admitted just as they opened –how do the Spanish keep those ungodly hours?!!

This is a wonderful place. Their website is
www.pacomeralgo.com Check it out.

Nina,
That's a tough one because most of the "destination" restaurants and the seafood restaurants in Barceloneta do close on Sunday evenings. One traditional catalán place that does remain open is the bistro Senyor Parellada in El Born on Argenteria.
www.senyorparellada.com

If you can make a dinner out of small plates, the Taller de Tapas branches, one at Plaça Sant Josep Oriol 9 (in the Gothic Quarter) and its sister on Argenteria 51 (in El Born) are wide open til midnight.
www.tallerdetapas.com

Because of the Sunday closings, we usually dine in the Eixample at one of our staples, such as the fantastic small plates restaurant, Alta Taberna Paco Meralgo (the kind of "Cal Pep" of the Eixample but takes reservations). It does reflect the very best of Barcelona. Worth the taxi ride, but extremely popular with the locals, so must reserve.
www.pacomeralgo.com

Hi Julie,
Missed your post while composing mine. Thanks for the ringing endorsement. Truly a wonderful place!!

i stumbled upon santa maria while looking for commerc 24. it's on carrer de commerc is quite nice. tasting menu is very diverse and i think they have another location as well.

This is the web for the two members of the "Santamanía" group, Santa María and Santa, with a map for their location in El Born. It appears that at least the newer one, Santa, is (or was) open on Sun. evening from 8:30 to midnight.

www.santamania.info/?page_id=10

Thanks so much for the responses! I will certainly try Paco Meralgo. Its great to have this forum and share experiences.