Early dinners in Barcelona and Spain in general
 

Hi all

Hoping to travel to Spain (most likely Barcelona) in September. I’ve been to Spain so I understand late lunch and late dinner. But now I have a 1 and 4 year old who simply won’t make it to late dinner time.

Can anyone tell me about what options we would have to eat out from say 6-7PM? Surely there is something, even if it’s not most restaurants. My thinking is having nice late lunches out and then eating whatever we can find in the evenings. We will stay in an apartment so alternative is cooking which sounds like a missed chance to eat more Spanish food.

thanks all.

Do not worry, you´ll find plenty of places where you will be able to have something to eat at that time, even if not a proper dinner or proper lunch. "Real" restaurants will not be open that early, and although it´s true that after the pandemic they are now opening earlier (you can now have a very early dinner at 0830pm in Bilbao, for example), we locals still like to go for dinner around 0930 or 10pm, even later. Lunch time (lunch is our most important meal of the day) starts around 0130 and finishes around 0330pm, with slight variations on this timing depending on the region.

I would say, as a Basque Spanish, that we do not understand why you have so early dinners! :) Do not be surprised either to see kids of the age of your kid up at late timings, more on weekends (it´s not that rare to see kids under 10 at midnight, with their parents)

Thanks, it seems maybe eating a nice late lunch and finding something small at our dinner time sounds possible. I very much enjoyed my time in Basque country and liked eating late - but now with kids we eat at 5:30PM and kids in bed at 7. Spanish people must find it very strange when they come here!

yes go for a late lunch, reservation best, and a snack before bed

or

get the kids to sleep at midday and move their day into two parts

only you will know which solution will work

Wow....when my kids were the age of yours they never went to bed earlier than 9pm...and on weekends we went out with them and they slept in their baby trolleys, for us it´s quite normal to be with kids until late at night...they are sleeping comfortably in any case!

I eat dinner later than many Americans but still earlier than most Spaniards. Since I have border-line hypoglycemia I can't leave it too late, so I usually "dine" on tapas. I imagine that would be more fun for the four year old, too, although you might need to find somewhere with tables.

The Asador de Aranda chain has several restaurants in Barcelona, really good lamb and ham, open nonstop.

Casa Lolea, like other tapas places, is open continuously.

There are even also pintxos bars in Barcelona.

As a proud Basque, I would never, ever, have that thing they call "pintxos" in Barcelona...