I am interested in what type of food we would find in Barcelona. I really do not like to base my trip on being at certain restaurants at certain times. It isn't alway convenient. I have found that one oftens find good eats by serendipity. What are the local customs re food? Are tapas a common thing?

Dinner as a main meal at a well-known/trendy restaurant is generally only available after 9:30-10 PM, and many people eat later. If you want to eat in a place you read about in Conde Nast Traveler, better plan on a siesta.

Tapas are available all day.

Cafes generally serve hot food, snacks, or sandwiches most of the day.

Your great comfort is that eating places all post their menus outside. If you see people eating, you can find out what is available very easily.

Our favorite restaurant in Barcelona is Cerveseria Catalana. We ate there twice this past October & I highly recommend it. In October it was very busy & we typically had to wait an hour. We were usually seated for dinner about 11PM.

If you click on my name, you can read my trip report & I give names of other restaurants we enjoyed as well.

I am sure you will enjoy the tapas, sangria & gelato as much as we did!

For me, Commerc24 is the ultimative dining experience in Barcelona - refined Catalan cuisine, served as a multicourse dinner in very small, tapas-like servings.

For dessert, try the Catalan chocolate crème with olive oil and sea salt - a traditional Barcelona dish with surprising taste bud sensations!

http://comerc24.com.mialias.net/index.php?lang=eng

Thanks to Maribel who recommended this restaurant.

Barcelona is a cosmopolitan city, you can find a variety of restaurants. I certainly don't eat (at least enter a restaurant for dinner) after 9:30 pm, and had no problem finding plenty of places to eat dinner, and they weren't tapas places. I eat in casual restaurants (of course there are plenty of cafes or restaurants with outdoors seating, and all of those I saw were certainly open before 10 pm, what might be called a bistro in Paris, and they were open before 10 pm. I usually go around 8 or 8:30 pm and most were open at that hour, although some restaurants don't open until 9.

Here's an example of one place I liked, La Tramoia, they have a couple in Barcelona. They open at 7:30 pm, actually, for dinner. http://www.cacheirorestaurants.com/tramoia/

As noted, this is a cosmopolitan city filled with a variety of cuisine, and yes, serendipity works, but you should have a good idea of what to expect on your first visit. Here is the link to Maribel's Guide to dining in Barcelona (maribelsguides.com/mg_barcelona_dining.pdf). You might find it useful.

One of the differences you'll find in Spain is that food is an important part of life. In the Basque country there is an old saying, "to know how to eat is to know enough".

One of the more fattening, thus rewarding, eating experiences in Spain is to have churros y chocolate for breakfast. The Spanish are not big breakfast eaters, they save that for the rest of the day, but have churros y chocolate.

Here are a number of people's favorites:

http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.c...estaurant.html

I like:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaur...onia.html_____

There are many places to go tasca hopping. One of my favorites is around Placa del Pi.