missypie

My family of 5 - kids ages 16, 14 and 11 - will be visiting Barcelona in a month. We need some restaurant recommendations. Before you tell me, "Just do a search", I have. This board has lots of great Barcelona restaurant recommendations, but when I do further research, I see pictures of upscale, formal looking places which serve dishes that would seem awfully sophisticated to 2 of my 3 kids.

Any recommendations for good restaurants where I would be comfortable bringing my kids?

ter2000

I've nothing specific to offer but I will say that from my travels in Spain it seems to be the norm that families eat together in restaurants. Most restaurants are used to dealing with them - even down to the tiniest baby. I wouldn't beat yourself up too much about it - just drop in somewhere that looks nice and eat!

missypie

Ter, I keep reading on this board about families going every where in Barcelona, but when I look at the websites and see pictures of very upscale, modern decor, I just can't see my family there. Also, when the reviews mention a "hip, 30s crowd", I can just see them rolling their eyes when we enter.

ivee

Ok with kids of these ages I would go to the crowded and noisy but oh so spanish 'Cerveseria Catalana onCalle Mallorca/Rambla de Catalunya and just have loads of tapas, a meal that everyone can enjoy. The choice is terrific , have some portions of 'pata negra' which although relatively expensive compared to the rest, is just succulent and complete it which an assortment of tapas IMO success guanteed. The whole meal is reasonably priced. No reservations and you have to wait a bit or they take your name and you come back 15 min later but WORTH IT!!

Lexma90

I'm also collecting restaurant ideas for Barcelona, for our trip with our 11-year-old son (but since we go in May, I'll be waiting to see a trip report from your trip!). I got what look like good ideas on the chowhound and eGullet websites; in particular, a poster on chowhound named PBSF suggested restaurants in different categories, like modern (probably hip and 30s), traditional and tapas. Try looking there for restaurant. eGullet posters focus more on cutting-edge and/or formal cuisine, generally speaking, so chowhound may be better.

Our first night, we're probably going to eat at Can Culleretes; is that more of what you have in mind? (Though when I go to their website, they don't have a lot of pictures; maybe I found pictures of that restaurant somewhere else.) There's also a group of restaurants (all with the same owner) that look somewhat less formal, La Tramoia, Tenorio, El Trobador. The group's website is at grupcacheiro.com. These restaurants also serve food all day, so if you want to eat earlier than 9 pm, you'll be able to.

Also, the Boqueria parket has food counters - they don't sound exactly like restaurants, and the best of these, sounds like, is Pinotxo. Definitely informal!

One factor here, I think (because many restaurants look formal to me, too), is that restaurants, generally speaking, are a bit more formal in Europe. Especially in France, and possibly in Spain too, a restaurant than in the U.S. wouldn't have, for example, tableclothes and fabric napkins, will have that stuff in Europe. So they may look formal when you see a picture, but when you get there, you'll find that it's not as upscale and stuffy as the picture may make it seem. (The dishes themselves are another matter.)

Robert2533

For great sit-down tapas, I can highly recommend Bossborn, Pla de Palau, 13, with an excellent 12.90-euro lunch menu. Perfect with children.

For inexpensive dining, you can try the following:

Tapa Ç 24, Diputació, 269 at Passeig de Gràcia.

Any of the Trobador restaurants

For something a little more formal, but still reasonably priced and family friendly, you can check out the Restaurante Alba Granados.

You might also want to drop by Taverna Basca Irati, one of the few authentic Basque Pintxos bar/restaurants in the city. Inexpensive and great cuisine.

jgg

Great question missypie. Thanks for all the replies as this will be helpful for our trip next month!

laclaire

Unless a particular restaurant has a serious attitude problem, families are welcome and enter everywhere (though there are some that do not appreciate really casual attire).

I agree with Robert on everything except for Tapa Ç24. I do not like that place.

La Tramoia on Gran Via and Rambla de Catalunya is great for everyone.

I think that more than recommendations, what you need is to know that for every trendy 30-ish singles restaurant, there are 10 normal restaurants that are happy to serve families. You will never be more than 10 meters away from one if you are downtown. There are a million places. Also, let your feelings guide you. If you go in and feel like they are unhappy to see you, take your business next door where they will seat all five with a smile.

missypie

Thanks so much, everyone! I'm making notes.

MichelleY

Dear Missy:

We were in Barcelona last June. We had already spent 2 weeks visiting family in Lleida & Pamplona, so we were really tired of the Catalan tomato bread and Serrano-type ham with every meal. So we went to a place on the Ramblas, very touristy called La Poma. Recommended in the Rick Steves book. We had pizza & beer. It was sooo goooood! The next day we went back for lunch and had a salad and the fried calamari. Yum!!

My 13 yr old DD is a very picky eater, but was happy with seafood: shrimp, prawns. We usually ate anywhere that looked inviting and not fancy. Another RS rec, that looked homey was Restaurant Elisabets, Carrer Elisabets 2, west of the Ramblas.


Good luck and have fun!!!

MY

ekscrunchy

LaClaire and Robert, what is the local take on Los Caracoles? Do any locals eat there?

Robert2533

Haven't eaten there myself, but it's not unlike many of the places I ate at when I first visited Barcelona many years ago; chicken roasting in the window.

Locals eat there, otherwise it wouldn't remain in business long, but it has been "discovered" by tourist, somewhat affecting the original flavor.

Also, the prices are also a little more than what I'm willing to pay for that level of cuisine.

ekscrunchy

Thanks, Robert. For some reason it is very famous because it is, or was, so often mentioned in guidebooks. I ate there on my first trip to Barcelona many years ago and again a couple of years ago when I re-visited the city. It was fairly good; did not care all that much for the snails, though. I must say that the chickens did look tasty!

laclaire

I like Los Caracoles, but it is expensive for what it is and I only go when it is an expense account (which normally means I am taking someone out who wants real Spanish food. . . which they have).

In that area, la Fonda has won a lot of people over. It is quite nice, but Los Caracoles is still more fun.

missypie

Friday afternoon I assembled lots of recommendations and tried to find them on the map. There were a few streets that I couldn't even find on my Streetwise Barcelona map; others are located on very long streets...hard to figure out which end. I guess it's good that I'm finding out now that I won't necessarily just stumble onto lots of these places.

Nikki

You can locate an address in Barcelona with the following terrific tool from the Barcelona tourism website:

http://www.bcn.es/guia/welcomea.htm

Type the address in the space at the bottom of the page and click on search and it will locate the address on a detailed map that you can zoom in and out on and on which you can locate bus and metro lines as well as markets and other local features.

missypie

Thank you!!!

cd75

My husband and I were in Barcelona last week and had some great meals. I definitely agree with some other comments that restaurants might appear upscale, but there were a lot of babies and young kids almost everywhere we went. Here are some suggestions:
- Els Fanals: on Rambla de Catalunya near Las Ramblas. Pretty informal and reasonable with a menu in English
- La Locanda: near the Cathedral with great Italian food with an English menu. Once again, reasonable and not fancy.
- If you want good tapas, we found a lot of places on Passeig de Gracia. They have pictures on the menus and some places have the tapas sitting out for you to choose.
- Nonnell is also by the cathedral and maybe a little more formal, but not very expensive for good food.

Have a great time!

crosscheck

The winners with our kids were El Glop and Los Caracoles.

awayami2

bookmarking