Barcelona tapa bars, restaurants, food markets

Barcelona is famous for many reasons including its delicious foods especially the tapas, and many fine restaurants as you will see in this food special on Barcelona, Spain. We will also bring you to a couple of the famous food markets including Mercat de la Boqueria. Will try our best to make you hungry.
What could be better than sitting at an outdoor restaurant in the old Gothic quarter of Barcelona at twilight enjoying some drinks and excellent foods? Or go inside to the bar enjoying the standup action right in front of the tapa counter.
We’re in restaurant Sagardi in the Born neighborhood of the Gothic quarter, one of the most popular spots in town. You can sit down and be served at a table or help yourself by eating at the bar. You just pick what you want, put them on a plate, eat them down and then pay for it later, typically three euro for a small dish.
While there are hundreds of tapa bars in Barcelona you also want to experience some of the fun restaurants, such as here in front of the Santa Caterina food market which has recently been rebuilt with this colorful undulating roofline.
Here you'll find the popular restaurant Cuines Santa Caterina which has a bar and some outdoor tables but the main restaurant is inside - that's where you want to be. It's hard to get a reservation so you have to book it had for the evening but at lunch you can generally just walk right in.
Conveniently next-door you've got the Santa Caterina food market where the restaurant gets some of their fresh produce. It's the oldest covered market in Barcelona originally opened in 1848 but recently renovated so that it's clean, modern and spacious.
Located a couple blocks east of the cathedral in La Ribera neighborhood close to El Born, this is a part of town that you really do want to explore.
Now we are going to Arcano, Montiel and Bar del Pla.
It's always good to do a little research to help you find a restaurant, such as watching this video.
But it's also nice to just wander around and see what looks good at the moment – find a place that is lively with people eating and looking like they're having fun and dive in.
Del Pla is one of those classic hole in the wall kind of joints where they've got just a narrow street frontage but it goes back inside, gets wider with room for lots of people. Walking around in the pedestrian lanes you'll find places like this on every other block – one of the reasons why Barcelona is so popular.
Arcano restaurant is located in a historic building part of which used to be a stable for horses back in the 17th century.
A few blocks over on the eastern edge of Born we found restaurant Montiel.
And for dessert or just a sweet treat while you're out walking around, this might catch your eye – churros dipped in Belgian chocolate.
Every city has a few special places where people gather together and to experience the noise, aroma, interaction and excitement. Very often you will find that the main food market is one of the most exciting destinations in town.
Occupying a city block filled with food and shoppers in the center of Barcelona, the Mercat de la Boqueria food market is a great public place that is fascinating anytime of the day from early morning until late in the afternoon.
The Mercat de la Boqueria is fully up and running by 7 AM and stays open throughout the day, making this a great place to hang out for a while.
This busy food hall comes to life quite early, but they're not really open for business to sell you anything until about 7 AM.
Even if you don't want any food and even if you have no interest in architectural history, just simply walking through this market is an adventure for your senses, passing row after row of perfectly displayed fruits and vegetables arranged by workers who really care about the visual impact, the color and aesthetics, while at the same time you are immersed in the bustling atmosphere of busy shoppers and merchants calling out their specials in booming Spanish tones to grab your attention.
There are so many food counters in here now serving up excellent meals that the Mercat has become more of a restaurant than a food market. It's really phenomenal how well it works here. You sit at the counter, look at the menu, talk to your waiter, look at the dishes behind the hot table, pretty easily decide what you want to eat. It's prepared right away and cooked for you right in front of your eyes.
long been a tradition here at the food market, kind of like a precursor to our modern food courts in our shopping malls except at the Boqueria the food is real food – it's cooked, it's delicious, it's wholesome and it's local and fresh.
Well this market is housed in an old-fashioned steel and glass structure that was first built in mid-19th century with an elaborate steel facade that was put up in the Modernista style about a century ago.
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