Barceloneta & the Ports

Can Solé

• Rated as: 4/5
• Price band: 4/4
• Critics choice

Founded in 1903, Can Solé is one of the city’s classic seafood restaurants, with a selection of rice and fideuà dishes that is perhaps the most extensive in Barceloneta. Their great speciality is creamy rice, a dish that achieves its most sublime form when made with Norwegian king crab.

La Mar Salada

• Price band: 3/4
• Critics choice

Chef Marc Singla has taken La Mar Salada beyond being just a typical paella restaurant. His lunchtime menu offers creative cuisine of the highest quality at affordable prices.

Negro Carbón

• Rated as: 3/5
• Critics choice

Tapas and tango is their motto. Apart from that, these Argentineans serve stupendous barbecued meat (it’s one of the few one of the few places in Barcelona that can be described as an authentic Argentinean parrilla), and generous burgers made from premium beef.

Santa Marta

• Price band: 1/4

At this lovely, laid-back bar by the sea, the Colombo twins from the Xemei restaurant serve special sandwiches (panini and tramezzini) that are very unlike the ones you normally find in Barcelona. They also have daily specials like cod mantecato and all kinds of Italian Venetian snacks. And they have spritz!

El Suquet de l'Almirall

• Rated as: 4/5
• Price band: 3/4
• Critics choice

Barceloneta’s true cuisine, as it should be – the best-known dishes are the cod fritters, but if they have baby squid, then grab a dish, quick!

Absenta

Ahhh, absinthe! The artificial paradise that produces monsters, and this chapel near the port is consecrated heart and liver to the worship of this beverage brewed by Lucifer himself. Dark, dusty, recycled and as disjointed as a bad trip – watch the

Zahara Cocktail Club

• Rated as: 4/5
• Critics choice

Nostalgic for summer? The smell of suntan lotion, the sight of women in only half a bikini and men wearing the same, the taste of sangria... Never fear: at Zahara Cocktail Club you can savor the tail end of the warmest season as if it were a

Station Barcelona

The cafeteria at the Estació de França is popular both with early-risers and all-night revellers. The decor resembles a kind of jazz club, with its four-metre high plants rising to the ceiling, and little tables with iron legs. During the day, it

Café de los Angelitos

The shelves are stocked with an excellent selection of whiskeys, rums and gins, and, happily, the waiters work with a contagious smile.

Bar Leo

• Rated as: 3/5

Bar patron Señora Leo doesn't mess around, which is why she took this old portside joint that served up fried fare and mini bottles of beer and transformed it into a shrine to the great Sevillian dancer and singer, Miguel Vargas Jiménez (a.k.a.

La Cova Fumada

• Price band: 2/4

An authentic family-run bodega, hugely popular with local workers, where you'll need to arrive early for a cramped and possibly shared table. Said to be the birthplace of the spicy potato bomba, La Cova Fumada also turns out a great tomato and onion salad, delicious chickpeas with morcilla (black pudding) and unbeatable marinated sardines.

El Vaso de Oro

The enormous popularity of this long, narrow cruise ship style bar tells you everything you need to know about the tapas, but it also means that he who hesitates is lost when it comes to ordering. Elbow out a space and demand, loudly, chorizitos, patatas bravas, solomillo (cubed steak) or atún (tuna, which here comes spicy). The beer (its storage, handling and pouring) is also a point of great pride.

L'Òstia

• Price band: 2/4
• Critics choice

Ex-financier Jaume Muedra has come home, and brought his mother's kitchen with him. He's set up a top-notch tapas bar featuring calamares, Russian salad, oxtail, fried fish... all first-class. It's a seaside tavern in Barceloneta with all the comforts of the twenty-first century.

Bar Electricitat

With its warm, neighbourhood feel, this bodega is one of the great vermouth classics in town. Aside from the house vermouth, it also features some of the city's best meat-and-potato bombas, tender potato omelettes, and a Russian salad that will make a fan out of anyone.

Jai-ca

Finding a space here on a Sunday for your aperitif might be difficult. Blame it on their delicious combo dishes and the fried tapas that are flavoursome but never greasy.

Vioko

• Critics choice

With an interior design that looks more like a clothes shop than an exclusive ice cream parlour, VIOKAT has more than 50 flavours of ice cream, some of them truly amazing. In winter they also serve chocolate delicacies and patisserie.

Negra y criminal

• Critics choice

As many labels as the genre has, noir fiction (novela negra in Spanish) is a term that doesn't even begin to encompass everything this bookshop has to offer. At Negra y Criminal, readers will find spy novels, real-life tales, cinema stories and essays, among the hard-boiled detective novels and more traditional noir forms we know and love.

I Love Kutchi

Warm colours, laughter and kutchi-kutchi. If you’re a child at heart and yearn for the fluffy, sweet, imaginary world that little ones love, don't miss a visit to I Love Kutchi. This shop in Barceloneta, masquerading as a haberdashery, stocks accessories and decorations for the whole family: a thermal pillow, an iPhone case made of tempting fabrics, a notebook with silkscreened covers or just a roll of washi tape. You’ll have a hard time leaving empty-handed.

Opium Mar

Opium Mar is not just a restaurant with a terrace on the shoreline, but it's also a nightclub for the beautiful people looking for a modern ambience with a touch of opulence. Next to the Hotel Arts and practically on the Barceloneta beach, it's in

LeKasBah

• Price band: 1/4

A musical venue that has taken its inspiration from Oriental décor to create a diaphanous atmosphere where you can enjoy a leisurely drink or something to eat (salads, burgers and snacks). On weekdays they hold parties and DJ sessions.

Eclipse Bar

• Price band: 2/4

Every Sunday, from 4pm onwards, the Eclipse Bar at the W Hotel serves a 'drunch' (high tea) made up of Asian dishes. You can try their dim sum – steamed rolls typical of Chinese cuisine – and excellent tea. Then round it all off with a good

CDLC

Carpe Diem Lounge Club, to give the venue its full name, remains at the forefront of Barcelona's splash-the-cash, see-and-be-seen celeb circuit: the white beds flanking the dancefloor, guarded by a clipboarded hostess, are perfect for showing

Club Catwalk

Maybe it's the name or maybe it's the location, but most of the Catwalk queue seems to think they're headed straight for the VIP room – that's crisp white collars and gold for the boys and short, short skirts for the girls. Inside it's suitably