A small place on the edge of the Boqueria market, open on a Sunday even though the market was closed. We ordered tapas – good olives; one of those big old-fashioned Spanish salads which always seem to include hard boiled eggs, tinned tuna and tinned white asparagus but enough of the veggie stuff to make sure you get your “five a day” on one plate. We also ordered ham croquettes – four of them – quite hammy and a very decent quality. And a plate of chopitas – baby squid in a light, crispy batter. And a bit of a mistake – I thought their meat plates would be “ration” size – a mini main course. But, no, there’s two botifarra sausages , boiled potatoes and cannellini beans in a lovely tomato sauce. A lot to get through but someone’s got to clear the plates. That’d be me.
I’m sure you’ve already been… BUT if you haven’t, El Xampanyet was a place we returned to twice during the short 4 days we were in town 
It was the only place that had a salad (a very good heirloom tomato salad) on the menu. After 3 days of subsisting on fried everything, potatoes & jamon, this was a very welcome change. And the razor clams oh, my!
Nope. This was only my second visit to the city. The last was probably 20 years back before I’d developed any real interest in food.
Our annual trips to Spain are of the “fly & flop” variety to the touristy islands and costas. We were only having a couple of days in the city as we were off on a cruise and it was the only way of getting acceptable flight times from our local airport.
Mrs H reminds me that, on that earlier two night trip, we ate at the Restaurant Windsor which, in spite of it’s British sounding name, is very much “modern Catalan” in its cuisine. The other night was at one of the casual seafood places in Barceloneta - we were there when there was a major fiesta in the neighbourhood with bands and dancers from the various bars and restaurants parading round the area. Not exactly Tenerife’s Carnival but still good fun.
Well, if you have the chance to go - it’s a fabulous tapas place near the music hall & full of locals.
