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One of the best parts of visiting Barcelona is the food. There’s tons of delicious fresh seafood and interesting local cuisine. Y and I go low budget on food. I mean, we want tasty, good food but not a fancy meal “experience” every night while traveling.

Savtadotty was our hero on this trip. The day before we left, this very “with it” woman sent me this article from the New York Times travel section. I printed it out and took it with me on the plane.

The article recommended a tapas bar called Irati. It’s located at 17 Cardenal Casanyes, a little road off of La Rambla. It’s a long bar covered with plates full of fresh and interesting tapas. I don’t even know exactly what I ate, but it was all good. Y and I ended up going there twice. On our first visit there we met this cute Belgian couple. We met the there by chance again the following night. The atmosphere is great at Irati - not too snobby, not too touristy. The food is fresh and you get to choose your own tapas. If you hang out long enough, hot items are brought out straight from the kitchen. In some other places you have to order tapas from a menu or by pointing. Here you just walk down the bar and pick up what ever you want. There is a good Spanish wine selection but Y and I stuck to sparkling mineral water. The bill is figured by counting up the toothpicks left on your plate from the tapas you ate. Each tapa was 1.60 euros. Irati is a great place to visit between lunch and your evening meal if you’re eating late.

We also visited the Mercat de la Boqueria. It’s the main open market in Barcelona. Y and I are used to the craziness of the Machne Yehuda market and Jerusalem. We were surprised to see the neatly staked fruits and vegetables. You’ll get a tsk! tsk! if you try to help yourself! There were no shouting vendors. This market was definitely non-kosher as coolers held pork, cheese and shellfish altogether! Gasp! Loads of yummy things to eat. We stocked up and had several picnics in our hotel room!

We also found a cute little cafe in a garden square in the El Raval district. It was appropriately called El Jardin. It had good coffee and a hip atmosphere with edgy, artist type folks. Plus it had a clean-ish, private potty!

No trip is complete without Chinese food! We ate at a good Chinese restaurant called Mandarin on the Ave Diagonal.

Check out how to get around in Barcelona.