If you want a simple meal in Barcelona that lifts your spirit, Bar Canete is a great place to go. This is a buzzy tapas bar that has no gimmicks – just good food, drinks and a fun atmosphere helped by an enthusiastic team. In a nutshell, it’s the ideal spot to come after a long day walking around.
We had a great time here, helped in large part by a our waiter David – great smile and jovial – reminding me a bit of Robin Williams. He makes good gin & tonics as well.
Sitting around the bar, we watched the food being prepared which also meant a lot of pointing on our part, as we wanted to add everything to our order, since it all looked good.
Some of the tapas we tried included fried ribbons of eggplant (Cordoban style aubergine) drizzled with honey. Simple but good. Their bread rubbed with tomato and garlic (Mossen Cinto de Folgueroles coca bread with tomato), a staple of most tapas, was also excellent. I could live on this. Alas, my regret was that we were still quite full from a huge lunch and didn’t want to eat too much carbs.
There are some specials and these are written down on a blackboard at the back of the bar. However, we ordered the fried artichoke because we saw it being prepared for someone else.
The fried fresh anchovies from Malaga were probably the best anchovies we had on our trip. We also tried the mixed fried seafood (in the featured photo to this blog) – Canete-style fried eel, prawns and others – which was also good but I thought the anchovies were better.
Not everything we had was fried. The baby squid sautéed with Santa Pau beans and our green bean, parmesan and pine nut salad were, I guess, some effort to add some healthier options – but hey, on holiday.
The “heaviest” tapas we had was a decadent foie gras with aged sirloin beef. The foie gras was a decent sized slab and cooked just nicely.
Among my favourites, because I happen to love runny eggs, was the fried eggs with Galician chorizo on french fries. What a happy combination. My kind of comfort food.
There are a few dessert options on the menu but among what we ordered, I think the best was the crispy battered bread served with vin santo. While it resembled french toast, the texture was much lighter. And best of all, it wasn’t too sweet – the vin santo is a nice balance.
Overall, if in Barcelona, I’d highly recommend Bar Canete. The only drawback is that reservations are a must. Otherwise, the queues can be long to get in. The online reservation system does work although it did take them a couple of days to respond. The other thing is that because there were six of us, they did ask for a deposit. And once there, we had to remind them to deduct it from our bill.
The most expensive item we had was the sirloin with foie at EUR23.75. We shared all the dishes and it came out to around EUR25 per person excluding drinks. Granted if you’re really hungry, you could probably squeeze in a few more items but I’d think you could really eat well here for less than EUR35 per person.
Just note that they have a restaurant adjacent, Canete Mantel, which is more formal and with food that is probably a bit more complex. Personally, I think the bar is more fun. Bar Canete is located in the El Raval area, off La Rambla and one block north of Palau Guell. It’s open all days except Sundays from 1pm to midnight.
For more info on Bar Canete and to reserve online: http://www.barcanete.com/en