Cervecería Catalana: variety, good quality and cheap tapas
Located near Passeig de Gràcia, you will certainly pass Cervecería Catalana on your way to visit some tourist spot, so why not drop in!
Cervecería Catalana, a really top tip!
In Barcelona and especially in the tourist areas it is difficult to find a tapas bar that is good, affordable and pretty at the same time, but Cervecería Catalana manages it!
The icing on the cake is that service is continuous from 8am (9am on the weekend) to 1:30am from Monday to Sunday. 
The different spaces in Cervecería Catalana
Cervecería Catalana is bigger than most of Barcelona’s tapas bars, so you will have a choice of various spaces to enjoy your tapas: the bar, the dining room or the terrace.
The bar
Two bars line the entrance. Eat here if there are fewer than 4 of you.
Sitting at the bar you can enjoy the incomparable view of all the tapas on offer, but you will also be tempted to try the whole range in this fresh colourful display.
Dining room
The restaurant is nicely decorated with wine bottles displayed against blue green walls.
Here a hostess will seat you, which is a good thing as Cervecería Catalana is almost always packed!
- Downside: the service here is not always up to scratch and some of our readers have complained about the unfriendliness of the staff.
- Our advice: Avoid coming between 2pm and 4pm and between 9pm and 11pm as these are peak busy times. Better to come at noon or 7pm. Otherwise be prepared to wait for a table, as it is impossible to book.
The terrace
If you prefer to enjoy your tapas in the fresh air there are a number of tables set in front of Cervecería Catalana, on the very busy Mallorca street.
Tapas and montaditos at the Cervecería Catalana
The classics
Cervecería Catalana offers a wide choice of classic and unusual tapas including croquetas, tortillas, montaditos (slices of bread with a tapa mounted on top) and toasts.
You can try the Catalan highlights here for around 2 euro per tapa.
Tapas of the day
The tapas are made with seasonal products. When I last visited, I went for parsley and garlic calamari, duck fillet with apple and liver and a montadito of grilled prawn. A treat!
If I had still been hungry I might have gone for the courgette, pepper and goat’s cheese mille-feuilles served in generous portions.
The tapas of the day are a little more sophisticated than the classic tapas so it costs a little more at around 5 euros each.
Seafood
At the bar you can also observe various raw seafood which they will cook for you on request, particularly lobster, squid, calamari and prawns.
Mixed Salads
To accompany your tapas, Cervecería Catalana offers various mixed salads made with vegetables, pasta or rice, as well as escalavidas, those pickled vegetables mentioned in our article on Catalan specialties.
Beers to wash down your tapas
As the name indicates (“cervesa” means beer in Catalan), Cervecería Catalana offers a great choice of Catalan, Spanish and international beers. The hard part for you is choosing one!
If you can’t find a space in Cervecería Catalana, you can try one of the other popular tapas bars near the Rambla Catalunya.
