Plaza Cataluña is a strange place. The absolute center of the city is so overwhelming that it seems impossible that it hides any secrets. A square is, by definition, an empty space, and the one in Catalonia is also, for whatever reason, a place more for passing through than for staying, a place where you don’t feel like staying and which acts more as a focus of pedestrian irradiation towards its surroundings than as a haven of peace in the maelstrom of the city center. In Plaza Cataluña you stay to go somewhere else, but you never go to Plaza Cataluña.
If we add to this the fact that the attractions that accumulate around the square are so obvious – Gaudí, La Rambla… – and their tributaries are so rounded – Passeo de Gracia, Portal del Angel… – the options are exhausted. In a plaza where two of the four sides are malls, is there anything to do besides shopping?
We think so, and we have written this article to show that, under the layers of obviousness of Plaza Cataluña, within a radius of less than two streets away, there are still many secrets that deserve to be told, and that can rescue us from the clutches of the whirlwind of the city’s kilometer zero. We leave them in this list hoping you will think of us when you are resting in one of them.
Eating at Rincón Leonés and Bar APZ, the guardians of the midday menu
We start with a real surprise. Are there any good, nice and cheap places left in Barcelona’s Zone zero? Yes, sir. Believe it or not, there is a world beyond Starbucks and Five Guys whose custodians are these two places that serve old-fashioned menus, at old-fashioned prices and written in white chalk on a blackboard.
On the way to Urquinaona, the Rincón Leonés and the APZ bar serve, for only 12 euros, gazpachos, homemade omelettes, snails, torrijas and, in general, portions of a reality that has disappeared in these parts, where today a nice place is more important than a plate of homemade food. So, if you want to feed the soul and not the insta, you know where to go.
📍 Lions Corner. C/Fontanella, 19.
📍 APZ Bar. C/ d’Estruc, 32.
Time travel in Santa Ana Church, the Plaza Cataluña of a thousand years ago
There is a strange corner of peace next to the square, to which many will have arrived by chance, or because someone told them “look, I know a place”. Next to the Hard Rock, an alleyway opens up that looks like a time tunnel, a passage to platform 9 and 3/4 that takes us from the chaos of Plaza Cataluña to the peace of a monastery almost a thousand years old.
It is the monastery of Santa Anna, a Romanesque vestige that has been hidden among the most commercial streets of the city, a jewel of a church that is an Asset of National Interest with a cloister that transports us to another era. The church is permanently open to homeless people, and functions as a field hospital, which is why you will see a sculpture, “Jesus Homeless”, in front of it, symbolizing a Christ sleeping on a street bench.
📍 Church of Sant Anna. C/ Santa Anna, 29.
Waking up with Dalston, good coffee to escape from the ice latte machiatto caramel
Don’t let the size of this tiny coffee shop fool you. Here they serve a premium specialty coffee roasted by themselves, and of course they also have pastries and sandwiches. Dalston was born in 2017 and today is a consolidated spot and essential stop for lovers of good coffee. Come in, enjoy its aroma and be advised by their baristas to prepare the coffee that best suits your palate. Because not everything is latte in this life.
📍 Carrer de les Ramelleres, 16
Going on a trip to China tasting the Catalan hot pot of Sabor Sichuan…
The escudella has been, is and will be Catalonia’s flagship soup. But the new Catalans bring new traditions and recipes, and one of the most widespread in the city lately thanks to the growing Chinese community is the Hot Pot, that form of Chinese soup in which a pot steams in the middle of the table while diners add all kinds of ingredients at will.
Hot-pots allow you to have more than one broth on the table to try different ingredients. Source: Wikimedia.commons
If you are already a fan of it, or if you haven’t tried it yet and you are curious about it, a few meters away from Plaza Cataluña there is a place where they prepare it. Sabor Sichuan, the original region of this way of eating, offers different types of broths and a huge amount of products to cook in them to travel to the other side of the world without leaving the center of Barcelona.
gran Via de le Corts Catalanes, 646
…or by buying the products to prepare it in Dong Fang, an authentic Chinese supermarket
Down with fast-fashion clothing purchases, up with purchases that take us to faraway lands. Dong Fang (and others such as the)is, like Sabor Sichuan, the result of a society that changes with its newcomers. Whether you knew that hot pot or not, here you will find everything you need to prepare this Chinese dish, and a few more.
Entire shelves dedicated to soy sauce, dozens of brands of frozen gyozas, a thousand tofus and shelves where you won’t understand what you’re buying. But that’s what adventure is all about too. Dare to come in and pick up at least one product you’ve never heard of before. Try it and you will be a little closer to a country so far away.
📍 Dong Fang. C/ Balmes, 6, 8.
Or change the ticket, to go to Ecuador at El Ñaño Balmes, the most famous Ecuadorian restaurant in the city
If instead of Asia, you’re more from South America, Plaza Cataluña also has a secret for you. El Ñaño Bellaterra is a success story in Barcelona, an Ecuadorian restaurant with tasty and hearty food that with an unbeatable lunch menu (for 15 euros two people can almost eat) has managed to open two locations in the city.
One of them is next to Plaza Catauña, and if you are looking for tasty and hearty food, this is your place. Their stews raise the dead, their soups rescue from any depression and their ceviches are in such high demand that they now go with suplements on the menu. Anyway, if you are hungry, don’t hesitate, Ñaño is a safe bet.
📍 Ñaño Balmes. C/Balmes, 8.
Get away from it all at the Comedia Cinemas and pay only 5 euros for the ticket
The Comedy Cinemas are no secret, and in fact, they are we already told you about them here but it never hurts to know that just a stone’s throw from Plaza Cataluña there is a movie theater where the tickets are always 5 euros, and where the billboard combines blockbusters with some more independent films.
By the way, as we already mentioned, the cinema is one of the meeting places for fans of all kinds of “geeky” movies, from the Lord of the Rings to the Harry Potter sequels. On those occasions, attendees dress up to enter and chant and shout during the film, so the show moves far beyond the screen.
Going Verde at Teresa Carles, one of the first vegetarians in the city
Located in one of the streets of the Raval, four steps away from Pelai street, Teresa Carles is probably the first important vegetarian restaurant in the area the many who have now opened their own in Barcelona. Its chef, Teresa Carles Borràs, has more than 35 years of experience behind the stove. Although without a doubt the hallmark of this restaurant is that it offers very good value for money.
At noon we can savor their menus, always prepared with seasonal products and mostly from Km 0. We find, for example, dishes such as spinach with coconut cream, raisins, pine nuts, poached egg and spiced pumpkin, or the plant-based roasted chicken cannelloni with gouda cheese. In short, a place of reference that we never tire of recommending.
📍 Jovellanos, 2
Fill up at La Esquina and say goodbye to the hamburger and hello to the sandwich
It has become a go-to place for upscale sandwiches and salads. One of those that have flavor, nourish and leave you satiated. A potential improvement they have experienced since their change of focus and reopening. Among its gems are the pulled pork, with Iberian pork ribs roasted 24 hours and accompanied by achiote mayonnaise; the pastrmi, with cheddar and pickled vegetables; or the katsu sando, versioned with tuna belly, La Esquina sauce, Japanese mayonnaise and braised romaine lettuce. Simply brutal.
They also maintain some of the classics: eggs benedict or royal, avocado toast and the bikini. The latter is another must try.
📍Bergara, 2
Looking at the original viewpoint in the center of Barcelona, at the Corte Inglés
The city has found a vein and has been filled with viewpoints from which to enjoy the city. There is one on the beach another in the Glòries Tower and just recently opened a new one right next to Plaza Cataluña, in Urquinaona, in what used to be the city’s first skyscraper.
But the original viewpoint, the first one that the people of Barcelona frequented in the center of the city, was the one at , the cafeteria of the Corte Inglés in Plaza Cataluña. There, on the top floor, one elevator ride away (and on top of a defunct building), there are magnificent views of the city that can be enjoyed with a coffee in hand, or simply by leaning out of the windows. Seeing the whirlwind downtown from the distance of this viewpoint is one of the best ways to get away from it without leaving it altogether.
Have a drink (or two) at L’Ovella Negra Rambles, the drinking house of a lifetime
A mythical, almost as mythical as the same square that serves as the fuse of this compilation. Dozens of young people gather here every night to celebrate with beer and their classic bags of popcorn. Any excuse will do. And if you know this mythical restaurant, you will surely also know its other location in Poblenou, a tasca located in an industrial building of almost 2,000 m2, one of the largest in Europe. Youthful, festive and inexpensive atmosphere. A must-have.