El Born to Poble-sec, standing up, in roughly this sequence. Cash for the old ones.
7 places
Sit at the counter, do not ask for a menu, let them cook at you until you say stop. Clóchinas, fried artichokes, the tortilla. Get there when it opens or queue for an hour — both are fine.
Plaça de les Olles 8
Standing at a marble counter since the 1930s: house cava, marinated anchovies, cured meat, tiled walls. Ten minutes from the Picasso museum and a hundred years from it.
Carrer de Montcada 22
A room the size of a corridor, walls of bottles, everything from a tin and assembled on bread in front of you. The montadito with salmon, yoghurt and truffled honey is the one people fly in for.
Carrer del Poeta Cabanyes 25
The one on this list you can actually sit down at without it being a compromise. Order the ox-tail cannelloni and stop reading the rest of the menu.
Carrer de Montcada 2
El Born, always full, and the bravas are the correct kind — crisp, two sauces, no ketchup involved. Put your name down and drink outside while you wait.
Plaça Comercial, el Born
No sign on the door, lunchtime only, cash only, and the place where the bomba was invented. Potato ball, meat inside, fried, two sauces. Have two.
Carrer del Baluard 56
Everyone goes and it is still good, which is rarer than it sounds. Wait at the bar rather than for a table; the same food arrives twenty minutes sooner.
Carrer de Mallorca 236
Sign in to keep it too.
El Born to Poble-sec, standing up, in roughly this sequence. Cash for the old ones.