The Best Bars in Barcelona: From Local Dives to Rooftops and Cocktail Lounges

While it’s certainly no secret, El Xampanyet is deserving of its wild popularity. The speciality here is cava, particularly the home-made El Xampanyet brand. The interior, if you’re lucky enough to find a space to sit inside, is chock-full of Catalan whimsy, including curios such as antique bottles and wine barrels, and artisanal blue-and-white tiles depicting historic pastoral scenes or witty sayings.

The number of places offering free tapas with a drink seem to be dwindling with the years – so when you find a place that still upholds the tradition, especially in Barcelona, you hold onto it. Gata Mala may mean “bad cat”, but there’s nothing bad about the quality of the food, with the same time and care put into the preparation of the free tapas as the main plates. The skirt steak is particularly popular here.

Do you like a dash of theatrical whimsy with your cocktails? Well you don’t need to be a private detective to find Marlowe Bar, named after the novelist Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled, tough talking protagonist, Philip Marlowe. The cocktails are on another level – often twisting classics into something special, like the old-fashioned made with rum, or the oaxacanite, a mezcal margarita with a dash of honey. And if you fancy yourself a budding crime crusader, Philip Marlowe’s favourite cocktail, the gimlet, is also on the menu.

For lovers of all things rock music, there is one dive bar that stands out above the rest: Psycho. Upstairs, the bar area is plastered with classic posters, from the Who to the White Stripes. The music covers everything from classic rock to punk – and its location, off the beaten track on the northern edge of Parc de Montjuïc, means that it’s a local hang-out. Live acts take to the stage downstairs and bring a raw energy to Psycho.

If you like a little cross-dressing with your cava, or a bit of drag with your dram, then LGBTQ-friendly Ocaña is the bar for you. Ocaña is named after painter, drag artist and counterculture stalwart José Pérez Ocaña. The interior design includes wooden-beam ceilings supported by Grecian columns, bare brick and naked-bulb lighting in an elegant pastiche of classical and 1950s New York sensibilities. Expect plenty of feathers, flowers and sequins.

The Barcelona jazz scene is hopping, but there’s nowhere quite like DJ Fred Guzzo’s eponymous bar in the lively El Born neighbourhood. The interior has a cosy, living-room vibe punctuated by mural psychedelia and jazz-hipster curios – think trumpets and old TVs. Live acts and impromptu jam sessions fill the air with Latin, flamenco, funk and jazz rhythms, while the menu leans towards gourmet, with great vegetarian options including veggie ceviche.

Many people arrive in Barcelona having never tried vermouth (spelled vermut locally). By the time you leave, you’ll be an expert. The fortified wine is very much in vogue here, and Bar Bodega Quimet specialises in it. The house vermouth is a great place to start, or the flights let you sample different types of vermouth from all over the Iberian Peninsula. If you’d like to pair your tipple with a bite to eat, the Galician octopus is delicious.

Sometimes, all you want is a classic, no-frills bar with friendly staff and a decent selection of drinks, and El Pinar offers just that. This authentic little bar feels unchanged in decades, and the wood-panelled interior and marble-topped bar are an old-school sepia melange. People come for the simple sandwiches – ham, cheese or pork – and a couple of small beers (cañas), served with a bowl of olives, before plunging back out into the narrow, sprawling streets of the Old Town.