It would almost be a crime to go to Barcelona and not indulge in a tapas experience during your visit! We wanted to get off the beaten tourist track and ensure we experienced delicious, authentic tapas restaurants where the locals go, but are yet to be discovered by tourists! As this is easier said than done, we decided to book a Tapas Lover Tour with Food Lover Tour who are a great company in Barcelona that offer numerous different foodie experiences and we had a great evening with them exploring local cuisine, socialising and experiencing over 17 different types of amazing tapas!
The Food Lover Team are a passionate bunch of foodies from all different backgrounds all with the common goal of sharing their years of insider knowledge and experience to give visitors to Barcelona an delicious, authentic dining experience! Their experience and knowledge ensures they will take you to the most authentic tapas bars that serve food of the highest quality where locals go and that are undiscovered by tourists! They help you to enjoy a delicious, authentic evening of tapas that would be nearly impossible to discover on your own!
The meeting place for our tour was Gaudi’s La Pedrera, which is also known as Casa Mila and is located on Passeig de Gracia, a very central location in the city. There we met our friendly tour guide Matt and the rest of our tour which consisted of four Thai and four Americans along with Dan and I. Our group was really friendly and it was great to get to know more about everyone’s unique backgrounds over a shared tapas experience and a few glasses of wine and local beverages.
Our first venue, Casa Conxita, a discreet and stylish tapas bar was only a short stroll from La Pedrera. Matt explained that the tapas we were about to try reflected foods and produce from the mountain areas of Catalonia. We began with a fruity, fresh white wine which everyone in our group really enjoyed and then out came the many plates of tapas! Over the next hour we enjoyed crusty bread with tomato, delicious small, pork sausages, goats cheese, chicken and cheese croquettes and cured beef which was very similar to carpaccio. It was a great selection of tapas which paired perfectly with our wine and all the ingredients were fresh and full of flavour! By the time we left Casa Conxita everyone had gotten to know each other a little, we’d learnt a great deal about Spanish cuisine and tapas from Matt and of course, all the plates were empty!
Our second venue for the night was a very authentic, local tapas restaurant called De la Taverna Mediterranea and was located only a few blocks from Casa Conxita. The restaurant was very focused on seafood and was a very small, laid back restaurant that was filled with only locals! Here we were given a local Spanish drink called Vivendo which is served with white wine, brandy, lime and up to 30 different spices (each venue has their own recipe) which was really unique and a very smooth, delicious drink.
We were served a delicious selection of seafood tapas including smoky, paprika squid with chips, breaded, fried anchovies with a tomato salsa, mussels, a different type of tomato bread, flaked cod with scrambled egg and tiny, fried fish which were surprisingly delicious! The tapas were very different from the first venue and were a great selection of seafood tapas! Our favourites were the flaked cod with scrambled egg, tiny, fried fish and the squid which was packed full of flavour! It was great to try so many different types of tapas, including many that we would never have ordered for ourselves but which completely surprised us and we’d certainly order again if we were out on our own!
Feeling full-ish and very happy with our evening so far we walked about 15 minutes to our final destination for the night which was a really hip, cool venue called 2254. The owner is from Palermo in Italy and 2254 is the distance between Barcelona and Palermo which is pretty cool! The venue is a really modern and stylish restaurant that is extremely popular with locals for socialising! We loved the decor and use of plants on the walls and found 2254 to have a great, buzzing atmosphere! The restaurant also has an open kitchen so we could see the chefs preparing our delicious tapas literally metres away from us which we loved!
This third and final venue of our tapas tour consists of a proper gastronomic and gourmet dinner! To begin we had cava and a small starter of olives filled with a cherry liqueur which was really unique and delicious! Once we’d all finished our cava we moved onto a wonderful, local red wine which was very smooth and paired great with many of the tapas which were to come! Over the next two hours we indulged in potato and truffle soup, cannelloni pasta with salad, semi dried tomatoes, pesto and goats cheese, a smoked avocado mousse with anchovies with a caramel crust, goats cheese balls rolled in pistachio with rocket, salad and sunblushed tomatoes, pasta filled with a cod cream, boneless oxtail with red prawns and finished off with a delicious sweet muffin with a hazelnut cream centre and pistachio ice cream. Every plate of tapas was made using the freshest of ingredients and produce, presented beautifully and tasted amazing! Our favourites were the potato and truffle soup, goats cheese balls rolled in pistachio, cod cream pasta and the boneless oxtail with red prawns! 2254 is an amazing venue and their food is absolutely incredible. If and when we return to Barcelona we’ll certainly go back for more of their mouthwateringly good food.
We had such an incredible night on our Tapas Lover Tour! Food Lover Tour are an incredible company who really do give you a great insight into authentic, high quality local cuisine and we were lucky enough to try around 17 different plates of tapas throughout our night! The three venues that we went to were all incredibly different in terms of their tapas, decor and atmosphere and it was great to visit three such amazing venues. Food Lover Tour really do without a doubt choose the best local venues in the city! Our guide was really friendly and incredibly knowledgeable and it was evident that every single person on our tour had a fabulous night! Barcelona can be a tricky place to find authentic, high quality tapas and food that are off the tourist trail and so we’d highly recommend booking a tour with Food Lover Tour, our only regret was that we hadn’t booked it for our first night in town! They also run other food tours in addition to their tapas tours which you can read all about on their website and we’re already planning our next trip back to beautiful Barcelona to try their wine lovers tour!
Have you been to Barcelona? Tell us all about your favourite types of tapas! x
Find us: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | Google+ | Bloglovin
