The Gothic Quarter in Barcelona is a fantastic high-walled maze, whilst the wide main roads make London's aged streets look too narrow for purpose once you step off them the alleys seem from a time forgotten back home. Dark and identical to the untrained eye one can lose muchos minutos meandering through them.
Post Tapas24 we found ourselves doing just that and stumbled across the kind of place you really wish you'd not eaten half an hour before finding - Babia. Whilst I'm sure the outer reaches of Barcelona are littered with local haunts that's not the feeling you usually get around Las Ramblas and Plaza Catalunya yet that's exactly how Babia felt. It was cramped, noisy with Catalan and people smoked while they ate, something I can't remember people doing in England even when it wasn't banned - it was perfect.
All the tables were gone but we managed to squeeze in at the bar and ordered a couple of cervezas, everyone else seemed to be eating so I scanned the menu for a name I didn't recognise and ordered some lacon, declining the potatoes we were offered with it having just eaten a full meal. Lacon turned out to be ham, which I should have known already, but it seems to be a different cut than in England, even if the cure is similar. It was tender and salty, bathed in olive oil with the sprinkling of paprika adding warmth. Pa amb tomaquet was fresh baguette rather than toast and very good. I wish I could tell you more but we really couldn't fit anything else in.
Just from our tiny nibble I can't recommend the place enough and it's well worth searching out, good luck finding it though as Google maps doesn't even seem to know the road.
Babia
Carrer Sagristan, 9,
08002 Barcelona
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