First stop for food in Barcelona. At first I was slightly nervous about dining in the Arenas de Barcelona shopping center with no Yelpy guidance, but sometimes we have to be adventurous, right? My friend and I had arrived early in Barcelona (10:00 am) and boy, were we HUNGRY. We had explored the entire shopping center and this was one of the only restaurants open before 1:00 pm.
The server was very friendly and did her best to help us despite only a slight proficiency in English. She was awesome though! What we couldn't understand of each other we communicated through hand signals.
Since this restaurant happened to serve salad and I had visions of whopping portions of paella, seafood, and tapas (which are usually accompanied by bread), I decided I'd go healthy while I still could. And good thing, because this ended up being the only healthy meal I had in Spain. I got the **Ensalada Especial** which came with mushrooms, tomatoes, and sesame dressing and I added on some chicken for an extra euro. My friend got the **Spaghetti Bolognese** which was your basic pasta dish with meat sauce. We also decided to split a small plate of **Beef Carpaccio** since we knew Spain loves their thinly sliced meats.
The food tasted great, especially being the first meal after almost a day of being on an airplane. Prices are reasonable at 10-12 euro for a combo including a drink. My water counted as a combo drink -- don't forget that they don't serve tap water in Spain, so you have to buy bottled water everywhere you go! As with most restaurants in Spain, they also serve coffee.
IMPORTANT TIP: Food portions here are tiny, especially for two hungry Americans who JUST arrived in Spain. After a small plate and two dishes, we were still pretty hungry and almost ordered 2 more entrees! We didn't want to feel like pigs though, so we went somewhere else for snacks. read more