Barcelona's Independent Review Website

Rabipelao
Click here to view map The ultimate happy hour bar in Barcelona - that sounds like such an advertising gimmick but I promise you, in many ways Rabipelao really is. First of all the drinks, from 9-12 every night, really are cheap: very good mojitos and caipirinhas at €3.50 and even the beer drops down 50 cents to €2. Most of all though is the fact that the bar really is very happy at this time (though for longer than an hour). Every night this funky little place fills to popping with those in the know. Rabipelao has been around forever. Ok, not literally, but for over a century, opened way back when by a bunch of Ecuadorians with a Latin influence you can still feel. The design of the bar is likeably shambolic. Street signs fight for wall space with modern art photography and strange artefacts. One end of the short room crams in a number of tables which quickly fill up but these are inaccessible anyway as the bar area is so packed. Outside of happy hour the drinks aren’t too badly priced either and the place takes on a totally different feel. The narrow corridor to the toilet becomes a tiny dance floor as people kick off their shoes pick up thief heels and get down to some salsa classics. You get some pretty good dancers down there but don’t feel put off if it’s not your thing, everyone is very friendly and I’ve made plenty of a spectacle of myself on many occasions without ever being told to stop dancing like a lost chicken. Young, friendly bilingual staff help finish up what is a truly cool, noisy and fun Gotico bar. A small note should be made of the €3.50 ¾ litre Heinekens which, whilst cheap, could have serious short term effects on not only your speech and vision, but perhaps your ability to stand still whilst salsa music is being played.