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Bodega La Palma
Click here to view map I had walked by this corner restaurant many times, on a diagonal, skinny street that makes up one of the many in the Barrio Gotico. The first time I actually entered was upon needing a quick bottle of wine with some friends. This place reminds me of old, traditional Spain, or at least what I imagine it to be, which sometimes is normally feels very removed from cosmopolitan and trendy Barcelona. What I mean by 'traditional Spain' are dark wooden barrels of wine and sherry lining the wall, small tables, and even smaller Spanish people drinking coffee around them. The bottle of wine was good enough, and it satisfied us, but there's something to be said for getting a glass from the deep-brown barrels. I don't know what it is, but the second I see a waiter tilt the tap of a barrel and fill up a glass for me, I get a sense of the past, a past I was never part of. Nonetheless, it feels like I've known the bartender for years, we're old friends, and I've been invited into his home to try some of his family wine. I feel more familiarity with the wine when it comes out of a barrel and not a bottle. So this is exactly what I experienced the second time I went, when I ventured into barrel-wine and food. Onto the food: I got the bacalao a la llauna. I've found in Spain there's not much description of dishes on the menu (you might be asking right now, what is bacalao a la llauna, as I was), and I recommend the best way to pick out the food is to get up, go to the counter, and take a look for yourself. This is what I did and ended up with some pretty good salt cod in a tomato sauce, served with white beans. My friend was not so lucky, he ordered fried calamari, which I found a little average, except lacking even a little lemon wedge to liven it up. The meal ended with mel y mato (yogurt/goat ricotta-ish cheese served with honey), which is a simple dessert, but still very pleasing. The third time I went I had a bomba, pretty good, not the best, and some esqueixada which I found delicious (I promise, I don't normally eat this much salt cod, but it's pretty good at Bodega La Palma, the esqueixada salad of salt cod and tomatoes and onions followed suite). So, my final words: Nice atmosphere, pleasing wine, and decent food I'd go back for.

Address:

Carrer de la Palma de Sant Just, 7
08002

Area:

Gotico

Nearest Metro:

Jaume I

Opening times:

Price range:

Food types:

Tapas