Café Barcelona

Reallly nice vibe and music. Locals were cool and didn’t have to wait too long. there’s a lot of other bars around there and hang out spots too. Good location, not far from things.

I really thought I was going to be pleasantly surprised.
My friends and I were stumped for dinner/​drinks options on a Friday night, and thought we’d take a walk down Granville for some reason. We noticed Café Barcelona and everyone stopped as if to collectively state an agreement on the venue.
The décor is nice, the exterior is inviting, and shines like a star on an otherwise dingy block.
The menu appears to be good, but don’t be fooled.
Most of what we ordered was mediocre. The pulpos were a bit too chewy, the eggplant pepper and goat cheese was a soggy mess, and the albondigas were bland. On the other hand, the patatas bravas were quite good. Normally I can live with a couple of misses on the menu, but it’s the drinks that made us run back to Granville street. My honey lager was warm. The sangria was a fruitless affair. Get it? Fruitless? The one piece of fruit that was found in the three glasses seemed to be an old piece of apple.
We waited an additional 25 minutes for our bill before I finally got up and went to the cash register to settle up. For good.

They took the foie off the menu.
And when asked about it, the endearing waitress says «Foie? Are you sure you’re in the right place? Foie gras is FRENCH»
Lovely service, I’ll take my money elsewhere.

Not enough food comes with your order! Being a vegetarian, I didn’t see enough options. I had the eggplant and the potatoes with tomato sauce. It was simple and good, sure, but listen, that’s a tiny appetizer. It was just a piece of bread with some amazing eggplant on it. I was really hungry and since I didn’t want all the other things, that was it for me. I’m not really big on sausages or octopus or fish, so where does that leave me? I guess this is the nature of traditional Spanish dishes, but there it is.
And if this place is so authentically Spanish, explain this! Their white sangria was incredibly weak and boring. It tasted like 7up and water.
No thanks.

Came here last night for the open mic show. The music was fantastic. The food, on the other hand, was average. Nothing was wrong with it, but nothing was worth writing home about, you know? Yet I am at home, writing about it to you. Weird.
We sampled:
The potatoes (crispy, bite-​sized chunks mixed with tomato sauce. Very simple… too simple for my liking)
The eggplant with goat cheese (tasty enough, but not amazing. $ 7.50)
The chorizo (four bland, small sausages for $ 11. Not worth it)
The sangria. (good)
In honor of some rockers birthday (Billy Idol maybe?), there were a lot of cover songs, but the covers were great! We were all singing along and getting our cheese on.
The place was extremely short-​staffed for the night, but in fairness, they are usually not very busy on Tuesdays, so I hear. Our group took up half of the restaurant and we were all happy with the pace of the service. The lone server was fabulous and I give her serious props. It’s not an easy job!
Hope you enjoyed my letter about the food…

ouch, this place is rough… let me tell you a story:
We ended up there during one rainy Saturday evening as we wandered Granville.
We ordered a couple dishes and a pitcher of sangria. The place was not busy at all, and frankly it’s not that large a place.
The service was pretty bad, while the food came out quickly we found ourselves without cutlery, napkins, or enough bread (3 pieces of bread for 2 dishes). Getting those items took multiple requests and still took awhile… and we watched the staff ignore us /​socialize behind the bar which was right beside us.
When the bill came, they charged for extra bread ($ 2) — it’s not about the money, more that they took forever to acknowledge our order and then did not inform us that the bread was extra $…
The sangria was really weak which didn’t help wash down this bad experience and the bland food.

Café Barcelona serves good, simple Spanish tapas. The servers were nice and friendly. Went there with a couple of girls and had a really nice time. The sangria was nice but could use a bit more fruit in there. The potato omelet served on tasted was really nice. Enjoyed eating the big moist meatballs but the mussels were on the tiny side. Would definetely go back again.

* Casual tapas spot *
This is a very casual spot which makes for a nice place to grab a drink and some snacks, or perhaps even more than just snacks (shhhh…don’t tell!).
We had a pitcher of white sangria, which had a pleasant seasonal twist with frozen blueberries inside of it! They worked really well.
We also snacked on:
— Gambas ajillo: The prawns were cooked nicely and the toasted garlic was absolutely lovely.
— Patatas bravas: The potatoes were nice and crunchy and freshly out of the fry pan. The sauce was a bit mild for my taste, but it was complemented with with an allioli which punched up the dish.
— Jamon croquettas: These were nicely fried without being oily at all. They were not as creamy as you might expect, but tasty nevertheless.
— Cabro con piquillo: The goat cheese had a nice creamy texture and the saltiness of the anchovies really worked well with the piquillo pepper.
— Tortilla de patatas: The potato and onion omelette was delicious. The tomato bread it was served on was a bit soggy from the sauce though.
— Pimientos rellenos: The sweetness of the pepper contrasted nicely with the cod bechamel. The sauce was the type you just want to soak up with pieces of bread. Delicious.
— Ensalada Barcelona: The salad was a bit over dressed, but very fresh produce and the dressing (had it been applied a little less liberally) was nice.
Overall a very casual spot, and fairly inexpensive with most of the tapas and pintxos ranging in price from $ 1.75 to about $ 6.50 (with a few dishes above that).
We’ll be back!

Being of Latin origin, I clearly felt the need to explore this place and be among my spanish-​speaking brethren. I headed here for the first time to watch the Argentina-​Mexico World Cup match.
I loved that they had a little menu of specialty breakfasts for the game: one savoury and one sweet. I had both the churros (yum!) and the tortilla de papas (double yum). My only complaint here was that they ran out of chorizo so I was given ham croquettes– still tasty, but I had my heart set on chorizo and they ran out at 12:00pm!
The atmosphere in this place was fantastic. I know it’s probably because it was the world cup — but in the 20 yrs I’ve lived here, I have never bumped into so much as one other Argentinean. Café Barcelona introduced me to about 10 all at once, and we all banded together to chant and cheer for our boys.
It was amazing to see the bar split down the centre, with one side Mexico, and one side Argentina. Sangria flowed freely (who says you can’t drink in the morning?), and a good time overall was had.
I like this place — I’m going to come back and have tapas and enjoy that it has a latin vibe. But I think my good time was more dependent on circumstances than the bar itself. There was only one server for the entire pub — which, as I mentioned, was filled to capacity (they were turning people away). He (quite rightly) was getting his feathers ruffled by being forced to serve a full bar of rowdy south and central americans (he was English, they had just that morning been knocked out of the World Cup; double burn).
So, to sum up:
Good:
— atmosphere
— food
— sangria
— clientele (if you like being around other latin people!)
Bad:
— grumpy /​not enough serving staff
— poor planning on quantity of food. Running out before lunch is not cool!

Went to Café Barcelona before the Opera last week. It is a great place for dinner before a show. The atmostphere is great with the authentic feeling of Barcelona and the Basque region — right down to the napkin holders.
The Escalavida, with roasted peppers, eggplant and goat cheese was fantastic and the gambas was cooked to perfection. Will cetainly be back!

Early reviews weren’t all that nice. I chalk it up to a rough start.
A bit expensive for what you get, but hey, this is Vancouver. When is anything cheap here? So suck it up.
Friendly staff and had personal service (we were the only ones there). It was very early and we were trying to catch a movie, so no worries on that. And with the Canucks/​Blackhawks game on, this probably isn’t on the hitlist of places to go.
I hadn’t been to a tapas restaurant since living in California a few years ago, so my judgment may be clouded.
Sangria was good. I really don’t like it when it is too sweet as it gives me a headache.
Gambas was perfect. Nicely crisped on the outside and still tender on the inside. I’m always a sucker for good patatas bravas. The pulpo a la gallega was tasty (if you like octopus). And overall the tapas were solid.
What stood out was the tortilla de patatas. Yes, it isn’t exactly an innovative dish, but you really don’t see that in many tapas restaurants in North America. If only more restaurants would avoid watering down what are considered staples in the orginating country.
Again, we hadn’t been to a tapas restuarant in awhile and we essentially had personal service, but I still plan to go again.

Came here with 2 other couples for my fiancé’s Birthday night out… Was the 1^st time coming but we had been to Barcelona in the fall and had it still fresh in our minds… It did not disappoint us at all!!! Great service, wicked Sangeria and the food was hot, tasty!!! Recommend the Crocetas for sure!!!
As someone who has an Executive Chef (27 years) for an Uncle, I feel I know good food when I taste it! Price was actually not bad, on par with Barcelona prices we paid for there… We I go back??? Totally!!!

Hmm I felt bad being the first to review then seeing 1 star ratings… so I vowed to go back and not let sangria cloud my judgement of the place as much! So we went back during the Olympics because everywhere else on Granville had a huge lineup. We got a table, service was super quick with our drinks and food orders — things kept coming.
And the verdict… is…I STILL LOVE THIS PLACE and deserves every star I’ve given. The tapas are reasonably priced, authentic and delicious! They have new items on the menu now — love the Calamari and Mussels. The Sangria still gets me happy (oh no… did it sway my judgement again?). Definitely recommend this place!

I really wanted to like this place, I really did. I was excited to try it out. We went a week or two after it opened, the week after Xmas. 5 of us went. When we were seated a heater hooked up to a propane tank was blowing my head off. They turned it off, and our table was happy as the propane tank made everyone a little uneasy!
The place is small. As I was facing the window outside I didn’t observe too much else in the place. When I had to use the washroom I did notice it had a terrible odor in it, like something nasty embedded somewhere in there.
Onto the food. We pretty much ordered most of the menu. What was impressive were the croquettes and the sausages. There was no meat items on the menu except the sausages. The tuna was downright bad, tasting like an old tuna sandwich made with miracle whip! After trying most of the menu including dessert, I have to say I was disappointed. Our bill was $ 40 each including tip which I find pricey — not including alcohol! That’s $ 200 for food alone for five. We should have had full tummies! My friend said she was not full and I in fact too ate later when I got home. My two glasses of rioja were another $ 20.
I’m not sure if I’ll return or not… it did not make a good first impression!