We were in bustling Barcelona visiting MOCO, the must see museum of modern art. I’ve done a previous blog post about it and we timed it just right so that we could squeeze in lunch before our return to Girona.
Barcelona is constantly buzzing, tourists are everywhere and it seems like it’s become a victim of its own success. This has led to locals becoming hyper critical of how it’s all playing out. If you live and work around certain parts, I can understand why the negative sentiment Is becoming the norm.
The wider issue of how to handle such overtourism is best left to local lawmakers and I have to sympathise with them somewhat, as in a smaller way we’ve seen what’s happened in Girona over the last decade.
I’m going to leave it there as it’s such a contentious issue. I should add that with the recent local and municipal elections in Spain changes may be afoot.
We wandered out of MOCO and very quickly ended up in a large square surrounded by bars and eateries. This is Born, a popular neighbourhood close to the old town and relatively central. It has a charming mix of small independent bijou boutiques worth browsing, interspersed with furniture stores full of vintage upcycled pieces and much more.
Restaurant Calabrasa caught our eye almost instantly, and it had an empty outdoor table. It’s still April but no problem with a light jacket. We had a shared starter of pulled pork, mains were a large cannelloni with mushrooms and an aged beef steak (photo below). I should add that I’ve often seen it listed on other menus as ‘aged cow’, a rather unfortunate literal translation that does it no favours.
I should add that Barcelona´s continued popularity has inevitably fed into the reality that eating out has become more expensive. Let’s add some context, for tourists that might seem reasonable but as long term residents, knowing what things cost it’s a different metric. It’s hard to shift those memories of dining as a family of four for 80-100 euros but the world has moved on.
Final bill for 2. With a bottle of white wine, one dessert and coffees came to 88€
Verdict. A couple of hours well spent, nice enough food, forget the cost, enjoy the moment and tomorrow’s another day.
