Barcelona's Hotel Murmuri, on Rambla de Catalunya: The bar is quite the weekend scene.

by Ondine Cohane

My husband and I are just back from a full-out gastronomical dream in Barcelona with two of our closest friends, Jamie and Elizabeth, who live in London. I say "dream" because I ate so well and so often that when I woke up today it seemed unbelievable to have packed in so much eating in 36 hours.

First stop after landing in the early afternoon Saturday was Cal Pep, which is hands-down my favorite tapas bar in the city. Locals and insiders sit at the long counter drinking rosé and eating course after course of small plates of some of Barcelona's best food. In our sitting we managed to eat about seven courses, including delicate brothy baby clams, an incredible spicy baby squid and chickpea dish, a monkfish so tender it seemed to melt off the bone, and lightly battered fried whitebait with a fried egg on top. All of it was washed down with two bottles of local rosé, Ochoa Rosado de Lágrima from 2007. I can't believe how consistently excellent Cal Pep is. (The first year I went was 1998, and I return often, never to have a meal that isn't up to snuff.)

Then it was back to the Hotel Murmuri for a lengthy nap. The hotel opened a few months ago on Rambla de Catalunya and was designed by Kelly Hoppen, a well-known British interior designer who also happens to be Sienna Miller's stepmother. I particularly liked the bar area where we reconvened around nine--it's quite the scene on the weekends. Then it was off to meet Jamie and Elizabeth's friends at Inopia, a restaurant started a couple of years ago by Ferran Adria's younger brother, Alberto. (Ferran is Spain's most famous chef, but more on him later.)

Anyway, Inopia is currently one of Barcelona's hottest restaurants in the fashionable neighborhood of Sant Antoni; in fact, it is so popular that they have to set up a velvet rope to control the crowd. Ismael, one of Jamie and Elizabeth's friends, happens to be a chef with his own TV show and had snagged us the only table in the joint (otherwise you eat standing up or perched on a stool). I really liked the atmosphere (despite some of the most awful morgue-like lighting I have seen in a restaurant), with its big chalkboard menus and canteen-like kitchen. Even though the anchovies battered in lemon, sliced tuna belly, and lightly fried shrimp were excellent, Cal Pep retains its top spot in my tapas bar list (Jamie and Elizabeth agreed). But Inopia is still well worth checking out on your next trip to Barcelona.

Check the Daily Traveler tomorrow for more from Ondine's Spain trip.