El Atril

Nice restaurant.
Shrimp tails fried in phillo dough –hubby loved it! The shrimp were sweet.
Salad with beets, papaya, cashew and citrus vinegarette… Really good and not overly sauced or anything.
Solid house wine and cava.
I would order those two items for a good meal or snack

Traveling about… no regrets with our stop at the busy Atril in Barcelona.
Order:
Cheese plater with the sweet onion marmalade 4.6
Ceviche 4.0
Smoked Salmon w/​Dates 4.2
Mussels 4.7
3 cheese bread 3.0
Aubergine + polenta 4.6
Service 5.0 (friendly and patient with our understanding of Spanish)

This place was amazing. The food was so delicious and prices were great. We order from the menu of the day. I was so impressed. You must come and try!!!

Because of the good reviews here, we decided to have dinner here. I ordered a piece of meat and it tasted good. Unfortunately it was a bit crowded and the waiter was all by himself. So we had to wait very very long for everything. 20 minutes for order taking, 40 minutes for the bill.
The restaurant also did not had very nice atmosphere.
I don’t recommend this place.

We stumbled upon El Atril by accident one of our first nights in Barcelona. We got one of the last tables they had and we’re excited to enjoy some Spanish tapas.
We ordered a pitcher of sangria. It packed a pretty good punch and would definitely recommend it.
We went with all the traditional tapas. We loved the calamari, potatas bravas, and tomato bread. Ordered quite a few more as well and we were happy with every other dish.
If you want some traditional tapas I would highly recommend Atril. Much better than any touristy restaurant you will go to.

Just finished a nice late night meal at El Atril. We arrived near closing time but the staff was kind enough to accommodate us.
Ordered the chorizo, shishito peppers, Cajun eggplant with cheesy polenta, and… kangaroo steak?! That last was a first (not an oxymoron). Interesting flavor, a bit gamey, but not all that different from beef.
But now I feel a bit guilty about eating the image in my head: a kangaroo wearing boxing gloves with a baby kangaroo in the pouch. Ah well… (Chomp, chomp, chomp)

We went to El Atril two times for lunch during our 5 day stay in Barcelona. We liked it because it’s outdoors, they have a pretty extensive menu, live music playing intermittently (nothing obnoxious) and it’s in a great location in El Born.
Here are our reviews of what we had over the course of our two visits:
(1) Cheese plate: very good, especially for the price!
(2) Tomato bread: decent, not the best
(3) Shishito peppers: very good!
(4) Iberian Jamon: it was okay; a little fatty for my taste
(5) Iberian Jamon on toast: much better, would recommend this over the plate of jamon
(6) House salad: this was OK; the tomatoes in it were very big and not cut into bite size pieces and kind of grossed me out
My boyfriend had sangria, which was decent, my wine was not great, but drinkable.
I think the first time we went, it was only our first true day in Spain, so without having much to compare it to, I felt it was very good. After returning on our last day in Spain, I was not as pleased, but would still recommend it.
I’d say go for Sunday brunch, or lunch, get drinks, cheese and the shishito peppers!

Pretty cute and cozy tapas place. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and feel like we could relax and take our time eating.
We sat outside and our server brought us over some menus. We ordered drinks and she took care of us pretty speedily.
I started with some sliced meat and a cheese plate. The cheese was very good and some of the best I had while in Spain.
For my meal, I ordered the butifarra sausage which was very tasty. It was hot and sliced, and wasn’t too salty. Sometimes sausage can be incredibly too salty so this was very welcome for me!
My sister got the guacamole and chips and the guacamole was VERY fresh. I’m not even a huge guacamole fan and I actually liked it here.
The prices were reasonable but it took or server a long time to bring us our check. She sort of disappeared for a while and then we finally found her and were on our way.
Definitely a good choice if you’re looking for simple but delicious tapas.

Fui a este local un lunes por la noche con un grupo de estudiantes norteamericanos y lo pasamos muy bien. Pedimos las patatas bravas, una tabla de quesos (manchego, de cabra y brie), pan con tomate, tacos de canguro con foie, jamón serrano, guacamole, patacones de plátano, mejillones estilo bélgica, y la ensalada de quinoa, y todo estaba muy bien. Los platos más destacados en mi opinión eran el jamón serrano que llevaba algo de pan con tomate (claro, estamos en España) y los tacos de canguro, que estaban muy tiernas y un poco con sabor a caza/​fuerte, pero que a mi me gustaron mucho. Los estudiantes estaban tan contentos con las patatas bravas y los patacones que tuvimos que pedir otras raciones de cada uno. Al final, nos sirvieron unas tartas para el postre, uno de zanahoria y otra de chocolate con café, y los dos eran ricos pero especialmente la segunda que estaba muy suculento, casi como algo de ganache o dulce de leche. Al final, era bastante barato especialmente teniendo en cuenta la zona, y la comida salí rapidísimo, como unos minutos después de que hicimos la pedida. Sugiero especialmente para grupos pequeños como lo mío. Las únicas sugerencias para el local: la salsa de las patatas bravas era, en mi opinión, demasiado de mayonesa y a mi me gusta más lo tradicional que sabe más picante y de líquido en vez de tan espeso. También, las mejillones (que salían en una cantidad grandísima!) podrían haber tenido más especias en el caldo para mejorar el sabor. Pero todo MUY BIEN!

Es un sitio para guiris, la terraza es bonita en la plaza, pero de comida es nada. El jamón Serrano no es de lo bueno pero lo pagas, mejor para tomar algo y buscar otro sitio para cenar

We stopped by here for a snack recently. I had cava and split the guacamole with my husband. The guacamole was meh. My husband had the sangria which looked promising but was just ok. He also had some chorizo or ham I believe but was not really impressed. Service was a bit slow compared to other places we have visited in Barcelona. I will say it is a good location to people watch. Overall a mediocre experience.

I have eaten at El Atril three times over the past month (two lunches and one dinner). It was wonderful each time. For lunch, I sat outside and had the menu of the day. The last visit I had a mussels appetizer. The broth was so good I soaked all my bread in it. The main course was bonita with vegetables. Excellent. The little square where they serve outdoors is pleasant and I was entertained by two different street performances, one a dance and the other music. At dinner, we sat inside and sampled a number of tapas. There is a very good variety in the menu and the service was attentive.

The good reviews here have been the main reason for us to stop at El Atril.
And honestly, I can’t confirm them.
I have been to Barcelona for days this time and we had good food and good service at restaurants. Sometimes even both at the same restaurant. Non of it we had at El Atril.
The athmosphere, the furniture is well choosen at the restaurant and it is located nicely at a square with chairs/​tables outside on two sides (street and square).
The food was mediocre. I’d recommend to leave out the tapas. Not a fair value. You can have much better tapas at other bars. But we can give a recommendation for the main dish with the mussels. They are tasty and the portion is quite big.
The service was lousy. Ok, we have been there «late» — but hey, we are in Spain. Dinner is not over at 8pm. And I expect at least a friendly waiter who acts annoyed the moment he/​she realizes that tourists with limited spanish skills are sitting in front of him/​her.
Customer is king — but not at this location.
We loced Barcelona and will come back very soon. But there are much better locations where you can have a good time and good food.

A cosy, romantic, peaceful spot with delicious, great value tapas.
We stayed for almost 3 hours and there was no rushing us out despite the place filling up. The waiter didn’t speak much English but communicated as best as he could with hand gestures and a warm smile!
We ordered the chorizo, the prawn rolls, the foie gras, the tomato bread and the garlic mushrooms (we’d been walking around all day and worked up a solid appetite!). The foie gras was one of the best I’ve ever had and the prawn rolls were fresh and crispy. To this we added a white chocolate and pistachio cheesecake which was so creamy, and the pistachio added a great edge.
The only reason this place doesn’t get 5 stars is because the place we ate in the night before was out of this world, which is probably a little unfair but Born is a competitive area. I’ll definitely be back next time in Barcelona.

Like most have said before, Barcelona does not have a shortage of «tapas» places to choose from and most being tourist traps at best, but this little hidden gem off the beaten path was a welcome surprise. Somewhat inconspicuous in its locale, as are often some of the best places to eat at, the experience here did not disappoint. The flavors within the dishes were superb. We had patatas bravas (cooked to a slight crisp with an amazing sauce drizzled over them), fried calamari (typical but still very good) and the salteado, which was heavenly. You will not be disappointed at all. And the prices were fair to boot!

You pass an endless number of tapas bars in Barcelona, it’s hard to know which to choose. I really enjoyed this one. The service was very, um, European (read: slow), but the dishes were great and a good bargain too.

Clean classic atmosphere in old city. Our server was great with good english (my Spanish is horrible). FUN and yummy tapas. I’ll dream of the salmon wrapped date with marscapone and a sesame oil drizzle. Really good sangria; mmm! Inexpensive and open while others were closed.

So delicious! Came here for lunch (which is a steal) and had the most outstanding seafood soup and pasta. A must try for authentic and amazing meal.

Super restaurant ! Tapas, entrées et plats, tout était excellent !

We stopped by twice and were pretty satisfied with the food and drinks both times. We got a few pretty standard dishes, patatas bravas, seranno peppers, and a few local hams, etc., and everything was rather good. They also had live music on one of the nights we were there. Cool spot. Worth a visit.

We floated into this place on a high of dance-​step-​following an amazing drum line from a nearby square. We were in a very positively charged happy place, and this place did NOT harsh our buzz.
On the contrary: the excellent atmosphere, delicious cold beer, warm service, and sublime tapas made us think it’s a whole wonderful world.
We were a hungry four, so we shared:
guacamole (fresh delicious!)
ceviche (same!)
kangaroo??? (yep! a… different…flavor, but glad we put it in our mouths!)
foie gras (not kidding! on toast, with a dab of sweetness? perfecto!)
patatas bravas (perfect patatas & THE BEST bravas sauce i’ve ever put in my mouth!)
I’m absolutely a fan and only wish I were able to pop in any ol time I fancied.

El Atril m’a laissé 2 souvenirs, un très bon et un plutôt moyen, alors je vais tenter de vous raconter les 2.
Premièrement El Atril est un restaurant Franco-​Catalan, ce qui fait que vous y trouverez des recettes Ibériques revisitées façon frenchy ou inversement, l’endroit est plutôt chic, la clientèle aussi, mais cela reste sympa et ouvert.
Ma première venue, sur conseil avisé concernait le Brunch du dimanche, et là ce fût un festival pour les papilles, ce n’était pas un brunch classique, mais un tarif unique pour une formule tout compris. 4 assiettes complètes, toutes différentes, ça tombait bien, nous étions 4, nous avons donc pris chacune d’entre elles que nous avons partagé. C’était fin, original, un juste mélange de saveurs, de plats locaux avec une touché de sud ouest, un régal, et la Sangria maison, était aussi à tomber.
Bref ce Brunch, était divin.
La deuxième visite se montra plus banale, des plats bons, mais sans plus, la sangria toujours très bonne, mais un ton en dessous, l’accueil cordial, mais plus expéditif, un bon moment, sans être subjugué.
El Atril c’est donc un excellente adresse si le brunch du dimanche reste le même, et sinon une adresse sympa, pour gouter des tapas avec un brin d’originalité.

Of all the hundreds of Tapas places I’ve tried in Spain, this is still one of my favorites.
When I first stumbled upon this place a couple of years ago, there was nothing in that courtyard except an old Roman wall, and little else. Now that square has several hip restaurants, and the area has a pretty good vibe.
I never ate inside, only outside on the patio. Prices were reasonable, service was relaxed and friendly. This is a keeper.
oh — i’m told that they also have live music on the weekend… I’ll have to try going there on a weekend night soon!