The Best Bars in Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera & around

You get in through the freezer door at the back of a pastrami shop, which tells you most of what you need to know about Paradiso's priorities. The narrow wood-panelled cocktail bar beyond it has a DJ, elaborate glassware that borders on theatrical, and a second secret room behind the bathroom mirror, because one hidden bar was apparently not enough. It sits at number four on the World's 50 Best Bars list.

1. The 50 #4 · The World's 50 Best Bars
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3. The 50 #9 · Europe's 50 Best Bars

Infusing jars line the walls and the menu is organized by production technique, which tells you everything about the kind of cocktail bar Dr. Stravinsky is. Fermentation and distillation are the house obsessions, so expect kombucha, kefir, and a vodka distilled with soil turning up in your glass. It has a spot on the World's 50 Best Bars list, and the lab-equipment decor makes that feel less surprising than it should.

1. The 50 #83 · The World's 50 Best Bars
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3. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Barcelona

A rotary evaporator behind the bar is either a red flag or a very good sign, and at this cocktail bar on an El Born corner, it's the latter. The team uses the lab-grade distiller to pull flavor from oyster shells, nachos, and roasted peppers, then serves the results in quietly classic glasses. Ranked among Europe's 50 Best Bars, Aldea drinks like a science project that remembered to be delicious.

1. The 50 #26 · Europe's 50 Best Bars
2. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

A cocktail bar in El Born that spent decades as Gimlet before the current team renamed it Marlowe, a nod to Raymond Chandler's gimlet-sipping detective. The Philip Marlowe connection is a bit of a wink given the original bar's legacy, and regulars still order gimlets even though the drink rotated off the quarterly menu. Small, unhurried, and staffed by people who clearly enjoy what they're doing.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery
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1. Difford's Guide 5 stars · Difford's Guide

Especiarium is a cocktail bar in El Born that builds its drinks around spices, which explains the Cardamom, served in a bowl shaped like the pod itself. The currykiri arrives crowned with a giant fruit vapor bubble that's best popped with your nose, at some risk of sneezing. The staff are chatty and unhurried, and nobody minds if you just want a Negroni in the low-ceilinged room, which stays busy without getting packed.

1. The Infatuation The Best Bars In Barcelona
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery
3. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

The wine bottles lining the walls aren't decoration so much as inventory, and on a busy night you'll be standing among them. This compact little wine bar sits across the square from Santa Maria del Mar, and the room is refreshingly scruffy for a place with a list this good, cavas and sherries alongside an eclectic international rotation. Grab a stool at the marble counter if one opens up; otherwise, glass in hand, you're on your feet.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A cocktail bar on the 26th floor of the W Hotel, with the kind of panoramic sweep across Barcelona that makes you forgive the scene happening around you. Ricardo Bofill handled the interiors, and the crowd arriving after dark is exactly who you'd expect. Go early enough to catch the sunset before the DJs and the queue in the lobby below make the whole thing feel like a very stylish inconvenience.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Blue-tiled walls, marble tables, and a zinc bar that has been pouring house cava since before anyone can remember: El Xampanyet is an old-school tapas bar on one of the prettiest streets in the Born. Anchovies in vinegar and fat green olives are the moves here, paired with cold glasses of cava. The kind of place where tourists and regulars agree for once, which is its own small miracle.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Wood paneling, a mahogany counter, worn seats, and a cut-out of a bowler-hatted man peeping through blinds: GMT lands somewhere between a Fleet Street pub and a noir detective's waiting room. The cocktail bar took its name from a shortening of Gimlet, not the time zone, which tells you something about how seriously they take the bit. Soft jazz and low lighting keep the mood intact for anyone who shows up in a trench coat, ironically or otherwise.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

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1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

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