Paco Meralgo, Barcelona

On my most recent trip to Barcelona, we were there for both Sunday and Monday, which are nights when more than a few of the highly noted restaurants are closed.  In my research pre-trip I found a thread on Chowhound with the promising title 'Barcelona Restaurants Open Sunday and Monday', and found this to be an oft mentioned option.  We were to land in Barcelona at 1pm, having already immigrated into Europe while we were in Frankfurt, and the restaurant closed for lunch at 4pm, so I made a reservation for 3:15.  I was quite proud of myself because it involved calling Spain and communicating in Spanish,

all of which could have gone horribly wrong, but it didn't and they were expecting us when we arrived, jet lagged but ready to appreciate the tapas they had to offer.  Which were numerous and delicious, I must say.  We started with a Barcelona specialty, tomato bread.  It is prepared either with a special tool that shreds the inside of the tomato, so that it can then be spread onto toasted bread, or you can run a half a tomato repeatedly over the bread until only the skin remains.  If you use the tool, you get a much more even textured and finely textured tomato pulp.  You start by rubbing the bread with garlic cloves, and after applying the tomato, you can drizzle some high quality Spanish olive oil

it and you are good to go--the tomato bread here is well worth getting.  Another thing that Paco Meralgo is known for is their bombas, which are potato and meat balls with a spicy sauce over them--even if you only get one, they are well worth trying.  The third thing that is a 'must try' here is the small squid a la llauna--the preparation is native to Catalania and involves paprika, garlic, white wine and olive oil--delicious!  The patatas bravas are exceptionally notable here, and I never pass up cockles when they are on a menu, and the grilled cockles were quite good as well.