Sensi Tapas, Barcelona

When we were recently in Barcelona we stayed in the Bari Gotic--it is not the neighborhood with all the upscale famous restaurants, but it is the neighborhood that is the most fun to walk around in. When you decide to sty there, you opt out of having a cab be able to find your hotel--at least not easily.  So every other night we were there we opted to leave to get dinner, but one night we decided to stay nearby, and it was a bit of a challenge.

This place was packed when we went in at 10pm, so we elected to try a couple of other places--one of which decided that we were too far over the median age to serve food to us, and the other was done serving for the night, so we went back to this place, and just as we walked in, there were two places that opened up at the bar, and the head waiter, presumably assuming that we had been waiting since we first approached him, happily seated us.  It was a cozy place to sit, with a great view of the rest of the restaurant, a nice view of the kitchen, and so it worked out just right.  The menu is varied, and everything we had was very good.  I particularly liked the chorizo braised in beer--if I had been at all hungry when we finished our first round of orders, I would have had another of these.  The patatas bravas were excellent, although not unique--it is always a disappointment when these are not good, so it was a relief to have them be delicious.  The duck confit timbale was delicious, as was the braised pork tapa.  There was an Asian tapas menu that we completely stayed away from, but if I went back, I would give that a try, because everything we had was nicely done.