Barcelona’s Best Sandwiches

Stokepedia

We know you’re here in Spain (Catalunya!) and you want to be a super authentic globally responsible worldly traveller and only eat local food, but stop being so arrogant! Sandwiches totally count as authentic local cuisine, because the locals eat them, and they’re not just an American or English thing, you can get a great sandwich anywhere in the world. What a way to get your protein and your carbs and a little bit of vegetables and sometimes they’re greasy and salty, or they’re fresh and crispy, and you can get them lathered in sauce and multilayered or maybe just with one thing and fuck sandwiches are great!

So here’s a little list of some of the best sandwiches in Barcelona, it’s not exhaustive and new sandwich joints are popping up all the time (for a list of rad trips to do in and around Barcelona and from Barcelona why don’t you pay us a little visit).

Bo De B

For some reason this place is always packed with American students and the line snakes outside and sometimes around the corner because someone once told someone that this is the spot and now it’s attacked with gusto almost every day of the year. If you don’t know anywhere else this is a great place for a sandwich with marinated chicken or beef, and stuffed full of salad and olives and a slathering of salsa picante.

Pro tip: be like the American students and order a bocadillo de polla.

Al Atlas

This place is better than Bo De B as it’s cheaper, tastier, they put french fries on top of your sandwich and the queue is slightly shorter. It’s located on Rambla de Raval and is closed during ramadan because the proprietors are devout. Similar deal to Bo De Be, choose your meat and salad and away you go. Not so good if you adore pork because no pork here. Here, no pork.

Pro tip: a vegetable sandwich comes with tuna, a delicious underwater vegetable.

Que Bo

Shameless rip off of Bo De B, again with less people and the addition of fries to your sandwich and when it comes to good sandwiches shame doesn’t enter the equation. Que Bo is only a couple of streets behind the beach, so it’s probably the best geographic location to buy a sandwich and a tin of beer, before going swimming in your underwear.

Pro tip: try and obtain the mythical cow sandwich from either La Malandrina or Iguazú, legend has it that it’ll change the way you see the world.

Bacoa

This is a burger place, but what is a burger if it isn’t a circular meat sandwich. You’ll find Bacoas all over the city, which is why we included them in the list over the plethora of burger joints in Barcelona, and they really do the burger thing well, probably due to the proprietor being Australian and Aussies do everything fantastically. Organic beef, Spanish cheeses, artisan bread, and so on.

Pro tip: Australians are the greatest!

Can Paixano

This is the the famous Champaneria of Barcelona, as featured in our video guide to getting drunk in nice places, and aside from having the greatest cava in town they also serve up sandwiches — in fact the last time we were there some lunatic came in and ordered a sandwich by itself and didn’t treat himself to even a drop of deliciousness. The sandwiches are like what you’d get from a sports day, BBQ grilled bacon and/or sausage with melted cheese and/or bacon, and look, if you’re going to do the Champaneria any justice and knock down multiple bottlers then you’d be well advised to fill your stomach with one of these beforehand.

Pro tip: rosé cava, nothing but rosé cava for ever.

Bismilah Kebabish

Kebabs, the saviour of many an intoxicated night out in Barcelona, and Bismilah do the best. Don’t think too hard about what part of the animal makes the doner, just get in there and soak it in hummus and garlic sauce and some kind of chilli and devour it in three bites like the disappointing mess that you’ve become.

Pro tip: nom nom nom.

Chinese Sandwich Man

There are rumours that he’s not plying his delicious trade anymore, but the Chinese Sandwich Man used to lurk outside bars and clubs in the wee hours and fill our faces with utterly immemorable sandwiches — immemorable only due to our state of inebriation. All we remember is that they were the best fucken things since sliced bread was filled with meat and salad and that might be the inebriation talking, but what do you want from us at 5am?

Pro tip: if you see any Chinese men lurking outside nightclubs hold on to them and don’t let go until they produce a sandwich.

Tagged with: Barcelona, food Barcelona, Barcelona city guides, Barcelona sandwiches