Sometimes you don’t have time to cook a nice home made breakfast, or time to have a paella on a sunny terrace by the sea. For that reason God invented the sandwich. Given that the sandwich is an invention for people who need to eat on the go, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be some stale meat between two pieces of plywood. For those of us from the South of Spain, finding a decent sandwich could become quite the adventure. But here in Catalunya, they keep the bread well lubricated with regional tomatoes and olive oil, an old tradition from when fresh bread was hard to come by. At the Bar Mendizabal they give you great sandwiches that don’t require too much investigation. All of the classic ingredients, like ham with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar, salmon + arugula + tomato + avocado + wasabi, feta + dried tomato + anchovy, all on toasted bread and put in the panini grill, to give us that gooey, crunchy flavor that we all love. Make sure to sit on their beautiful terrace when it’s warm enough and have your sandwich with one of their natural fruit juices, shakes, smoothies, or if you feel like catching a buzz, they have mojitos, caipirinhas, pina coladas, and many other favorites. They also have a great bar to stand at where you can share words with many from the colourful and diverse crowd of Raval. The bar Mendizabal has stayed with the same name since before the Franco era, despite his request to change it, so pay your respects to this classic institution!
Bar Mendizábal
Junta de Comerç, 2. Barcelona.
Mon-Thurs 08:00 – 24:00
Fri-Sat 08:00 – 01:00.
Price: 8-10€
Text: JW
Photos: Sonia Zaghbani
Translation: Brett Piron