Pension Estrada

It’s a small neighborhood café and bar, so it fills up quickly. Call ahead if you want to eat and need a table. The place has an older look but is clean, and the service is warm and welcoming. The set menu is good value, with generous portions and food that’s more than decent.

We weren’t happy with the guesthouse attached to the place. The room was barely big enough for two, and the furniture looked like it dated from the 1960s. It wasn’t especially clean or well cared for, so we left early.

Getting to the room meant climbing to the third floor, since there’s no elevator. The reception staff were very unfriendly. The room felt very old, with an uncomfortably tiny bathroom, and both the cleanliness and the general appearance were unpleasant.

The daily menu is €9 and comes with a starter and main, dessert or coffee, a drink, and bread. The home-style cooking was the best part for me, along with the friendly service. I haven’t eaten this well away from home in a while, it really felt like eating at home. There’s a terrace at the back facing a playground, lovely on a sunny day, and parking nearby is easy even though there’s none on site. It’s a café, restaurant, and hostel all together, with a bar that feels like it belongs to another time. The old-fashioned atmosphere is part of its character. A Barça fan club has also been meeting here to watch matches for years.