Bar Pinotxo came highly recommended to The Astronomer and me by an army of trusty folks. From our college teammate Duncan to our food blogging friend Charles to our handy dandy guidebooks, everyone had the nicest things to say about this place.
Located in the wonderland that is the Mercat de la Boqueria, Bar Pinotxo is a fourteen seat tapas bar specializing in hearty Catalan cuisine. It’s the most famous of all the eateries inside the marketplace and is constantly buzzing, from six in the morning until it closes sometime around three in the afternoon.
On both of our visits to Bar Pinotxo, The Astronomer and I had to wait fifteen minutes for two of the coveted metal stools to open up. Although I would have preferred to have my name jotted down on a sheet of paper and then called out when my seats were ready, the hover-behind-diners-that-are-sipping-espressos strategy worked out quite well.
The food here is truly fabulous, but it’s Bar Pinotxo’s amiable owner that keeps diners coming back time and again. Always decked out in a pressed vest and dapper bow tie, Juanito Bayen made sure that we were well fed and well taken care of every time we pulled up a stool. Because the bar has no written menu, it was up to Mr. Bayen to suggest to us what to eat. He sells the daily specials in the same simplified manor as international flight attendants—“pescado or carne?”
