Restaurant in Barcelona, Spain
Lunch-first tapas with real credentials.
Tapas 24 is Carles Abellán's OAD-recognised tapas bar in Eixample, ranked #312 in Casual Europe 2024. Booking is easy, walk-ins are viable at lunch, and the kitchen consistently outperforms the casual format. Best visited for a weekday midday meal — evenings get loud and competitive for space.
Tapas 24 has earned back-to-back recognition from Opinionated About Dining's Casual Europe list, landing at #312 in 2024 after a Highly Recommended nod in 2023. That's a meaningful signal in a city flooded with tapas options. Chef Carles Abellán runs a format that sits squarely between neighbourhood bar and destination dining — casual enough to drop into on a weekday, polished enough to recommend to someone who cares about what they're eating. If you've been once and enjoyed it, coming back for lunch midweek is the move.
Tapas 24 is open daily from noon to midnight, which gives you genuine flexibility , but the two dayparts deliver different experiences. Lunch, particularly Tuesday through Thursday, is when this place works leading. The energy is lower, the room is easier to sit in for a proper conversation, and you're less likely to be competing for space with tourists treating it as a bucket-list tick. The midday hours suit the format: smaller plates, a glass of wine or vermouth, no rush.
Evenings shift the mood considerably. After 8 PM on weekends the room gets loud , this is Eixample, and the neighbourhood draws a dense dinner crowd. If you're coming as a couple for a relaxed meal, a 7 PM arrival on a weeknight avoids the worst of the noise without sacrificing the evening atmosphere entirely. The 12 AM close means there's no need to rush regardless of when you arrive, but pace yourself: this is a high-turnover tapas format, not a long tasting menu.
The atmosphere at Tapas 24 runs warm and slightly cramped in the way that most Barcelona tapas bars do , which is to say, intentionally so. The sound level at peak hours is high; if you're planning a conversation-heavy dinner, earlier is better. The kitchen is rooted in Catalan tapas executed with more precision than the price point typically implies, which is what earns Abellán's operation its OAD recognition year after year.
Booking is direct , this is not a hard reservation to secure, which makes it a useful option when something more ambitious like Disfrutar or Lasarte isn't available on your dates. Walk-in availability, particularly at lunch, is realistic on weekdays.
Tapas 24 is located at Carrer de la Diputació, 269 in the Eixample district , well-positioned for anyone staying in central Barcelona. Open seven days a week, noon to midnight. No dress code beyond smart casual. Booking difficulty is low; same-week reservations are generally available. For full context on dining in the city, see our full Barcelona restaurants guide.
If you're building a broader Barcelona trip, our full Barcelona hotels guide covers where to stay by neighbourhood. For bars worth pairing with a Tapas 24 visit, our full Barcelona bars guide is the place to start, and our full Barcelona wineries guide covers the broader wine picture if you're interested in Catalan producers.
Other strong tapas options in the city worth knowing: Bar Cañete runs a similar format with arguably more room presence; Cerveceria Catalana is the easier walk-in option if you're nearby; El Xampanyet in El Born is the better choice if old-school cava and anchoas are your priority. For something further afield, El Faro de Cádiz and Ember Yard in London offer points of comparison for the wider tapas format. Within Spain, if you're extending the trip, Arzak in San Sebastián and Azurmendi in Larrabetzu represent the high end of what the country does with creative tasting formats, while Quique Dacosta in Dénia and El Celler de Can Roca in Girona are worth the journey if you're committed to the full Spanish food trip. Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria and Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María round out the tier for serious restaurant travellers.
For what's on near the venue, our full Barcelona experiences guide covers the broader Eixample area and beyond.
Quick reference: Tapas 24, Eixample, Barcelona. Open daily 12 pm–12 am. Booking: easy, walk-ins viable at lunch. Leading time: weekday lunch, 1–3 PM. Google rating: 3.8 from 4,329 reviews. OAD Casual Europe #312 (2024).
Lunch is the better call, particularly Tuesday to Thursday between 1 and 3 PM. The room is quieter, walk-ins are realistic, and the format , small plates, something to drink, no fixed end time , suits a midday pace well. Evenings work if you arrive before 8 PM on a weeknight, but weekend dinners get loud and crowded. If a relaxed meal matters to you, lunch wins.
This is a casual tapas bar with a more considered kitchen than most in the city , Carles Abellán's background gives the menu more precision than the price point suggests. It's not a long sit-down experience; expect a higher-turnover atmosphere, especially evenings. OAD has recognised it consecutively in 2023 and 2024, which gives you confidence it's not just coasting on reputation. Come hungry, order several plates, and don't expect silence after 8 PM.
The database doesn't include specific dish data, so naming dishes here would be speculation. What OAD's recognition signals is that the kitchen executes Catalan tapas with consistent quality. Ask staff what's running well that day , at a format like this, the kitchen's current strengths are usually something a server can tell you in 30 seconds. Avoid ordering everything at once; the format rewards pacing.
Smart casual is the appropriate level. This is Eixample, not El Born, so the crowd skews slightly put-together, but there's no dress code to worry about. Jeans and a clean shirt are fine for lunch or dinner. Don't overthink it.
It depends on what the occasion calls for. Tapas 24 is a strong choice for a birthday lunch or a low-key celebration where the focus is on good food and easy conversation. It's not the right venue for a milestone dinner requiring ceremony or a long wine list , for that, Cinc Sentits or Cocina Hermanos Torres are better options. But if the occasion is about food quality without formality, Tapas 24 delivers.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Tapas 24 | — | |
| Cocina Hermanos Torres | €€€€ | — |
| Disfrutar | €€€€ | — |
| Lasarte | €€€€ | — |
| Cinc Sentits | €€€€ | — |
| Enoteca Paco Pérez | €€€€ | — |
How Tapas 24 stacks up against the competition.
Come as you are — Tapas 24 is a neighbourhood tapas bar in Eixample, not a formal dining room. The OAD Casual Europe ranking signals exactly what the format is: relaxed, drop-in energy. Clean jeans and a shirt are entirely appropriate; you will not feel underdressed.
Lunch is the better call. The midday service tends to be less crowded, the pacing is easier, and the value-to-experience ratio runs higher than during peak dinner hours. Tapas 24 is open daily from noon to midnight, so you have room to time it right — aim for a weekday lunch if you want the least friction.
This is chef Carles Abellán's more accessible address — a tapas bar rather than a destination tasting-menu restaurant. Opinionated About Dining ranked it #312 on its Casual Europe list in 2024, following a Highly Recommended in 2023, which confirms it punches above the average tourist-area tapas bar. Go without a rigid plan, order a few plates at a time, and expect a warm but compact room.
Specific menu items are not documented in our current data, so we won't invent them. What is clear is that the kitchen is backed by Carles Abellán and has earned back-to-back OAD recognition — meaning the cooking is taken seriously. Ask the server what's running well that day; at a tapas bar operating at this level, that's genuinely useful advice rather than a deflection.
Only if your idea of a special occasion is relaxed and informal. The OAD Casual Europe credential tells you the room and format are decidedly low-key — this is not a place to mark a milestone birthday with a formal dinner. For a celebration that calls for ceremony, Lasarte or Cinc Sentits are better fits. Tapas 24 is the right call for a celebratory long lunch where the food quality matters but the production does not.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
