Most authentic place, worth the wait to get your dish. Cavas and tapas are fresh and tasty, staff is great and friendly. Highly recommended.

If you are in Barcelona, do yourself a favor and come here, multiple times. El Xampanyet was the highlight of our dining experience in Barcelona. The house cava is amazing. Even better was the service. The gentleman behind the bar refilled my wine glass before I could swallow my last sip of wine. He refused to gather our plates until every morsel of cheese had been eaten. He even took us behind the bar to be included in our much obliged "selfie". We visited El Xampanyet twice during our 4 day stay. Both times the place was slammed, but we managed to squeeze into the bar area and munch on tapas, including chorizo, cheese, and salami. This place had the best vibes and envronment and is obviously favored by many. I even purchased one of the botas hanging outside as a souvenir. I cannot recommend this place enough. I will be coming back... read more

Grab a glass of wine from the bar, then be assertive and on the lookout for a table. Once you're seated service is pretty quick, food is amazing, and the Cava is cheap and delicious. Staff seemed pretty bi-lingual across the board, so if you're terrified by the all-Spanish menu they should be able to help you out. read more

Boisterous, friendly, and the cava flows freely. Oh man, is the cava good. You'll have to brave the crowds for a seat here but it's worth it. I can't recommend the canned seafood selection enough, particularly the boquerones, berberechos, and razor clams. The tortilla wasn't my jam but the asparagus was. Did I mention the cava? read more

While in Barcelona we ate here twice. This was one of our 3 favorite places we ate while visiting for 5 nights. The selection of tapas/pintxos were excellent, the staff was fantastic and the beer was cold. My girlfriend loved their wine selection as well. read more

My final meal while visiting Barcelona and it most certainly did not disappoint. I heard this was a great local spot and decided to check it out. I was able to grab a spot at the bar and the bartender basically told me what I should order and I allowed him to do so. Grilled octopus was a winner along with a seared steak dish. Tons of great small bites at the bar to sample. read more

So fun! Food amazing! Trust the server to help you order. Tourists and locals sharing a busy small place but they are efficient at getting people seated. Feels like an authentic Barcelona experience. read more

Great place, very authentic, my first time trying tapas, sardines are my favorite. Ordered a plate of Calamari, it was like heaven.

What a place!! Our servers took over and gave us the ultimate Catalan meal. One of my favorite meals in Barcelona. A true gem! Service was excellent, idk how they keep up with this happening tapas bar. It crowded, but oh so worth it! read more

It's a very nice bar right in the heart of Gothic district. Prices are not that cheap especially if you compare them to the Xampaneria, close by, but it's anyway a good choice and worth more than a visit. read more

Tapas five stars (read all other reviews). Just be prepared to fight dozens of people to place order. Then be ready to be stand shoulder to shoulder with all these people while you try and enjoy the great food! (3 stars). They could place a few tables outside. read more

Excellent. Grab some of their delicious tapas directly off the desk and absorb the unique atmosphere with a glass of Cava on the side. Value for money. read more

Just as everyone said. This place was great both in delicious tapas and atmosphere. We stood at the bar as it was crowded but being our first time at a tapas bar it worked out well. As a previous reviewer indicated, "If something is coming out of the kitchen and they offer it to you, take it." Our server asked if we like meat or fish, we said meat. Within 10-15 minutes we had a plate of pork and peppers and sausage and garbanzos. Both terrific. read more

Incredible spot, here you can find foreigners and even several locals! Tapas are great! Avoid the a-la carte menu, it is costly and is not even special. Try the local champagne, with less than 1,5€ you will have a glass of sweet and fruity wine! Service is fast and the waiters are noce! It definetely worth a try! read more

Top tapas If you only go to one bar in Barcelona (unlikely as that is), make it El Xampanyet. This tiny tiled zinc bar is a real slice of tradition. A family-run business, staff are super-friendly and happy to explain any of the huge range of delicious tapas lined up on the bar. Get there early - although watch out for the erratic opening hours - grab a table in the back bar, order a bottle of the house speciality cava, tuck in to a selection of pinchos and relax. read more

Very expensive and bad restaurant I´m spanish, i was in this bar, the last week, it´s was horrible experience. It´s very expensive and the food is very bad. take care with the bill because they dont give you the ticket. Dont go there never. read more

Man. This place was even better than I expected. We skipped the house cava and went for some of their other glass selections, which were fantastic. Their default rose is Raventos de Nit (which is no longer called cava, but that's another story), which is beautiful. And you can't beat it for 3 euro a glass! That's the same or less than the retail price in the US. We tried some of their pintxos and they were all delicious. We also ordered some garbanzos with veggies to try because they looked good on a nearby table, and they were so packed with flavor--delicious. I would've happily ordered more but we were planning to hop around a bit so we kept it light. We happened to get there right when they opened for the evening and there were a bunch of people (pretty much tourists, because what Spaniard eats at 7?) waiting to get in, so we figured why not? We managed to snag a table, which was a good call. We went up 2 at a time to the bar to order and pick pintxos. If you do that, make sure you let the bartender know you're all at one table so you don't mess up their tracking system. I felt bad for screwing them up a little. But no matter, it was all good. One of the servers we met spoke very good English. Definitely a terrific spot for quality wines and delicious food. I only regret not having enough time to go back one more time. read more

We could not understand the menu and our waiter did not speak a word of English--this was a major problem. The waiter pointed to already prepared tapas at the counter--strange little fish and bizarre meats. We settled on bread, cheese, and meat tapas. We finished the bread and meat before they brought out the cheese--would've been better together. All in all, the food was barely okay and not worth 25 euro. read more

This was our favorite tapas restaurant in Barcelona. So much so we ate here twice on our last trip and met amazing friends who we still stay in contact with. The Tapas are incredible and their homemade Cava is a must try. We have since send multiple friends and clients to El Xampanyet who were visiting Barcelona. This is a must stop. read more

Lucked into a table right away even though crowd was shoulder to shoulder. What we've read about waiters' powers of recollection is true. Great service, no menu in English but waiter assured us he would explain everything. Pinxtos with potato, crema and crumbled sausage, iberian jamon, marinated tuna, Spanish tortilla and smoked salmon with onions and chopped pickles. All delicious. A bottle of house-made cava. Steps away from the Picasso Museum. read more

Get the house cava. Get the stuffed red peppers. You won't regret it. This place is packed at night! So fun.

You know that documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi?" Well "Joe dreams of El Xampanyet!" While in town, my wife and I ate there twice in 5 days. It would have been 3 times had we not said we needed to try more things out. I can't stop thinking about their tapas, the people we met (staff, local and foreign). As of our second time, we figured out the system of ordering and when to go. Believe me, there is a right way and a wrong way to order. Everything is good! Everything! read more

This was place was so busy we were not able to get food. We loved the cava but recommend this places a great place to grab a drink but not dinner. read more

Delicious tapas - great staff. This place was recommended to us and it was great. We went for lunch and although it's very small got lucky with a table for two. The staff was helpful and walked us through some menu questions as it's not in english - not an issue at all. You can order tapas at the bar with some cava or sit at a table. Very busy with locals and tourists as it's located on the same block as the Picasso Museum. Every dish was better than the last - fried pork, sausage plate with chickpeas, grilled octopus, anchovies in vinegar - all amazing. read more

Actually we didn't try them but went here and they were on vacation. They should update their Yelp or website schedule since we traveled specifically looking for this place. Did eat at Tapeo across the way and it was fantastic so all ended well. read more

Nice Sardine tapas washed down with nice cava! Good location close to Picasso museum.

This place is amazing. We stalked it b/c we discovered the night before that Cal Pep and El Xampanyet are very popular. We got there before it opened and waited and got a great table. There were four of us and we had at least 12 tapas each one better than the last. The service was great, the atmosphere was invigorating and the wine and food were delicious. You can't beat this. read more

Great location near Picasso museum and great ambience. Very crowded and cramped place. Liked the food, but remember that this is a cold tapas place. What you see is what you get. Remember this is not a pose for you if you are looking for hot tapas read more

We were only in Barcelona for a few days (so I don't have a lot of places to compare) but this was amazing. My daughter had heard about it from a friend, and our expectations were exceeded. We didn't have to wait that long and we fairly demolished everything. What better recommendation can I give than to say that my daughter, who is a vegetarian/occasional pescatarian, scarfed down the jamón ibérico (Iberian ham)? There was no pressure to chow down and leave-- in fact, we were given more cava than we'd ordered. The sweetest part was that when we returned to Barcelona after a few days on the Costa Brava and ended up at Xampanyet again, the waiter recognized us from our previous visit. And the food was equally delicious the second time. If you don't speak Spanish (I'm fluent) just wander up to the counter and point at what looks good. Or pull up Google Translate on your phone. But really, it's hard to go wrong. read more