Upper Lounge Bar - Restaurante Sarrià

If you’ve spent the last three days dodging human statues on La Rambla and getting elbowed in the ribs at La Boqueria, you might start to think Barcelona is nothing but a beautiful, crowded fever dream. But there is another version of this city. You have to go up. Past the Diagonal, into the land of wide boulevards, manicured trees, and the kind of quiet wealth that doesn’t need to shout. This is Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, and tucked into the ground floor of the Hotel Upper Diagonal is the Upper Lounge Bar—a place that feels less like a tourist trap and more like a surgical strike of Mediterranean cool.

Let’s be honest: hotel bars are usually where souls go to die in exchange for a club sandwich and a lukewarm Heineken. But Upper Lounge Bar isn’t playing that game. It’s a sleek, glass-fronted sanctuary that understands exactly what it is. It’s the neighborhood living room for the Pedralbes elite and the weary traveler who just wants a damn good meal without the performance art of 'authentic' rustic charm. The vibe is unapologetically modern—clean lines, soft lighting, and a terrace that is, quite frankly, the only place you’ll want to be when the sun starts to dip.

The menu is a bit of a schizophrenic masterpiece, a high-wire act between traditional Spanish tapas and Japanese precision. In a lesser kitchen, this would be a disaster—a desperate attempt to please everyone that ends up pleasing no one. But here, it works. You can start with patatas bravas that actually respect the potato—crispy, golden cubes that haven't been sitting under a heat lamp since the mid-nineties—and then pivot immediately to a spicy tuna tartare or a platter of nigiri that would hold its own in a dedicated sushi den. It’s fusion without the pretension, a 'greatest hits' of global cravings executed with a level of care that justifies the 'Upper' in the name.

What really sells this place, though, is the atmosphere. It’s the 'Upper Diagonal' lifestyle in a nutshell. You’ll see local professionals decompressing over gin and tonics served in glasses the size of fishbowls, and families who look like they just stepped out of a high-end fashion editorial sharing plates of croquetas. There’s a lack of desperation here. The service is professional, polished, and mercifully devoid of the frantic energy found in the city center. They aren't trying to flip your table in forty-five minutes; they expect you to linger.

Is it 'raw' Barcelona? No. You won’t find sawdust on the floor or a surly waiter shouting orders over a grease-stained counter. But that’s the point. Sometimes you don't want the struggle. Sometimes you want a comfortable chair, a breeze on the terrace, and a plate of food that doesn't require a history lesson to appreciate. It’s an honest, high-quality refuge in a part of town that most tourists never bother to see. Among the best restaurants in Sarrià, this is the one that offers a real break from the noise. It’s civilized, it’s delicious, and it’s exactly the kind of palate cleanser you need after a week in the trenches of the Gothic Quarter. Just don't expect it to be cheap—quality in this neighborhood comes at a price, but for a night of actual peace and a decent piece of raw fish, it’s a bargain.