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Gimlet
Transport yourself to a Humphrey Bogart movie, almost. The punters in this timeless cocktail bar seem to get younger and grungier all the time, but the cocktails remain the same, and somehow this simple little bar continues to exert a quiet magnetism.
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Hotel Omm Bar
Locals and guests mix in a sensual synergy in this uptown posers' bar that is highly agreeable if you feel like a little London-New York style attitude in a hip hotel setting. Just watching some of the less fiscally challenged cavort makes it worthwhile.
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Kentucky
Once a popular hang-out for US Navy personnel when the boys were in town, this narrow exercise in Americana kitsch is a smoke-filled, surreal drinking dive, almost always packed to the rafters.
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La Botellita
This is a fiery uptown place to get your motor running before hitting the clubs. Head upstairs to a kind of narrow gangway. Here you understand why the place is called the Little Bottle. Behind the bar are little minibar-style bottles of all your preferred poisons, and that's what you're served.
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La Fianna
There is something medieval-Oriental about this bar, with its bare stone walls, forged iron candelabras and cushion-covered lounges. La Fianna has another big selling point - it is one of the places to do Sunday brunch (from to ).
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La Paloma
The 100-year-old La Paloma is a unique local institution and an essential night out. The evening starts early with the band playing cha-chas and tangos to a chirpy crowd of middle-aged and retired couples. From midnight it sheds its nostalgia skin to become one of the hippest, hoppiest dance dives in town.
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La Vinya del Senyor
A wine-taster's fantasy, this bar has a stunning location looking out over the Església de Santa Maria del Mar. You can choose from almost 300 varieties of wine and cava from around the world and enjoy inventive platillos (mini-tapas) as you sip your drink. Try to grab the table by the window upstairs.
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Les Gens que J'aime
Incurably romantic, this basement bar in l'Eixample combines candlelight and privacy with antique red-velvet sofas and dark wood furniture and trims. It's the perfect place for a night of sweet nothings.
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Maumau Underground
Funk, soul, hip-hop - you never know what you might run into in this popular little Poble Sec music and dance haunt. Above the backlit bar a huge screen spews forth psychodelic images, which on Sunday afternoons (see website for hours) converts to a football screen for laid-back fans.
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Michael Collins Pub
Of all the many (and increasing number) of Irish pubs, this is one of the most agreeable. The Guinness is good and the punters, although many are foreigners, are generally residents rather than stag-night blow-ins.
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Milk Bar & Bistro
Smiling bar staff, 1920s wallpaper, comfortable lounges and gently wafting chill-out music conspire to create an inviting ambience for a languorous tipple or three. The cocktails are inventive, light meals are available and Sunday brunch is a formidable hangover cure.
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Mirablau
For the most stunning views of Barcelona - and the spectacle of the city's rich and famous dancing badly - head for this chichi bar and club. Doormen come on for the club at , and it helps if you're wearing Prada to get past them.
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Moog
Moog (named after the synthesiser) is reliable for techno and electronica, and always packed with a young, enthusiastic crowd. Bigger in stature than in size, it attracts lots of big-name DJs. Upstairs specialises in indie retro pop numbers and is better for conversationalists.
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New Chaps
As the name suggests, this bar is strictly for chaps - mostly mature, macho and suitably hirsute. It attracts a regular jean- and leather-clad posse, and has theme nights and a shadowy downstairs with very dark room, labyrinth and sling.
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New York
Until the mid-1990s, this street was lined with dingy bars of ill-repute. New York was one of them but has been reborn as a popular old-town club space. Friday night is best, with anything from reggae to rock steady.
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Otto Zutz
Beautiful people only need apply for entry into this three-floor dance den. Shake it all up to house downstairs or head upstairs for funk and soul. DJs come from the Ibiza rave mould and the top floor is for VIPs.
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Palau de Dalmases - Espai Barroc
Perhaps the most pretentious bar in town, this 'baroque space' occupies the ground floor of a handsome 15th-century palace. Like a Peter Greenaway set, it is often the stage for a little light baroque music or operetta - the perfect accompaniment to your outlandishly priced goblets of wine.
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Raïm
If you like your taverns unchanged since God knows when, with huge old wine barrels and a motley crew of punters from local guzzlers through to grunge Erasmus folk, this place could be for you. Judging by the wall-to-wall photos of Cuba, the owners have quite an affection for the island.
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Salvation
Salvation is the place for a big, happy, gay blow-out. Two vast dance floors hammer house and mainstream dance chart numbers for wiggling and watching. The gleaming torsos of the staff are part of the attraction, but there's strictly no touching.
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Schilling
No it's not new, nor is it hidden away anywhere, and increasingly it is filled with out-of-towners rather than locals. But this gay-friendly favourite remains a great place to sip on a glass of wine or two before heading out into a more adventurous night. Grab a tiny round marble table if you can and ignore the somewhat frosty service.
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Soul Club
This backstreet treasure (still known to many as Dot Light Club) has a cosy bar at the front for a chat or a snuggle (on the single sofa), and an equally diminutive, congenial dance floor out the back.
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Sugar Club
Get down to this dapper restaurant-club with DJ sounds (ranging from contemporary pop-rock to a little light house) and a snappily dressed crowd. The food is fusion funky and skipped without remorse, but the music served up can be top class, with such local DJs at the turntables as David Mas.
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Sutton Club
An uptown honey pot, this place doesn't get happening until surrounding bars start closing their doors. It's a den of coke-snorting beautiful people, and the central dance area (complete with go-go girls and boys), surrounded arena-style by seating and several strategically placed bars, will draw you in.
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Sweet Café
This illuminated red tunnel of a bar is an eclectic drinking choice. Gay-friendly but by no means exclusive, it attracts a broad spectrum of punters, some in search of the occasional live band or events such as the Bollywood theme nights and art expos.
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Terrrazza
Some of the biggest international names play at this summertime must, which can be relied on for some of the meatiest dance tunes on vinyl (including house, techno-trance and pop-rock) and a clientele comprising extremely high-quality eye candy. Move to 'the terrace' for rejuvenation when you run out of steam. In winter the club moves indoors and becomes Discothèque.
