La Fonda
What's that you say - you're looking for a lively, but romantic place where you can share some sangria with your honey and savor some paella (a rice dish made with seafood or meat) or fidueà (similar to a paella, but with noodles instead of rice)? Well, there's this place, off the Rambla, not far from Plaça Reial, that may do the trick.

Although the main dining room is often packed with locals and visitors, La Fonda uses soft lighting draped in red lampshades and dark wood touches to create a warm, intimate atmosphere. A loft area and a downstairs room with fresco-like paintings on the ceiling give it a homey ambiance.

Fratelli La Bufala: Main dining area
On a quest for the perfect pizza? If you can't get to Naples, Italy - the unofficial world capital of great pizza, you'll get close enough with Fratelli La Bufala in the L'Eixample Dret neighborhood.

Made in the Neapolitan tradition with buffalo mozzarella and other products produced at small southern Italian farms, pizzas coming out the oven are sure to be a hit. And, to boot, ingredients and food products used in the menu items have D.O.C. (Denominazione di Origine Controllata/Controlled Designation of Origin) and D.O.P. (Denominazione d’Origine Protetta/Protected Designation of Origin) certifications verifying their authenticity. You can top your pizza with almost anything you want, but there's something pure and just downright good with the classic cheese Margherita pie. If pizza isn't your thing, order the pasta or grilled buffalo meat instead. Top it off with a limoncello, a lemon liqueur common in southern Italy, and a slice of cheesecake.

Carmelitas: Main dining room
Although it may be housed in a renovated, former historic convent, Carmelitas certainly doesn't have anything stuffy or Old World about it. Instead, the bright red and white décor and spacious dining areas play more to energetic street life you'll find in its surrounding neighborhood, the Raval. In the heart of Barcelona, only a few blocks away from the famous Boqueria market and the Rambla, the restaurant uses fresh ingredients in its Catalan fare, and pours some of the best locally produced wines and cavas.

4Gats: Main dining room
There are places in Barcelona where the city's vibrant history oozes from nearly every wall, window and cup of coffee. One of those places is 4Gats in the old part of town. Tucked in a Barri Gòtic alley off Avinguda del Portal de l'Angel, the 4Gats (also written as Els Quatre Gats) was the place where artists, architects, musicians, poets and Bohemians ate, drank and exchanged ideas about the day's news, politics and the modernist art movement that swept through Barcelona in the early 20th Century.