Wine bar a few steps away from its famous sister restaurants Septime and Clamato, that I’ve also recommended here in this guide.

Located on Carrer de les Carretes, Makinavaja is a living tribute to comic artist Ivà and his most famous character, “Makinavaja, el último choriso.” Its owner, Leandro, a lifelong local and anarchist activist, has turned the bar into a stronghold of Raval’s popular and libertarian culture. Although the bar itself opened in 2010, it occupies a space that has housed taverns for over a century, preserving a nearly century-old solid wood bar.

Founded in 1947 just behind the Columbus monument, Pastís was created with the intention of recreating the port bars of Marseille in Barcelona. The venue is tiny barely a slit in the wall yet filled with an existentialist, bohemian atmosphere. Its walls are covered with dark paintings, old photographs, and bottles, creating a space where time seems to have stopped in the postwar years.

Founded in 1910, London Bar is one of the oldest bars in Barcelona and one of the few in the Raval that still preserves its original modernista décor. Carved wood, mirrors, moldings, lamps, and the spatial layout have remained largely unchanged for over a century. The venue has passed through different stages of the neighborhood’s and the city’s history without being converted or stripped of its interior, making it a rare example of modernisme applied to a popular bar in the Raval.

Opened in 1860, Casa Almirall was founded at the height of the Raval’s industrial boom, when the neighborhood filled with factories, workshops, and a working-class population living in harsh, overcrowded conditions. In that context, cafés and taverns became key spaces of sociability: places where newspapers were read, politics debated, and community woven together. Just across the street stood the headquarters of the CNT, the major anarchist trade union that shaped Barcelona’s labor history, and Casa Almirall was a direct witness to that social fervor. Over glasses of anís, militants and neighbors shared breaks, debates, and everyday life throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Founded in 1820, Bar Marsella is the oldest bar in Barcelona and one of the great survivors of the old Raval. For over a century, its surroundings were the epicenter of the city’s most intense and marginal nightlife: a crossroads of workers, sailors, prostitutes, artists, and bohemians that gave rise to the mythical Barrio Chino. Marsella did not close even during the Spanish Civil War and still preserves its decadent atmosphere: blackened lamps, dust-covered bottles, peeling walls. Nothing shines and that’s precisely its charm. In a deeply transformed neighborhood, Marsella remains standing, indifferent to trends, like a living portrait of an irreverent Barcelona that has almost disappeared.

Café de Nadie is a sanctuary for audiophiles and cocktail enthusiasts. It is a hi-fi listening bar centered around an extensive vinyl collection and a custom-built analog sound system, where the drinks are crafted to match the deep, soulful tracks spinning on the turntables.

Shhh is a high-fidelity listening bar dedicated to the "radical act of listening," combining audiophile-grade sound equipment with a full bar experience. It is often described as the perfect complement to the adjacent vinyl shop, 99 Records.

Tokyo Music Bar is one of Mexico City's premier "listening bars," a concept originating in Japan (known as jazz kissa). It is a sophisticated speakeasy-style cocktail bar that pairs high-end, Japanese-inspired mixology with music played exclusively on a high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) analog sound system using vinyl records.

One of my favorite places in the entire city, this bar is a gem in Plaza Washington. Intimate and unique, Cicatriz is a small bar with a delicious food menu. The music elevates the night beautifully, and it’s the perfect spot for a first date because the volume is just right. The drinks are wild—I recommend the Yoko, a mezcal and Aperol Spritz mix that you’ll fall in love with. They don’t take reservations, so keep that in mind.