Barca City Cafe & Bar

My boyfriend took me here for a spontaneous dinner after a long, stressful week of coursework. I’m a lover of Spanish rice & beans and theirs was SO GOOD. The black beans are so yummy (and cheap)! The guacamole is extra fresh, too! I definitely recommend it with the corn chips. My boyfriend and I shared everything– rice & beans, guacamole, chicken quesadillas, and beef empanadas with two glasses of red wine. Barca has a really cool set up– they offer traditional dinner tables as well as low tables, cushions, and ottomans, providing a nice lounge ambiance. They also have a long bar for people. The vibe is really relaxing and on the night we went, Friday, the DJ was playing great music. This all deserves four stars. The reason I am giving it five stars is because our waitress, Eznive, was super pleasant and attentive! She took really good care of us at Barca’s and provided an irreplaceable experience for both of us. Can’t wait to go here again!

Love this place! The ambience, drinks and food are great! We had the pizza and the chorizo was so tasty. I’ll definitely be coming back.

Drinks were heavy on alcohol and overpriced. The food presentation is terrible! The food itself, offense to any palate. A wisdom tooth extraction is more pleasant than being here. One positive note, there are no rats because even they wouldn’t eat the food.

Barca City, I wanted to love you. I really did.
First time: My boyfriend and I were so excited to try Barca City that we couldn’t even wait– we usually only eat out on weekends during school, but just HAD to give it a try. We went in on a Thursday night. The streets of New Brunswick were filled, but there was barely a single soul in Barca… And to top off the awkwardness-​NO MUSIC. We had to flea the scene to somewhere else.
Of course, we couldn’t go without giving Barca City a second chance. We planned accordingly-there’s a dj starting at 10pm every Friday and Saturday night, and sometimes live music 7−10pm on Saturdays. We stopped in late on a Saturday night with friends. We were disappointed to see that no one was dancing like you’d hope to see at a Spanish tapas place, but it was at least much more packed and lively than our previous experience.
Food– They offer tapas, a few entrees, and a huge selection of mini sandwiches «bocadillos».
Guacamole– I’m still «salty» about this. There’s no doubt in my mind that they severed us store bought Guac with Tostitos… What a waste of money:(
Camerones al ajillo– Impressed by the garlic & herb flavoring combination with the potatoes. But the shrimp just tasted super cheap to me.
Chorizo & Manchego Cheese Bocadillo– other than wishing there was a little more stuffing ratio to bread, I really liked it and wouldn’t mind having it again! The sandwiches are about the size of 3 bites so I recommend ordering 2 – 3 different varieties.
Now the real reason to go to Barca City is the drinks! Their regular drink menu prices are so cheap that they’re even cheaper than some New Brunswick happy hours. You can get a glass of house/​select beer for $ ⁴⁄₃. My friends and I ordered a pitcher the Sangira de Guayaba– we all LOVED it! And they have a bunch of different sangria options too.
So I do have to admit that I was bummed out after trying Barca. It definitely didn’t make it onto my list of go-to’s in New Brunswick for food. But I’d definitely go back for some cheap drinks, amazing Sangira, and a few bocadillos! I’d say they deserve a 3.5 rating, but a 4 would be a tad too generous. Opening a tapas place right in the heart of a university town is risky, and they really have to bring their A game if they want to stick around.

Barca City is focused more on reaching out to college students so the prices are typically lower and so is the quality. Don’t get me wrong — it’s good. But, if you’re looking for more of a serious eat then you might want to get off Easton Ave. overall, it’s not too shabby.

Awesome spot with a door DJ! Prices are extremely reasonable and the workers are cool as heck! Dakota was awesome!

Went on a Thursday night with a group of classmates. It was the perfect atmosphere to catch up and grab a drink and some tapas. Which were all reasonably priced.
The $ 25 sangria pitchers were a hit too! Had we stayed any longer we probably would have taken advantage of the open space to dance a little.

This tapas-​style place was recommended with reservations. We were seated under a TV that was showing a movie that flashed constantly. We asked to have it turned off, and they did, but I have to question the motive of a casual tapas restaurant with multiple TVs. Is it a bar or a tapas café? They are two different things.
The waitstaff was friendly, but they did not understand the concept of tapas at all. They looked confused when we ordered a few small dishes, wanted to keep the menus and order again later. I can only assume that the shift to tapas was recent. The menu certainly offered primarily small tapas-​dishes, so I have no idea what they thought they’d be serving. When they brought our food, they neglected to bring plates or utensils and again, looked surprised when we asked.
The cheese and meat platter was excellent. It looked as though it was manchego and salami, but nothing on the platter was anything I had ever had. It was quite good. The small sandwiches were all excellent. I’ll definitely go back for the food, and hope the service gets a better grip.

I’ve been wanting to try this place based on the reviews, and I was surprised when my older New Brunswick native boss said this was the new happening spot on Easton. Not sure what all the hype is about… I was a little disappointed! Seems like a bar trying to be fancy for the college crowd.
I was excited to try this joint out, as they’re known for their bocadillos and authentic Spanish tapas. As an American girl who studied abroad in Spain in college, I naturally think I’m part Spanish. So the expectations are high. ;)
Our server was Daria in real life. While I appreciated her lackluster approach on life because, hey, I get it, existence can get pretty mundane, it’s probably not the best attitude fit for a server. We asked her what her recommendation on sangria was and she said «This one is the strongest, so I recommend it.» :/​
We got an order of guac and chips, patatas bravas, empanadas and 2 bocadillos. Guac was fresh and tasty. Patatas bravas wasn’t traditional at all. Served as a stew-​like dish with crushed tomatoes. It should just be fried potatoes with a zesty paprika sauce on top. They were out of the chicken empanadas so we got beef and veggie. They were fine, nothing special. I couldn’t eat the bocadillos (gluten issues) but the bf said they were pretty tasty. Overall, not very impressed. Would be willing to give it a second chance.

Easily one of my favorite locations in New Brunswick. Great food, great drinks, great atmosphere. What more could you ask for? More selection of beers!

City café is always a pleasant refreshment. It has a great lounge feel and the drinks are affordable and good! Whenever I am here it isn’t really ever too busy so service is always prompt. I’m a big fan of the Rum and Coke special because they give you a little caddy to pour your own drink and make it as strong as you’d like it to be. I’d say if you have the option of sitting anywhere you’d like go for the tables or bar seats because the couch seats by the bar are a little small for most people to fit in properly because it was awkward to sit in for my height.

In a nutshell: menu is full of small delicious sandwiches, each under $ 3 and u get to order variety of different things.
The place is very nice too.
I strongly suggest this place.

Held my retirement celebrations there. 20 female educators, half of us Latinas. Did we have a great time? Oh yes we did! The folks catered to our needs, served us delicious tapas and tolerated our loudness, singing and dancin with a smile. Thank you Barca City for supporting your New Brunswick teachers with giving us such a fun place to have a fiesta!!!
Silvia Matos

Excellent Place I loved the Tapas, the Drinks and the place is beautiful.
Great for sport game on a Sunday or if you want to get down on Saturday or just want a good affordable meal on a regular day

Arising from the remains of Tula, the place is now focused on the more casual joint with great tapas.

I’m a Rutgers student and sometimes I like to go out on a Friday or Saturday night to escape the dread of being in my dorm all the time. It’s a great atmosphere and the food is delicious! The bartender guy is friendly and makes the drinks really good. Much better than some of the other bars in the area that are sometimes wayyy too overpriced.

This is the place to be! The food is amazing and affordable. The staff is great and friendly this is the perfect place to bring a date to dine and dance after 10pm They also have the the best DJ in the city on Friday nights with a great selection of music that keeps a cool vibe going all night This place has everything! Great job City Café & Bar…

I love the food, drinks and mostly the ambiance. You should try the salmon and shrimp sandwiches. Also, the Nutella sandwich if you like sweets.

I love this place. Today was the third day in a row I’ve come (although I’ve been here before). I am a sucker for small plates and thank god for the reasonable pricing its going to keep me coming back. This place is definitely 4 stars for me. I’m sad they earned 3.5 so far! The regular crap pizza places near by get 3 – 3.5 stars! Not this place. Its small and cute with happy hour priced drinks and food all day! This is totally up my alley. The entrée items I’ve seen but not tried could be a little bigger portioned but the prices aren’t astronomical so I suppose that’s fine. I’m sure that since this place is still relatively new it just needs to gain momentum. It’s cute and not snobbish like some other places I’ve been. It makes you feel comfortable and you don’t feel bad to just keep order small plates and mini sandwiches. I needed something different from the regular college scene locations nearby… I’m full time staff and sometimes need to get away from the more divey places. Keep City Café going!

I recently visit this place, it’s gorgeous remind me of Barcelona, Spain. We order empanadas they were crispy and delicious, a guayaba red sangria was big and good, we order sandwiches and tapas, portions were good and the food was delicious. Great environment!

The sandwiches are terrible. The filling is great, but there is too much bread. I can’t taste anything inside the sandwich. I’m not asking for more filling, just less bread (or better bread). The drinks are ok, but they don’t taste like anything but sweetener. Finally, the service is ok. We went when it was not that busy and it took forever to get the attention of one of the four servers. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone.

The outside looks pretty upscale and fancy, so I never thought this place would only be 1 dollar sign! But a big part of their menu are little slider sized burgers with a huge variety of flavors. I tried a shrimp burger, chicken burger, salmon burger, and a burger with nutella/​bananas/​peanut butter, each only 2.25. They came out super quick, which I suppose makes sense seeing how small the sliders were. I loved the salmon, chicken, and shrimp burgers. each with great unique taste. The nutella one needs some work though… it was a sad looking burger with only 3 small slices of bananas and Barely any nutella and peanut butter.
The place itself looks pretty fancy. there’s definitely a middle-​eastern or Indian inspired decoration going on. The bar area is nice and spacious too. Unique décor on the wall included trippy displays of sideways liquor bottles and middle-​eastern vases and pictures. The music was typical bar scene music.
The bill came out and we had an option to pay with an app called Zapper, which gave us $ 7 off discount. Also, the manager came to us and gave us all free coffee coupons for our next visit!
Next time you need a more upscale ambiance, a more clean/​chic bar to visit, or want cheap and good burgers, come here!

This tapas bar is awesome. I’ve been there at least 8 times since it opened a few months ago. It’s a nice chill spot with a nice mosaic bar and tables with seats and cushions. Clean and stylish lounge atmosphere. Every friend I’ve gone with loves it. The food and drink are amazing and are very reasonably priced. All the food I’ve had there was very delicious, muy authentico. Whatever I’ve had there tasted great. And I say that with a pretty discriminating palate. Service is friendly and attentive. On the extensive tapas menu the tender grilled octopus with potatoes (my fave), ceviche, the mussels and cheese platter are all excellent. And the empanadas buckets are a must as well. Their super cheap sliders hit the spot too whether it’s the shrimp and aioli, tuna, etc. City Café and Bar has not disappointed me so far. Definitely go there cannot recommend it highly enough!

I went here for a work happy hour, and was pleasantly surprised by how good the tapas and drinks were!
We got the bucket of mixed empanadas, plantains, and a couple of sangrias. Everything was tasty, and the mini guava and cheese sandwich I got was delicious. Our waitstaff was friendly, and didn’t have any trouble splitting up our bill.

The good things: We came here late at night and they were going to close in about an hour but still served us before they closed the bar. Really nice atmosphere and an extensive menu with lots of creative inexpensive drinks (both alcoholic and non-​alcoholic). I had the Margarita Del Torero and boyfriend had the Coconut Latte. Both were excellent and pack a decent punch for the price ($ 6 and $ 5 respectively).
Now the annoying things: My boyfriend’s cousin was with us and brought food from across the street. City Café was no longer serving food since they were about to close so she started eating there. The waitress (Ella) came over and said she can’t eat that here because it’s from outside. This made no sense since they were not serving food at that time, there were only 2 other people besides us in the place, and they were about to close. We didn’t really argue it though because we didn’t want them to spit in our drinks so just left it alone.
Later on when she brought the check to us, I noticed that it only had one item on it which I thought was strange since we had 2 drinks. The item was a pitcher of white sangria for $ 25, whereas our drinks only cost $ 11 total. My boyfriend took it to the bartender and started explaining that it was incorrect and before he could even finish his sentence, the guy said «oh, she printed the wrong one»… as if he knew immediately that she had done so. It was almost like these two were in on the whole thing and were just banking on us not reading the receipt so we’d pay more than we had. She brought us the right bill and gave the original one to the other table who had the white sangria pitcher.
Because of these two problems, we didn’t really leave an excellent tip but not a bad one either. Overall, it was a good experience there since we enjoyed our drinks so I’m giving it 3 stars; just docking 2 because of the service. I’ll definitely come back soon to try more though. I just hope I’ll have a different waitress!

Sangria was okay, the small sandwich with shrimp was gross. We waited so long to order it was ridiculous. Def wouldnt recommend this place. It wasn’t what I expected,

Came in for an early dinner. I had 2 tiny sandwiches and am not really a fan of the bread. The salad was excellent! The french fries were ok. There are multiple types of sangria and I will come back to try more. The atmosphere is nice. The windows open to the street and so you get an outside feel without the cigarette smoke one experiences in the nearby beer gardens. The staff are super nice.

Stumbled upon this place on Saturday night ⁵⁄₃₀ and thought it was fantastic! Literally every bit of food was delicious. I had the guacamole (chunky style), the Ensalada de Barcelona (quinoa, mushrooms, peanuts), and 3 of the mini sandwiches (all vegetarian). Not only was every morsel delicious, but The prices were great! Was also pleasasantly surprised to see plenty of vegetarian and vegan options. Also found the couch-​like seats to be comfy. Lastly, my guest had a mixed drink (not sure which one) and enjoyed it. I plan to go back soon.

I went the second day or so after it opened because I liked their idea of tiny sandwiches. Each is about 2 inches in diameter. I ordered 3 to go and they were overall pretty good, except that they charged me $ 7.25 for one of the sandwiches (which happened to be the one I actually disliked) even though the menu said they were all $ 2 something.
The atmosphere was pleasant enough and 2 out of the 3 sandwiches were decent so I may consider coming back some day.