Barcelona Wine Bar Cathedral Heights

Lovely food and great service. Very friendly and the staff work hard to take care of everyone. It does get very full and noisy with the happy-​hour crowd but there’s seating away from the bar where the decibel level is more manageable!
Highly recommended.

I had a great experience here! I thought the service was good (even when they were super busy — i would recommend a reservation), the food was good and it turns out that Monday’s they have ½ price bottles of wine! Bonus!

I went here during the snowstorm, having heard that they’d have a special snow day menu going on. When we asked about it, we were told that the menu wouldn’t start until the following day, so we were disappointed, but ordered a few tapas and cocktails. Everything was delicious — and then the staff surprised us with a specially-​prepared item from the snow menu we’d asked about. Food was wonderful, staff was excellent, and we had such a wonderful time! Thanks!

We returned to Barcelona (a different location) after receiving a very thoughtful and kind message from the owner asking us to return and give the restaurant a second chance.
The restaurant owner, GM and staff did everything in their power to make sure we had a nice time – and we did. They are an attentive, respectful and kind group of people and my friends and I now know that they never meant for our previous experience to happen.
We had a very nice meal and NOT the cheapest wine. In fact, we were given a full run down of all the wines offered and thoughtfully matched with one we thought would suit the table. The staff made a real effort to change our minds, and it paid off. We enjoyed our wine and meal (shrimp, tuna, oysters, and steak) very much.
The GM also offered us dessert, which was so delicious and generous, I would return just for that.
We will come back to this location again. This is what the dining experience should be. Thank you Alex and Andres!

Amazing restaurant! Recommended highly! I was just there last Saturday for a high school reunion with some friends and the service and food was amazing! The chicken with peppers was out of this world! The mushrooms were great too! Their wine selection is big and with a variety for every palate. I love the place I am totally coming back! I need to try more of their food

Really excellent craft drinks, and the tapas are high quality and traditional. Very hip restaurant, definitely worthy of a visit. My favorite tapas place has been Estadio, and I would say this place is on par or perhaps even a bit better than Estadio. Yum! For 4 people we had a 260 $ bill. We ordered a ton, and drank like fish… so it was cheap relatively speaking.

Had a fabulous dinner here tonight — my family of 5 ordered 9 tapas and it was perfect. Delicious use of truffles in several — making my mouth water just thinking about it! Atmosphere is great. We are already planning our next dinner here.

Great selection of wine, good service, craft cocktails, yummy tapas and incredibly hearty seafood paellas. Home made bread with olive oil is so crispy and fresh that you can end up finishing the whole thing before you even start sipping your drink. I highly recommend patatas bravas, roasted olives, pickled vegetables and meatballs from the tapas. For entrees, roasted chicken is absolutely delicious. If you are a seafood lover –especially shellfish– go for paella. The portions are big enough for two and you might even end up taking some home. When I go there, I usually sit at the bar and talk to the bartenders. They always have time to tell you about the menu and drinks. Generally speaking; very nice trendy yet cozyish neighbourhood bar that you can have a nice romantic meal or simply an evening drink.

Came here with a friend on a Tuesday night around 8 and it was packed. They hostess quoted us a 20 – 25 minute wait time, but it took almost 40 minutes to be seated. Definitely will make a reservation next time.
Once we sat down we ordered 5 tapas plates for 2 people. They were all out of the Brussel sprouts and Croquettas. We ended up getting the potatoes, carrots, hanger steak, shrimp skewer, and dates. Everything was great! It came out quickly, too.
The wine menu is extensive. Our server recommended a nice Merlot. However, they’re very much lacking on beer options. I was surprised not to see any local Virginia beers.
I will definitely come back. It wasn’t too expensive either like some tapas places can be.

I had a multitude of issues with this place. See my previous review. It’s worth restating how AMAZING their sangria is. I really can’t get over it.
So, after I left my review, the restaurant manager reached out to me to apologize and offer me a full refund for the entire bill. I really appreciated this gesture. More important to me than a flawless experience, is a business that handles mishaps and problems professionally and courteously, and to offer to refund the ENTIRE bill, not just the bad mussels, was really going above and beyond in my opinion.
I ended up not being able to get the refund because I lost my credit card on my trip to DC, and thus couldn’t provide the restaurant with the number to do so. Regardless, that is my fault, and their gesture still stands!
Go for the sangria, it will change your life.

Very nice addition to Cathedral Commons. Fantastic service (and they are attractive, yes both men and women) at the bar or in the dinner area. The food is good to great depending on what you get. Big fan of the bone marrow. Plus you can order the bone marrow luge; they use sherry and a buddy of mine enjoyed it immensely. The place is packed every night which also says something about the food, drinks, and service. I’ll definitely be back! With Ivy in tow hopefully…

Just get the bourbon spice rack! One of the best cocktails I’ve had. Oh and please do sit at the bar!

The tapas here are fantastic, even more so when considering how fairly priced they are. My date and I shared a pitcher of sangria which was it only very good, but also very large, which is always a plus. The service was exceptional as well; the food came out very quickly and the wait staff was quite attentive.

If you want to spend a lot of $ and not feel full, Barcelona is the place to go.
I understand the concept of Tapas. I lived in Barcelona. The concept is simple — small plates to share. I think Jose Andres gets this concept more than the staff at Barcelona.
My friends (3 of us total) came here to have dinner. We ordered a couple of dishes. They were out of the swordfish, so we had:
–Pan con Tomate $ 4.50 — two pieces of bread. not good for sharing among 3 ppl
–Crispy Calamari $ 10.50 (the only dish that was actually good sharing size)
–Hanger Steak $ 11.50 — there were four tiny slivers of hanger steak. Not really great for sharing. Luckily, the kitchen was feeling generous and gave us another order — but I wouldn’t say that is the norm
–Pulpo Gallego $ 9.50 — good but also small. I would say that this dish is on the cheaper side of the spectrum, so it wasn’t that big.
–Scallops a la plancha — $ 11.50 — ok. they brought out TWO TINY scallops. For $ 11.50. … speechless. I would have caught the scallops myself if I had known what they were going to serve me
–We got free croquetas which were good
I must say I appreciated the waitress’s attentiveness to our table and two free dishes from the kitchen, but I feel like it was a one time only thing since this location just opened.
They bring you a lot of bread to fill you up. For tapas, I would say this place is NOT WORTH THE HYPE. Come here for happy hour not for food. Or if you are a millionaire, then spend all the $ you want.

Great experience overall. The restaurant lives up to its name. It has a laid back, hip vibe to it, similar to Barcelona, Spain.
This is the perfect place for a lazy Saturday brunch sipping on your Sangria and trying out Tapas. I was pleasantly surprised with vegetarian choices such as the spicy eggplant, fried okra, patatas bravas and grilled baby corn. They didn’t have any chicken tapas but offered an entrée sized Chicken Pimientos (grilled chicken, hot pepper sauce) which had a subtle, satisfying flavor to it. The bread (which is sourced from Leon Bakery) was crisp on the outside (but not very hard) and deliciously soft inside.
Definitely recommended. Jaleo has some serious competition.

Happy hour here with a few co-​workers sometime in early August.
Scallops a La Plancha only came with small/​normal sized scallops. Everyone thought that was a bit weird, seemed like 3 would’ve been ideal.
There was an octopus dish I got that was cooked really really well, but the overall taste of the dish was really underwhelming.
The Mussels al Diablo had a great portion size and the sauce tasted pretty good.
Everyone at our table loved their house signature sangria with the sweet syrup, definite must try. Normally I don’t drink but even I had to have a glass.

Barcelona Cathedral Heights pulled it off! We returned for dinner tonight and were seated inside with a fantastic server, Nicholas! He used to work at the 14^th Street location and was both charming and knowledgable about everything on the menu; he even did a good job recommending a bottle of wine.
I highly recommend the meat dish under the shared plates if you’re hungry. It’s both filling and satisfying. The lamb chops were my favorite tapa that we ordered however.
Overall we had a really enjoyable experience. The entire staff was attentive and the food came out super timely. The servers described this location as a different animal than 14^th St and I think they are right so, keep in mind that the two locations are entirely different but in a good way. The chefs have a lot of creative autonomy over the menu and thats a good thing for a neighborhood gem like this.
We will return! Thank you, Barcelona Cathedral Heights!

My friends and I came here for drinks and tapas, and this place did not disappoint! Every little dish was amazing and the drinks nothing short of fanstastic! It was pretty busy during the dinner rush, but our server was still very attentive. The manager Jason was also a delight. I’ll definitely be back!

Will be a neighborhood hangout for me! Great food during first week of service. Wait staff was a tad slow but it was slammed on Friday night during the first week, to be expected! Can’t wait to enjoy the bar on a Tuesday, enjoy the patio on a Saturday, sampling cheeses and small plates. Love the addition! 14^th st can take a hike, Wisconsin Ave all the way!

Had dinner there for the first time last night. All the staff we encountered were cheerful, enthusiastic, and very helpful. We sat outside and enjoyed the warm summer night but we peaked inside and found the ambiance very pleasant — no loud music!
They have a very extensive wine list and also a full bar — we both had cocktails.
We each ordered 2 – 3 tapas. Everything ordered was very good. Our only compliant is about tapas in general — you really don’t get a lot for your money. Overall a very enjoyable dining experience.