Restaurants with a view
Tables with real views are few and get booked: Eixample rooftops, seafront beach bars and Montjuïc terraces with the city at your feet.
Sea views
The promenade and Olympic port concentrate the water-background tables: at sunset, the light does half the service. The beach bars toward the end of the promenade usually give better product per euro than the postcard stretch.
City views
Eixample rooftops and hill terraces face the rooftops and the sacred silhouette: the Montjuïc table at dusk is among Europe's best. Book weeks ahead in summer.
The honest markup
You pay in menu price and slow service: a view dinner is a two-hour plan, not a quick stop. On a budget, the same view with a drink at the rooftop bar costs a quarter.