Granja M. Viader (C/ Xuclà 4-6, tel. 93 318 3486, www.granjaviader.cat). Where better to go for berenar than the birthplace of Cacaolat? Follow the smell of melted chocolate to this lovely old-fashioned granja where you can have high tea in style with lovely marble tables, colourful tiles, wooden bar stools and bow-tied waiters. It’s been going since 1870 and tea-time options are suitably old school: a suís (cup of melted hot chocolate topped with cream) with melindros (sugared lady finger sponges for dipping), a mallorquina (milk flavoured with lemon and cinnamon), milk shakes, butter-soaked bikinis, croissants, ensaïmades (spiral pastries dusted with icing sugar), or, most decadently of all, a whole plate of plain whipped cream (served with a few sachets of sugar, naturally). You can stock up on flans, yogurts, and cheese to take home from their shop.
La Nena (C/ Ramón i Cajal 36, tel. 93 209 5517). In the heart of Gràcia, this charming granja-xocolateria serves a great hot chocolate with fluffy homemade melindros, along with organic fruit shakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, tarts, biscuits, waffles, crepes, and even the odd healthy sandwich. The look of the place is very child-focused too with brightly painted furniture, photographic exhibitions with children as their subject, and toys and picture books scattered about the place. While the kids play ludo, checkers, cards and snakes and ladders (Catalan style, with geese) or even the piano, the grown-ups can browse the bookshelves (with many titles on gastronomy, particularly chocolate).
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