Tucked away in the heart of Barcelona’s El Raval, just a short stroll from Las Ramblas and MACBA, Caravelle is the kind of café that makes a strong case for taking brunch seriously, without taking itself too seriously. Bringing a distinctly Aussie approach to breakfast and café culture, it combines relaxed, easygoing energy with thoughtfully made food, quality local ingredients and plenty of creativity.
Everything here is made from scratch, from house-smoked bacon and toasted granola to its signature hot sauce, with restaurant-level techniques finding their way onto generously flavoured, fuss-free plates. Add expertly made specialty coffee, artisan whole-fruit sodas and a laid-back atmosphere, and Caravelle feels like a place designed for lingering rather than rushing through breakfast.
For Culturalee, it’s the combination of flavour, personality and genuine craft that makes Caravelle stand out. It’s unpretentious but ambitious, familiar yet inventive — a neighbourhood café where good food is the main event and having fun with it is very much part of the recipe.
Caravelle’s story began with a bold move from London to Barcelona. In 2011, after selling their acclaimed Clerkenwell and Shoreditch gastro pubs, Zim and Poppy arrived in the city with their one-year-old daughter and their beloved 1984 Volkswagen Caravelle. They took a chance on a run-down bar tucked away behind Las Ramblas, even selling their camper van to fund a La Marzocco coffee machine.
A year later, Caravelle opened its doors — and quickly helped transform Barcelona’s breakfast scene, inspiring a wave of imitators along the way. Fourteen years on, the city has changed dramatically, but Caravelle’s original spirit remains: independent, unpretentious and deeply committed to making great food and coffee.
We like making things ourselves and we love to experiment. We believe in bringing restaurant-level techniques, flavour combinations and creativity into everyday café culture. Everything on the menu is made from scratch in our kitchen, from our secret recipe hot sauce to house smoked bacon and toasted granola, these are the details that make our brunch plates unlike any others. Add a perfectly extracted flat white made with locally roasted specialty coffee beans, and you’re pretty much set for the day.” Caravelle Founders Zim & Poppy
At Caravelle Eggs Bennie is King. The process for making their star dish starts every Tuesday when the pork is delivered by local rare-breen farm Calrovira. Then they dry brine it for 2 days and smoke it in-house slow and low until it’s so soft it falls apart, before tossing it through Caravelle’s house-made BBQ sauce and serving on toasted brioche, with sautéed spinach, poached eggs and house hollandaise sauce. It’s Caravelle’s most popular dish for a reason.
The Turkish eggs, Caravelle style, are an absolute standout , bursting with perfectly curated blends of zests and spices, cannot be underestimated — two perfectly poached eggs served on silky, lemon-zested labneh with sautéed spinach and confit cherry tomatoes, finished with sumac and Pul Biber chilli brown butter, preserved lemon and toasted flatbread.
The burgers are equally hard to resist, arriving in soft brioche buns with Caravelle’s secret burger sauce and house-made pickles. The smash burger with cheese is a must-try, while the smashed falafel burger makes a brilliant meat-free choice, packed with hummus, crunchy slaw and pickles — and, of course, both come with fries.
And the explosion of delights doesn’t finish there, as Poppy explains: “The French Toast is one of our favourite dishes. The toppings change seasonally – at the moment it’s Miso coffee caramel creat, berries, almonds and passionfruit curd.”
Vying for the top spot is the Croffle – croissant made into a waffle with strawberry cream, caramalised banana and fresh strawberries – really has to be tasted to be believed. Zim and Poppy’s passion for thoughtful flavour combinations extends beyond the Caravelle kitchen, inspiring them to create Luno, a whole-fruit soda born in Barcelona, and inspired by the Mediterranean sunshine.
Zim explains: “We never set out to make a ‘health drink’, we just wanted to make a better soda. One that tastes amazing and actually makes you feel good too. What started in the kichen of Caravelle is now being served in cafes, bars and restaurants across Spain, which honestly still feels a bit wild.”
Luno is made using the juice, pulp, zest and fibre of the whole fruit, Luno delivers bold, bright and refreshing flavour combinations with a natural sense of freshness and an effortlessly drinkable sparkle.
Review by Culturalee Content Editor Sky Sharrock
