For our individual art presentation, we had to talk about a place in Spain that we have been before. And no doubt, for foodie like me, surely I would talk about restaurant!

I chose to talk about Caelum for 2 main reasons:
- most importantly the cakes you see from the window look absolutely delicious
- I overheard a tourguide talking about the interesting history about this little petite tea room

and then I thought hmmmm... contributing to this amazing art presentation... what a good excuse for me to pay a visit and have a try at their goodies!


Caelum is a tea room located in the Gothic Area of Barcelona. The word "Caelum" means HEAVEN in Latin. And indeed, this tea room is a very religious place. All the pastries are made by nuns, and they still provide cakes and pastries for the monastries today!

There are two floors in this tea room. The ground floor consist of a cozy tea room and a shop at the entrance, selling goodies from the monastries like chocolate, fresh jam, Catalan biscuits etc.

The underground cellar has an interesting story. It was once a medieval Jewish bathhouse for women. Nowsdays Caelum regularly organise mini jazz and folk music concerts down there, which only cost around 3 euros per person for entry, and the latest info will be posted on their facebook page. So if you interested in folk music of Catalunya, it definitely worths a visit.

Anyway back to the food! Almost in every cafes they serve alcohols. That is no surprise at all. In here, they serve some super strong traditional spanish shots. Of course I did not give it a try as I could have died I guess. They also serve the "famous" Spanish Cafe con Leche (which is just coffee and milk, normally steamed milk), cappuccino and Spanish Hot Chocolate. Just like Granja La Rellaresa, you can choose between a small and a big size, but they don't have the option here to choose the evil version - Swiss Chocolate they call it in Granja, with the huge slob of fatty, gorgeously whipped cream on top.

I went for the small chocolate, as I would like to save my space for desserts and savoury food as well. The Spanish Hot Chocolate is thick as it usually is and it is very rich as well. Unlike Angelina in Paris, where they melt chocolate into semi-skimmed milk to make it all rich, creamy, awfully and sickly, in Spain they melt chocolate with hot water instead. Therefore the flavour is still very indulging and dark, but anyone would be able to finish their own cup easily as it doesn't feel as heavy as ones from Angelina. However I can't deny that the one in Granja is way better because the texture the chocolate they serve there is so much smoother. I found the hot chocolate served in Caelum a little lumpy for me.

For sweet tooth, the cute looking strawberry tart has caught my eyes, AND IT WAS SUCH A BAD CHOICE! The strawberries on top were all fresh and lucious, which we see the problem!! Because it made the tart all watery and soggy. BAD CHOICE. Don't go for that.

(actually I am pretty sure I overheard the tourguide saying that the chocolate cake is the best. And my friend told me that the cheese cakes are pretty good. OH GOD kill me please... I need to come back again then)

As the tart was sooo disappointing, I decided to give it another chance on the savory item. (And at the same time trying to cheer myself up a little bit. We all know food is the best medicine on earth.) So I ordered this Garlic Toast with Melted Cheese from the monastries and tomato jam on top. What really made me chose this one is mainly due to the noun "JAM". Tomate jam! The toast turned out beautifully done because there is a tremendous amount of cheese melted on the toasted bread. The bread was still soft and airy inside and the jam went really well with the generous amount of cheese! The tomato jam tasted very sweet but with the flavour of tomato. It was an interesting experience.

Although the tart really really disappointed me so much, I think this tea room is definitely worth visiting. It is very contrasting yet heart-warming to see this cozy tea room in the Gothic Area of Barcelona.  I would recommand you to visit during the afternoons on weekdays because the UG cellar will only be opened in that period.  Also one important thing to keep in mind is, as this is such a romantic, religious, cozy cafe, they have pretty candles everywhere and making the place all warm and sweet, for everyone but especially for ladies, BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN YOUR HAIR! I managed to have a few of my hair burnt ( I was like ... oh what's that smell and the suckling sound... lol) but gracias a dios it wasn't obvious.