Vitrina café

A cortado and a slice of babka is the standing order at Vitrina café, a small espresso bar on Carrer de Calàbria.

Coffee, pastries and oat milk on the bar

Vitrina reads as a compact Barcelona café de especialidad built around espresso drinks, slow breakfasts and a pastry-and-sandwich counter. The clearest orders are espresso, cortado, café con leche, flat white, oat milk latte and an oat milk flat white to go. Matcha is on the board too.

The bakes are the other half of the counter: babka, banana bread, cheesecake, carrot cake and croissant de chocolate. Nothing about the list is long, which is the point of a room this size.

A small Eixample room with a hotel behind it

The café sits in Eixample and is attached to Hotel Magatzem 128, with the hotel reception towards the back of the space. In practice the coffee bar comes first and the hotel sits behind it, so the room works as a neighborhood café rather than a lobby.

The setting is bright, small and relaxed rather than restaurant-like, with indoor seats, outdoor seats and places at the bar. It is laptop-friendly and reading-friendly, which explains the mix of remote workers, breakfast guests and people stopping for a quiet coffee. Both dine-in and takeaway are normal here.

Order the cortado with babka

For a first order, the cortado with babka is the most direct route: both are among the named drinks and sweets, and the pairing matches the espresso-led identity of the place. If the cup should be milkier, move to a flat white, a café con leche, an oat milk latte, or the oat milk flat white to go.

The sweet path can stay with banana bread, cheesecake, carrot cake or the croissant de chocolate. Another combination worth borrowing is orange juice with an espresso and a slice of carrot cake, which is the café's breakfast rhythm in one order: coffee first, something baked beside it, and a slow Barcelona morning rather than a formal meal.