Barcelona evening 1st timers

You may have a car, but the odds are you won't have a parking place downtown. Taxis & public transport are readily available & cheap. Suggest a restaurant within walking distance of your stay for first night.

Don't forget that 5pm is almost lunch time in Barcelona; no one thinks about
dinner (except tourists) until 9 or 10pm.

Sagrada Familia is in a different part of Barcelona than much of the rest of the
tourist sights, not to say you can't find a nice restaurant. There are hotels
along the harbor that have rooftops (actually, a lot of places have rooftops)
and that could be a nice view and relaxing way to start the holiday.

Definitely don't think about driving. Between taxis and the metro, so easy to
get around.

@shoeflyer not necessarily Sagrada Familia. Just trying to decide what's a good location to start :)

One thing I never got used to in Spain: no dinner is served until after 7:00 p.m. or even 8:00 p.m. in most places.

If you're tucked into your accomodations by about 5:00, you'll have some time to kill... Consider walking around the Gothic Quarter. You can check out places to eat that appeal to you as you beat jet lag with your walk. You also can people watch in the plaza at the cathedral or buy a ticket online and check out the interior of the cathedral.

It's an easy way to start your trip -- assuming you're staying somewhere near there.

Also, if you're NOT staying near there, taxis are plentiful and inexpensive -- so you don't have to navigate the easy public transportation on your first day if you're disinclined.

Are you arriving with a car of renting one upon arrival?
Barcelona is NOT a place where you need to rent a car. The public transport system is seamlessly connected (subway and Trains) offering excellent ez travel experiences. If you are planning on traveling to another destination after your visit to Barcelona then suggest picking car up at the end of your time in Barcelona.
Suggest taking a tapas tour in initiate yourself into the Barcelona experience such as Devour tours.
How long will you be in Barcelona?

@steven we will rent a car at the airport. Yes, the plan is to travel around. We will be in Barcelona for 4 days, then drive around, then back for another 2 days.

Do not rent a car for the time you are in Barcelona! Pick one up when you leave the city.
And don’t think about eating dinner at 5! Think 9 at the earliest, more likely 10-10:30.

You will be wasting money to rent a car while in Barcelona and add a ton of frustration dealing with the vehicle. Pick it up on your way out of town.
A method to gaining more enjoyment during your journey is to immediately adjust to the cultural time clock of Spain. The first night is the most difficult unless you start while in the USA! Two days prior to our departure we set our watches to the time of our destination and commence eating/sleeping based upon that time. Yep, a bit weird, but for all the investment we are making into the journey TIME is the most precious. So the adaption prior to leaving is a great reward to quickly assimilating into our destination. Spain in September is a great time to enjoy the evening activities and while eating late is often the predominant focus, consider the opportunity gained by staying out and enjoying other late night activities to be found (EG: strolling neighborhoods while other families are out enjoying their time with families).

Potentially, you could spend an entire evening in one small area, if you don't want to walk around too much. In the Gothic Quarter, right off a section of the Ramblas, you could start at 5:00 with a snack of churros and chocolate (or something like) at Granja Dulcinea (Carrer de Peritxol). They close in the afternoons, and open back up at 5:00, so that's perfect. It's an old-school little cafe that looks like it probably did 100 years ago. Just down the street in the open square is Santa Maria del Pi, where there are often guitar concerts (advertised online, but there are also signs at the church and people standing out front many times drumming up business), and a lot of chairs just for casual people watching. And for dinner, Irati Taverna Basca is close by. The front is a very busy tapas bar, but we reserved a table in the back restaurant part (easy reservations online). The food was served family-style, and everybody made us feel very welcome. Really good food, too. I don't know if the view is to your liking in this area. It is very atmospheric and medieval with all the dark, windy streets, but all the shops/restaurants, etc. are very cavernous, apropos to the time period.

There is no end to all the possibilities in Barcelona. It's a great city.

Thanks everyone for the input about a car rental…
@Lady P that sounds MARVELOUS!!!