You have some options, depending on your needs. If you want to handle errors on a per-request basis, add a catch to your request. If you want to add a global solution, use HttpInterceptor.

Open here the working demo plunker for the solutions below.

In the simplest case, you’ll just need to add a .catch() or a .subscribe(), like:

import 'rxjs/add/operator/catch'; // don't forget this, or you'll get a runtime error
this.httpClient
      .get("data-url")
      .catch((err: HttpErrorResponse) => {
        // simple logging, but you can do a lot more, see below
        console.error('An error occurred:', err.error);
      });

// or
this.httpClient
      .get("data-url")
      .subscribe(
        data => console.log('success', data),
        error => console.log('oops', error)
      );

But there are more details to this, see below.

If you need to handle errors in only one place, you can use catch and return a default value (or empty response) instead of failing completely. You also don’t need the .map just to cast, you can use a generic function. Source: Angular.io – Getting Error Details.

So, a generic .get() method, would be like:

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { HttpClient, HttpErrorResponse } from "@angular/common/http";
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/catch';
import 'rxjs/add/observable/of';
import 'rxjs/add/observable/empty';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/retry'; // don't forget the imports

@Injectable()
export class DataService {
    baseUrl="http://localhost";
    constructor(private httpClient: HttpClient) { }

    // notice the <T>, making the method generic
    get<T>(url, params): Observable<T> {
      return this.httpClient
          .get<T>(this.baseUrl + url, {params})
          .retry(3) // optionally add the retry
          .catch((err: HttpErrorResponse) => {

            if (err.error instanceof Error) {
              // A client-side or network error occurred. Handle it accordingly.
              console.error('An error occurred:', err.error.message);
            } else {
              // The backend returned an unsuccessful response code.
              // The response body may contain clues as to what went wrong,
              console.error(`Backend returned code ${err.status}, body was: ${err.error}`);
            }

            // ...optionally return a default fallback value so app can continue (pick one)
            // which could be a default value
            // return Observable.of<any>({my: "default value..."});
            // or simply an empty observable
            return Observable.empty<T>();
          });
     }
}

Handling the error will allow you app to continue even when the service at the URL is in bad condition.

This per-request solution is good mostly when you want to return a specific default response to each method. But if you only care about error displaying (or have a global default response), the better solution is to use an interceptor, as described below.

Run the working demo plunker here.

Once again, Angular.io guide shows:

A major feature of @angular/common/http is interception, the ability to declare interceptors which sit in between your application and the backend. When your application makes a request, interceptors transform it before sending it to the server, and the interceptors can transform the response on its way back before your application sees it. This is useful for everything from authentication to logging.

Which, of course, can be used to handle errors in a very simple way (demo plunker here):

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';
import { HttpEvent, HttpInterceptor, HttpHandler, HttpRequest, HttpResponse,
         HttpErrorResponse } from '@angular/common/http';
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/catch';
import 'rxjs/add/observable/of';
import 'rxjs/add/observable/empty';
import 'rxjs/add/operator/retry'; // don't forget the imports

@Injectable()
export class HttpErrorInterceptor implements HttpInterceptor {
  intercept(request: HttpRequest<any>, next: HttpHandler): Observable<HttpEvent<any>> {
    return next.handle(request)
      .catch((err: HttpErrorResponse) => {

        if (err.error instanceof Error) {
          // A client-side or network error occurred. Handle it accordingly.
          console.error('An error occurred:', err.error.message);
        } else {
          // The backend returned an unsuccessful response code.
          // The response body may contain clues as to what went wrong,
          console.error(`Backend returned code ${err.status}, body was: ${err.error}`);
        }

        // ...optionally return a default fallback value so app can continue (pick one)
        // which could be a default value (which has to be a HttpResponse here)
        // return Observable.of(new HttpResponse({body: [{name: "Default value..."}]}));
        // or simply an empty observable
        return Observable.empty<HttpEvent<any>>();
      });
  }
}

Providing your interceptor: Simply declaring the HttpErrorInterceptor above doesn’t cause your app to use it. You need to wire it up in your app module by providing it as an interceptor, as follows:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { HTTP_INTERCEPTORS } from '@angular/common/http';
import { HttpErrorInterceptor } from './path/http-error.interceptor';

@NgModule({
  ...
  providers: [{
    provide: HTTP_INTERCEPTORS,
    useClass: HttpErrorInterceptor,
    multi: true,
  }],
  ...
})
export class AppModule {}

Note: If you have both an error interceptor and some local error handling, naturally, it is likely that no local error handling will ever be triggered, since the error will always be handled by the interceptor before it reaches the local error handling.

Run the working demo plunker here.