sevilla tapas

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The Sevilla Tapas Blog

The original posts can be found here and here.

Tapitas Fotki Album

 

 

Central Sevilla

Horno San Buenaventura
c/n Constitución &Alemanes
photos 1-4

• My favourite breakfast bar in Sevilla, serving the best coffee in town and a wide selection of freshly baked breads served toasted with the topping/filling of your choice. Butter or olive oil, jam, fresh tomatoes, jamon serrano, tortilla, manchego cheese, ham & cheese, smoked salmon, you name it. There is also a take-away food section and bakery.

Cervecería Giralda
c/Mateos Gago 5
photos 44-54

• A stone’s throw from the cathedral this place is easily the best tapa bar on Mateos Gago. Everything on the menu is delicious but I’d personally recommend the solomillo al whisky, chocos fritos and flamenquín. Excellent house rioja. Recently reopened and just as good as ever.

Bar Estrella
c/Estrella

• The Cervecería Giralda’s sister bar, about five minutes away. A similar menu but slightly more relaxed ‘ambientation’. Closed Sundays.

Bodega Santa Cruz
(Las Columnas)
c/n Mateos Gago&Rodrigo Caro
photos

• A great place for cheap & cheerful tapas. Very popular with locals and also foreign students. As there are very few tables inside people tend to spill out into the street, eating and drinking and chatting. Some of the best tapas are the espinacas con garbanzos, tortillitas de bacalao, the daily ‘arroz’ special, and various stews.

Casa Robles
c/Alvarez Quintero
photos 20-30

• A rather expensive place, which I save for birthdays, anniversaries or special visits with friends. One of the few places you’ll actually get ‘proper table service’, which I used to find a bit stuffy until I got to know the staff there a bit better. Now it feels a lot more relaxed. Recommended dishes - the solomillo al jerez. A very thick-cut piece of tender beef sirloin that is char-grilled to perfection and served with a mushroom and sherry sauce (also normally served with rather boring potatoes so I always ask for chips instead). For starters there are wonderful croquetas, bacon-wrapped pork sirloin pieces with mustard sauce, crispy fried calamares/prawns/puntillitas (you can ask to have a 50/50 mix of your favourites). I’m told the fish dishes are wonderful, but haven’t tried them myself.

Bar Campanario
c/Mateos Gago 8
(photos 41-43)

• Honestly and truly the very best sangría and gaspacho I’ve ever had in Sevilla. This bar is run by friends of mine. The first night I arrived in Sevilla (almost 14 years ago) with a car-load of all my stuff, including cats, I ended up waiting outside my new apartment building for three hours before the landlord showed up. The apartment building was directly across the street was Bar Campanario. First meetings often mean so much - in this case I was stuck in my car with two tired and screaming cats, and the bar staff kept bringing me wine …

Robles Placentines
c/ Plancentines
photos 66-69

• One of the Robles branches - a local biz that has done very well for itself and now has bars and restaurants all over the place. A bit pricier than your usual tapa bar but some of the dishes are well worth it (many can be had as tapas, some as half or full ‘raciones’). For example, bacon-wrapped prawns, grilled assorted wild mushrooms with jamon serrano, grilled sirloin in mustard sauce …

Casa Roman
Plaza Venerables
photos 31-40

• Reputed as having the best jamón serrano and caña de lomo in town. I certainly don’t remember ever having better caña de lomo anywhere else. Also fabulous FAT olives and delicious fried bacalao (salt cod). Very friendly service and although situated in a very touristy area you’ll find plenty of locals there too.

Las Teresas
c/ Santa Teresa 2
photos 92-97

• The place I took Peter for tapas the first evening he arrived in Sevilla. Very nice gambas al ajillo, bacon-wrapped solomillo, spinach with garbanzos … all in a small and cosy traditional bar with lovely ‘ambientation’.

Modesto
c/ Cano y Cueto, 5
photos 5-19

• Quite pricey and touristy if you sit outside on the terrace. Inside at the bar it’s much more ‘local’ and also cheaper. Favourite dishes include the “fritadura modesto” - a plate piled hight with ‘tempura style’ fried strips of onions, green & red peppers, topped with a handful of plump fried breaded prawns.

La Isla Fried Fish (take away)
c/Garcia de Vinuesa
open 1-3.30 and 8-11.30
photo 50

• There is actually a small restaurant here but we always do take-away. A great selection of various fried fish and seafood, as well as homemade croquetas and crisps and also delicious fried almonds. Sold by the 1/4 kilo, you can mix & match items with the same price. A nice snack or quick dinner option.

Porta Rossa
c/Pastor y Landero, 20

• This is my favourite Italian restaurant in Sevilla. Quite small and cosy, the two owners are ‘hands-on’ and give the place a very personal quality that is often missing here, especially in terms of service. The food is amazing. All pasta is made on the premises, all ingredients as fresh as can be. Personal favourites include the rocket salad, mixed cheese & cured meat plates and a wonderful ravioli stuffed with pinenuts & seta mushrooms and served in a cream sauce with nutmeg.

Taberna Berrocal
c/ Moratín
photos 98-100

• The terrace is very pleasant and the tapas a bit less ‘typical’ than elsewhere. Excellent spinach with prawns.

Aladdin
c/ Sta Maria la Blanca

• Falafel, kebabs etc … actually, I wasn’t too impressed with my first visit here but it has recently been taken over by a friend of mine so I will update this entry after I’ve had a chance to see if it’s better now.

Cafe Levies
c/n Sta Maria la Blanca & Levies

• Very popular with students, this cheap & cheeful bar also has a terrace and is always hopping. The food is quite basic but portions are generous (almost all of them served with a whack of thinly sliced fried potato rounds) and also mostly quite tasty. Especially the sauces.

Los Coloniales
Plaza Cristo del Burgos/San Pedro
(near Plaza Alfalfa)
photos 81-87

• Excellent value. Specialities include the ‘tablas’ which are thick cut slices of country bread that is toasted, slathered with salmorejo (a very thick gaspacho-type sauce) and then topped with chunks or slices of jamón serrano. Other favourites are the various solomillo (grilled pork tenderloin) tapas that are offered with a variety of sauces - ‘al whisky’, roquefort, ‘a la castellana’. There is also a nice chicken breast tapa served with a creamy almond sauce.

El Refugio
c/ Huelva
photos 76-80

• Argentinian grill specializing in meat dishes but also has some vegetarian dishes, including quesadillas and a selection of nachos. The grilled meat platter for two could easily feed three and is served with fabulous crispy fried potato wedges. (has moved - still looking for its new location)

El Rinconcillo
oldest bar in Sevilla, circa 1670
c/ Gerona, 40
near Plaza Santa Catalina
photos

• This place has to be experienced. The ‘ambientation’ is fabulous, though often very busy. The food is also quite special. Probably the best spinach with garbanzos in town. They also do a selection of ‘revueltos’, which are a kind of scrambled egg dish. Variations include jamón serrano, wild mushrooms, prawns, asparagus - all very nice.

Bodeguita Romero
c/Harinas
photos 56-61

• Best pringá in Sevilla. A small toasted bun filled with a mixture of very tender roasted pork, blood sausage and pork fat (really way better than it sounds). It’s usually served as a type of paste, but here it’s very meaty and chunky, served hot and totally to die for. The crunchy roquefort croquettes are also wonderful - a roquefort/bechamel mixture rolled in crushed almonds and then breaded and fried.
  Mmmm… (closed Sundays)

Enrique Becerra
c/Gamazo

• I always have tapas at the bar so I can’t say what the restaurant is like. But the tapas are wonderful. Favourites include asparagus flamenquín, which is a stalk of green asparagus wrapped in a slice of cheese and a thin slice of roasted pork, then breaded and deep-fried. Another variation is prawns wrapped in a thin slice of aubergine, then breaded and deep fried. One of my other favourite tapas here is a roast lamb in a honey sauce - very tender and tasty. (closed Sundays)

P. Flaherty
c/ Alemanes
photos 62-65

• Sevilla’s first (and best) Irish pub. Situated next to the cathedral it’s a great location to sit outside on the terrace and people watch. Inside there are four separate areas: the main bar, the ‘tv bar’, an interior patio and a small dining area. Quite a nice variety of ‘Irish tapas’ (the little grilled sausages are great) as well as basic bar-type food like sandwiches, burgers, nachos, etc. And also a full Irish breakfast, served all day long. Bilingual staff.

Rayas
c/Imagen and c/Reyes Catolicos
photos 88-91

• Best darn icecream in town. Nothing more to say … it just is.

 

Triana

Sol y Sombra
c/Castilla 151

• There are three in a row called Sol y Sombra – the best is the last one, nearest the corner. Solomillo al Ajo is the house speciality, which is a slow-cooked stew of melt-in-your-mouth pork tenderloin with whole garlic cloves. There is also a very good fritura variada (fried fish plate) and, if you’re not worried about your cholesterol level or daily calorie intake, try the ‘revuelto de la casa’. A dish of lightly scrambled eggs mixed with chorizo and mushrooms.

Faro de Triana
Yellow building on Triana bridge.

• Tapas at the bar – also rooftop and terrace dining room for meals. Inexpensive and very good. Special favourites include the fried fish/seafood dishes, wonderfully tender ‘lomo con tomate’ (pork loin in tomato sauce) and broad beans with garlic and chunks of jamón serrano.

Primera del Puente
c/Betis (across from Torre del Oro)

• Wonderful tapas in the bar - there is also a riverside terrace across the street from the bar for meals. Try the little toasted sandwich with langostines and alioli, grilled swordfish, breaded & fried chicken breast and, well, just about anything else.

Las Golondrinas
c/ Antillano Campos, 26 (near Triana Bridge)
photos 61-63

• Not kidding – you must try the radishes! I have no idea what makes them so amazing, and I have never seen radishes offered as a tapa anywhere else, but they are totally delish. Also delicious grilled mushroom caps filled with ‘green stuff’ (some sort of garlic/parsley mixture, I suspect) and also a very nice grilled salmon.