30 Jun Best Food in Puerto de la Cruz: Restaurants I Actually Tried During Two Long Trips to Tenerife
During my first trip to Tenerife, I stayed in the south and moved around the island quite a lot, eating in different towns and coastal areas. But on my second trip, things were different. I spent 22 days in Puerto de la Cruz, and because of that, most of my food memories from Tenerife are concentrated in the north.
If you are planning your own trip around the island, you can also read my complete Tenerife Travel Guide, where I cover the best bases, realistic routes, and how I would organize a longer stay.
That is why I wanted to begin this small Tenerife food series with Puerto de la Cruz. It is the town where I had most of my proper meals, the place I returned to almost every evening after long days on the road, and the part of the island where food slowly became part of the rhythm of the trip.
I should say from the beginning that this was not a trip built around restaurants. Most days, our routine was very simple: coffee in the morning, several hours exploring the island, and then a stop at a supermarket to buy things we could carry with us — sandwiches, hummus, vegetables, small snacks, something easy to eat between places. We were out a lot, often driving, walking, photographing, stopping in villages or along the coast. So food had to be practical during the day.
In the evening, though, we usually came back to Puerto de la Cruz. And that is where most of the meals in this article happened.
This first article is dedicated entirely to Puerto de la Cruz — not because it is the only place to eat in Tenerife, but because it is the place I got to know best. A second article will gather a few restaurants and food stops from other parts of the island.
If you are still deciding where to stay, I also wrote a detailed guide about where to stay in Tenerife after two long trips.
From a food point of view, I was not disappointed by Tenerife — not in the south during my first trip, and not in the north during the second one. After some research, a few experiments, and a bit of asking around, I found several places that worked very well for us. Some were simple, some were more atmospheric, some were the kind of places you return to because they fit the rhythm of a long stay rather than because they are perfect.
While preparing this article, I checked the restaurants again and noticed that one or two places may no longer be open. I will still mention them towards the end of the article, marked clearly, because I cannot say with certainty whether they are permanently closed, temporarily closed, or simply unavailable for the season. I think they still belong here, because they were part of my real experience of eating in Puerto de la Cruz.
One thing I should say from the beginning: although Tenerife is an island, and although we both love fish and seafood, the real highlights of the trip, at least for me, were often the simplest things.
Papas arrugadas with mojo. Queso with mojo. Pimientos de Padrón.
I know this may sound almost ridiculous. They are potatoes, cheese, and small green peppers. Nothing complicated. Nothing dramatic. But for me, in a strange way, these simple dishes carry a lot of the spirit of Tenerife. They are the kind of food you order without thinking too much, the kind of food that appears on the table before the main thing, and then somehow becomes the thing you remember.
And I have to confess that these are still some of the dishes I think about most often when I miss the food from our trips.
I should also say that I was not looking for fine dining experiences in Puerto de la Cruz. Partly because this was a long trip — 22 days is a lot of time, and restaurant meals can very quickly add up and even double the cost of a holiday if you are not careful.
What I was looking for instead were places with a more local feeling. Small restaurants. Simple places. Restaurants recommended by people who lived there or by other travellers who seemed to care about the same things. Places with dishes of the day, traditional food, and menus that felt connected to the island rather than created only for tourists.
You will probably notice this from the restaurants included here, and even more if you look them up later on Google Maps or Tripadvisor. Most of them are not spectacular in a luxury sense. They are not the kind of places where you go for a perfect table setting or a tasting menu. They are the kind of places where you hope to eat something honest, local, and memorable at the end of a long day.
With one exception — one evening when we were extremely tired, and because of a local holiday many restaurants were closed, we ended up eating a burger. Apart from that, the idea was simple: to eat mostly traditional food from Tenerife and the Canary Islands, in places that still felt close to the everyday life of Puerto de la Cruz.
There is one restaurant on this list — probably the one I will begin with — that was a little more expensive than the others. I chose it for a specific reason. I had seen many good reviews, it had been recommended as a good place for fish, and since I celebrated my birthday during this trip to Tenerife, it felt like the right moment to have a slightly more special meal.
But I want to make this clear from the beginning: that restaurant is not representative of the general price level of the meals we had in Puerto de la Cruz. Most of the places in this article are simpler, more casual, and closer to the kind of everyday food experience we were looking for during a long stay.
So this is not a definitive ranking of the best restaurants in Puerto de la Cruz, and it is not a complete food guide to the town. It is a personal selection of places where I actually ate during a long stay in Tenerife — the meals I remember, the dishes I would order again, the small disappointments, the good surprises, and the kind of simple food that, for me, became part of the island.
I will begin with the restaurant where I had my birthday dinner, the most special meal of the trip, and then move towards the smaller, more casual places that shaped most of our evenings in Puerto de la Cruz.
La Cofradía de Pescadores
La Cofradía de Pescadores is one of those places in Puerto de la Cruz where it is probably wise to book in advance. It is a popular restaurant, and from what I could see, many tables were already reserved. We did not have a reservation, but we arrived right at opening time and were among the first people waiting. Luckily, besides the reserved tables, there were still a few free ones available.
We ended up sitting upstairs, on the terrace, looking towards the water. The restaurant is very close to the port, and that already gives the meal a certain atmosphere. It felt like the right place for a proper fish dinner in Puerto de la Cruz — a little more special than most of the meals we had during the trip, but still not pretentious.
The service was very good. The waiters and the staff felt professional, attentive, and used to handling a busy restaurant. This was also the place where we had the biggest fish plate of the entire trip.
We ordered a large platter with several kinds of fish — I do not remember the exact weight, but it must have been around one kilo, maybe even a little more. It was an enormous amount of food. Before that, of course, we also ordered papas with mojo. To be honest, compared with other places in Puerto de la Cruz, I was not extremely impressed by the papas con mojo here. They were fine, but not the thing I remember most from this meal.
The fish, however, more than made up for it.
It was simple, fresh, and cooked perfectly. We chose the fish of the day, served without unnecessary complications, and added only a very simple lemon dressing. That was all it needed. When fish is cooked that well, you do not need much else.
I do not want to give exact prices in this article, because prices change, and by the time you read this they will almost certainly be different. But I can say that although La Cofradía de Pescadores was more expensive than most of the other restaurants we tried in Puerto de la Cruz, the value was still very good for what we received. If I remember correctly, the large fish platter was somewhere under 40–45 euros. That may sound expensive at first, but once you see the size of the portion, the price makes much more sense.
This was not the cheapest meal of the trip, but it was the most substantial fish meal we had in Tenerife, and for that kind of experience — a large terrace near the port, good service, and a huge platter of properly cooked fish — the price felt justified.
Would I return to La Cofradía de Pescadores? It is a little difficult to say.
I am absolutely sure that when I return to Tenerife, the first few days will probably be dedicated to the simple things I miss the most: papas con mojo, queso con mojo, and pimientos de Padrón. Those are the dishes I would want immediately. La Cofradía was a different kind of meal — larger, more focused on fish, and more of a special occasion.
As a personal rating, based only on what I ordered and how I experienced the place, I would probably give it an 8.5 out of 10. But I always think ratings need a small warning. This is my taste, my meal, my mood, my birthday dinner, and my experience. There are billions of different tastes in the world, and what works very well for me may not work in the same way for someone else.
For me, as a birthday meal in Puerto de la Cruz, 8.5 feels fair. And yes, I could see myself returning if I were in Tenerife again — especially for a proper fish meal near the port.
Bar El Camino
Bar El Camino is a place I ate at during both of my trips to Tenerife.
After the first meal we had there, sometime during our first trip in 2023, it became one of those restaurants we kept talking about long after leaving the island. Whenever we imagined returning to Tenerife, we also imagined eating at Bar El Camino again — not once, but many times. That first experience had stayed with us so strongly that, before the second trip, I honestly thought we might end up eating there five or six times.
The bar itself is relatively small and sits on a set of steps, not far from the route that leads towards the Agatha Christie stairs. During our second stay in Puerto de la Cruz, we passed by it almost every day, either on the way from our hotel or when returning to it. So of course, soon after arriving — maybe on the first or second day — we went back.
And the strange thing is that we liked it again. The food was good. The place still had that small, local, slightly hidden feeling that made it memorable the first time. But we never returned after that one meal.
From all our plans of eating there several times during the trip, we ended up going only once.
There were two reasons for this, and I want to be fair about it. Most of the food was very good, but we ordered some tapas plates that were heavily seasoned with a spice or condiment that did not sit well with us. It was not simply that we disliked the flavor. It made our stomachs feel a little uncomfortable afterwards.
I know this is probably not the usual experience, and I do not want to reduce the restaurant to that one detail, because the rest of the meal was genuinely good. But I think that was the moment when we said: maybe we should try other places too.
The problem was that the issue appeared in one of the tapas we had expected to enjoy the most. So instead of risking the same thing a second or third time, especially during a long stay when there were so many other places to discover in Puerto de la Cruz, we decided to keep Bar El Camino as a good memory — but not make it our main restaurant of the trip.
Even with that small incident, Bar El Camino remains one of the places I would recommend to anyone visiting Puerto de la Cruz.
Maybe it was just bad luck. Maybe it was the heat of that particular day. Maybe we were simply sensitive to one specific spice or seasoning. I do not know. But I know that the rest of the food was very good, and I had already eaten there before and enjoyed it a lot.
So I do not want to judge the place too harshly because of one moment. Bar El Camino still feels like a restaurant worth trying in Puerto de la Cruz — small, memorable, and with enough character to remain in my mind even after two different trips to Tenerife.
Olea Pintxos Bar
Olea Pintxos Bar became one of our favorite places in Puerto de la Cruz, and one of the few restaurants we returned to several times during the trip.
This became a recurring pattern during our stay. At the beginning, we tried different places — maybe eight or nine restaurants in total — but after a while, we stopped feeling the need to experiment every evening. Once we found places where we felt good, where the food worked for us, and where the atmosphere matched the rhythm of the trip, we simply returned to them.
Olea Pintxos Bar was one of those places.
I know pintxos are not traditional Tenerife food. This is not papas con mojo, queso con mojo, or a classic Canarian meal. But I had first eaten pintxos many years ago in Ibiza, and I remembered how much I liked that way of eating — small bites, many flavors, the pleasure of choosing, tasting, comparing. My fiancée had never tried pintxos before, so when we found this bar in Puerto de la Cruz, I was genuinely excited that we could discover it together.
The bar is located on a pedestrian street, close to the center. It is not on a tiny hidden alley, but it still feels nicely tucked into the walking rhythm of the town. The fact that cars do not pass through that street helps a lot. It makes the place feel more relaxed, more suited for an evening when you want to sit down, order a few things, talk, and slowly add more food if you feel like it.
The bar itself is not very large, so if it is full, you may have to wait a little. But for us, it was worth it.
What I liked most, beyond the location and the kindness of the staff, was the taste of the pintxos themselves. We enjoyed them a lot. There was enough variety to make the meal interesting, and that was part of the pleasure: we could choose a few things we already knew we liked, and then, each time we returned, add two or three new ones.
Nothing felt difficult. Nothing caused any problems. Everything we tried was good, and the experience remained consistently enjoyable.
This is one of the places I would recommend with confidence to anyone visiting Puerto de la Cruz. Again, it is not a traditional Canarian restaurant, and it is not the place to go if your only goal is to eat local island food. But because of the quality of the food, the easy atmosphere, the friendliness of the staff, and the very fair prices, Olea Pintxos Bar became one of the restaurants we were happiest to return to.
And yes — if I went back to Puerto de la Cruz, I would almost certainly eat there again.
I could probably mention one or two specific pintxos that I liked, but with places like this — and the same is true for other restaurants in this article that are not strictly Canarian — I think it is better not to make the recommendation too dependent on a fixed menu.
In this kind of bar, the kitchen may change things often. Some pintxos disappear, others are added, and if you visit six months later, you may not find exactly the same selection I had. So for me, the important thing is not one single pintxo, but the overall consistency of the place.
From everything we tried — and I think the photos show that we tried quite a varied selection — I do not remember being disappointed by any of them.
And there is one thing I do remember very clearly: the pimientos de Padrón at Olea Pintxos Bar were probably among the best we had in Puerto de la Cruz. Every time we went there, we ordered two portions, simply because we liked them that much.
La Pescaderia
I think we ate at La Pescadería three times during the trip.
The pimientos de Padrón and the papas con mojo were fine — good, but not spectacular. They were not the dishes that made the place memorable for us. The real strength of La Pescadería was everything connected to seafood.
Everything we tried in that direction — octopus, shellfish, and other seafood dishes — was extremely good. In fact, on two of the evenings, the food was honestly close to a 10 out of 10 for us. We were surprised by how much we enjoyed it, especially considering that the restaurant is right in the center, by the street, in an area where you could easily assume the food might be more tourist oriented.
There is only one small note I would make. On the third evening, some of the dishes felt slightly different from what we remembered. Not bad at all — I have no real complaint — but maybe more like a 9 instead of a 10. The flavors were not the same as on the previous visits.
Even so, overall, La Pescadería was excellent for us. It is one of those places that could easily be underestimated because of its central location, outdoor tables, umbrellas, and busy street atmosphere. But the food, especially the seafood, was very, very good.
It is definitely a restaurant I would return to in Puerto de la Cruz, and one where I would happily eat again.
Bar Cafetería Central
Bar Cafetería Central is in Plaza del Charco, probably the most important square in Puerto de la Cruz and one of the places you will almost certainly pass through if you spend time in the town.
I cannot write about it in the same level of detail as some of the other places in this article, because we only ate there once. It was more of a simple breakfast or light meal than a proper restaurant experience, and we did not order a lot of food.
Still, what we had was good. The food was fine, the staff were nice, and the place felt very local. From what I remember, the vast majority of people sitting there were locals — maybe 90 percent — which usually says something about a bar in such a central location.
I also remember that we managed in Spanish. I do not think English was widely spoken, at least during our visit, but that was not a problem for us.
Because we only went once, I do not want to overstate the recommendation. I can say that our experience was positive, and I suspect it may be a good place for other simple things as well, not only for what we ordered. It felt like the kind of everyday bar that serves the square and the people who use it regularly.
Would I return? Probably yes, but more out of curiosity than certainty. Next time I am in Puerto de la Cruz, I would be willing to give it another chance and try more from the menu.
Smash Hub Puerto de la Cruz
Smash Hub Puerto de la Cruz was probably the place we had the hardest time reaching, even though it was close to our hotel.
We went there on an evening when it was raining heavily — not just a little rain, but the kind of rain that makes walking around town feel almost impossible. Because of that, we took the car, and I still remember driving around the nearby streets several times, trying to find a place to park. As I have mentioned before, parking in Puerto de la Cruz can be a real problem, and that evening made it very clear.
This was not a restaurant we chose because we wanted a traditional Canarian meal. It was the opposite. We wanted something easy, quick, and reliable. We were tired, the weather was terrible, and after looking online, we found enough good reviews saying that the burgers were worth trying.
So Smash Hub became the burger exception of the trip.
I should say from the beginning that, although I have eaten many burgers over the years and I do occasionally crave one, burgers are not usually the kind of food that stays with me deeply after a trip. For me, a burger is rarely something extraordinary. It can be good, it can be satisfying, but it is still usually just a burger.
I think part of the reason we went was that my fiancée wanted to try it, and I was happy to go along with the idea. We had seen reviews, the weather was bad, and it made sense for that evening.
I have nothing negative to say about Smash Hub. The burger was good. The experience was fine. It did what it needed to do. But for me, this was the kind of place you try once, enjoy for what it is, and then move on.
It is not one of the restaurants I would return to first in Puerto de la Cruz, especially when there are so many local dishes I would rather eat again. But if you are in town, tired, hungry, and simply want a decent burger instead of another traditional meal, Smash Hub is a perfectly reasonable option.
I do not want this to sound like I disliked it. That would not be fair. The burger was good, the place did its job, and for that particular evening — rain, tiredness, and the need for something quick — it made sense.
But for me, it remained a quick meal rather than a food memory from Tenerife. I enjoyed it, but I would not plan to return there on a future trip. Not because there was anything wrong with it, but because when I am in Tenerife, I would rather spend my meals on traditional food — papas con mojo, queso, pimientos de Padrón, fish, seafood, and the kind of simple local dishes that stayed with me much more strongly.
So Smash Hub is a good option if you want a burger in Puerto de la Cruz. I just would not personally choose it again over the local food.
Mesón Los Gemelos
Mesón Los Gemelos became one of our favourite restaurants in Puerto de la Cruz.
It was not the easiest place to enter. Every time we passed by, there seemed to be a queue outside. I remember at least two different days when we wanted to eat there, saw the line, and gave up. Then, on another evening, one of our favorite restaurants in town was closed, so we decided to try Los Gemelos again and see if we had any chance.
This time, we were lucky. We arrived close to opening time, put our name on the list, and managed to get a table inside.
The staff were very nice, which by that point started to feel like a recurring theme in Tenerife. In many places, people were simply kind, relaxed, and helpful. But what really impressed us at Mesón Los Gemelos was the food.
This may have been the best queso with mojo I had in Puerto de la Cruz. The cheese stayed in my mind completely. I loved it. It was simple, but the flavor was exactly the kind of thing I kept thinking about after the trip.
And then came the fish.
We had bacalao and another traditional local fish, and they were among the best fish dishes I have ever eaten. Much better, for my taste, than the fish at La Cofradía de Pescadores. In a way, maybe the comparison is not entirely fair, because at La Cofradía the fish was simply grilled, while here the dishes had more flavor, more sauce, more combination. But still — the taste at Los Gemelos was superb.
This is one of the restaurants I would want to return to. I have eaten bacalao and tuna in Portugal as well, and I love that kind of food, but Mesón Los Gemelos is one of the few places that really gives those memories a run for their money. That is how much we enjoyed it.
If La Cofradía was the special birthday fish meal, Mesón Los Gemelos was the place where the food surprised me more deeply. It felt less like a planned special dinner and more like the kind of restaurant you discover, struggle a little to enter, and then understand why people were waiting outside.
The restaurant filled up very quickly. When we arrived, I think there were only three tables still free, and shortly after opening, those were taken as well. So yes, it is busy, and yes, there were many tourists.
Normally, that can put me off a little. When a restaurant is very full and very visible to tourists, I sometimes become suspicious. But in this case, I had nothing to complain about. It was crowded, but not unpleasantly noisy, and the food was simply too good to ignore.
We liked Mesón Los Gemelos a lot, and it is one of the places in Puerto de la Cruz I genuinely look forward to revisiting. It really was that good.
Bodegón Puerto Cruz
If I left Puerto de la Cruz with one food regret, it is that we could not eat at Bodegón Puerto Cruz on our last day.
In a way, maybe that was also a good thing, because otherwise we might not have discovered Mesón Los Gemelos. But still, Bodegón Puerto Cruz remains, at least for me, my favorite place to eat in Puerto de la Cruz.
We returned there several times, for lunch, dinner, or whenever it fit the rhythm of the day. And every time, we stayed close to the kind of food I loved most in Tenerife: queso con mojo, local soups, papas con mojo, simple traditional dishes that did not need to be reinvented.
It is a small place, but it has soul. That is probably the simplest way I can describe it.
There was a bit of a language barrier between us and the staff. We managed with the little Spanish I speak, with gestures, smiles, and sometimes Google Translate. But that became part of the experience. We laughed, we tried to understand each other, we pointed at things, we asked questions, and somehow everything worked.
The staff were lovely, the food was fresh and good, and the whole place had warmth that made us want to return repeatedly. It did not feel like a restaurant we were simply trying for the article. It became part of our stay.
For me, Bodegón Puerto Cruz was a 10 out of 10 experience. Not because it was luxurious, not because it was perfect in some formal way, but because it gave me exactly what I wanted from food in Puerto de la Cruz: honest local dishes, a small welcoming room, kind people, and the feeling that I had found a place I would genuinely miss.
If I return to Puerto de la Cruz, this is the first place where I would want to eat again. There is no doubt about that.
From the outside, Bodegón Puerto Cruz does not necessarily announce itself as something special. It is not the kind of place that tries to impress you before you enter.
Inside, one part of the space is dedicated to the food — dishes being prepared, things displayed behind the counter, the feeling that the kitchen is close and visible. In the other part, there are only a few tables. Not many. Solid wooden tables, heavy chairs, a simple room that feels practical rather than designed.
But that was exactly what I liked.
Eating there did not feel like eating in a restaurant in the usual sense. It felt a little like being inside someone’s family space. Like the food came from a place that had a real daily rhythm, not from a menu created only for visitors. And I think that, together with the food itself, was the main reason why we liked Bodegón Puerto Cruz so much.
If you only have one day in town, you may also enjoy reading my guide to spending a perfect day in Puerto de la Cruz.
Arcón Tapas
I wanted to leave Arcón Tapas towards the end of this article because, when I first started preparing these notes, I was not completely sure whether the place was still open. And in a way, that would have been a pity. In another way, after reading some of the reviews online, I could also understand why some people may have had mixed feelings about it.
Arcón Tapas was not exactly in the middle of the busiest part of Puerto de la Cruz, but slightly to the side. It had a few tables outside and more tables inside, and from what I remember, it felt more like a small tapas place than a large restaurant.
What I can say with certainty is that this is where I had the best papas con mojo in Puerto de la Cruz.
And that alone explains why I would have been sorry if the restaurant had disappeared. The potatoes were very, very good — exactly the kind of simple food I kept thinking about after Tenerife. In a trip where papas con mojo became one of my favorite things to order, Arcón Tapas gave me the version I remember most clearly.
At the same time, I cannot say the attitude of the staff impressed me in the same way. And I noticed that this is also something mentioned in quite a few online reviews. The food was good, the papas con mojo were probably the best we had, but the overall feeling was not as warm as in places like Bodegón Puerto Cruz.
That matters to me. I like to feel good in a place from all points of view — not only because the food is good, but also because the atmosphere, the staff, and the whole experience make me want to stay.
So would I return? I am not completely sure.
For the papas con mojo, yes, I understand why the place belongs in this article. They were excellent. But as a full experience, I did not feel the same attachment I felt in some of the other restaurants in Puerto de la Cruz.
This article is part of my larger Spain Travel Guide, where I collect all my itineraries, hotels, food experiences, and travel tips from Spain.
Final Thoughts: Would I Return to Puerto de la Cruz for the Food?
If I compare this trip to my most recent one in the Algarve, I must be honest: the food in the Algarve felt sensational to me. It was the kind of place where food alone could almost become a reason to return.
Tenerife was different.
The food in Puerto de la Cruz was very good, and some dishes genuinely stayed with me — especially the papas con mojo, queso con mojo, pimientos de Padrón, and a few excellent fish and seafood meals. But when I think about Tenerife, I do not think only about food. I think about the feeling of the island, the landscapes, the north, the roads, the towns, the light, the places we discovered, and the rhythm of spending 22 days there.
Food completed that experience. It gave it warmth, routine, and memory. But I would not say that I would return to Tenerife only for the food.
With the Algarve, I could almost imagine doing that.
With Tenerife, I would return for the island itself — and then, once there, I would know exactly what I want to eat first: papas con mojo, queso con mojo, pimientos de Padrón, and a table at Bodegón Puerto Cruz.
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