30 Apr Where to Eat in Seville – My Tapas Experience in Andalusía
As I said in the first article of this series, I won’t review restaurants like I did before on the blog. I will take a different approach here because eating in Spain has been a bit different than eating in other parts of Europe.
First of all, I did not select fancy places or Michelin-rated restaurants for my meals. I wanted tapas and I wanted locals, so I looked for places with lots and lots of reviews on Trip Advisor, double checked them on Google and in the end I asked around a bit just to be sure.
All my meals in Andalucía were taken sitting at the bar between locals or other tourists, waiting for the delicious tapas to arrive. I think this added an extra plus to my journey and to the meals because I got the opportunity to see how people order, eat and enjoy their meals and drinks more closely than just sitting at a table in the corner of a restaurant.
So for this article I will start by listing the places where I ate some tapas in Seville, then start telling you a bit about each place.
Before I start I must confess I took no names for the tapas. It would have been a hard mission to keep writing the names in my phone, taking pictures, pushing and moving with other customers and actually enjoying the meal itself.
I will rate the entire restaurant, not just one dish and if I remember something special when I look back at the pictures I will make sure to let you know about it.
So the places I visited during my stay in Seville were:
Bodega Santa Cruz for 2 small meals
La Cata Ciega for 2 meals
Taberna Alvaro Peregil for one meal
Bar Alfalfa for one meal
Dos d Mayo for 2 meals
Bodega Santa Cruz
3938 reviews on Trip Advisor- 86th restaurant in Seville
I won’t spend too much time on this place due to the fact that I only used it for two quick meals in the morning. Well, late morning, because you can easily have breakfast at 12:00 in Spain.
The things I tried were simple yet good tasting and I feel sorry for not giving it a try during the evening as well, but due to the processions for Semana Santa many roads were blocked, traffic was heavy and I needed to go around for about 2/3 kilometers just to cross a line of 250 meters.
However, I can say that the staff is nice, the things I tried were ok and I could pay by card. I think it is a nice stop if you just finished visiting the Cathedral or Real Alcazar due to its proximity to these places.
There is something special about sitting outside, enjoying your coffee and glancing at the Giralda, so this place could serve you well in the morning, before your scheduled visit to the Cathedral or after you climbed the tower.
La Cata Ciega
129 reviews on Trip Advisor- 2nd restaurant in Seville
Even though this place has only a few ratings, especially when compared to Bodega Santa Cruz for example, I will confess from the start that I really enjoyed eating here.
Both nights I ate there I let the guys behind the bar pick for me and I was very pleased each time. One night’s tapas accompanied by beer and the other night accompanied by Tinto de Verano (cold wine which you should really try – I really enjoyed it), the food here was great. Great dishes for both meat eaters and vegetarians so everyone can pick their favorites and have a great meal.
Very, very small place, I think just a few spots at the bar and three or four small tables, but a great atmosphere, lots of wines to choose from, great staff and good food. Very good food. In my opinion this place really deserves a visit.
Taberna Alvaro Peregil
649 reviews on Trip Advisor- 169th restaurant in Seville
From the start I will make one thing clear. If this place is just the 169th, then really Seville is the world’s food capital. I had lunch here on a hot day after walking all the way up to Macarena and back, getting lost on those little streets and admiring a city that was ready to celebrate Easter.
I had quite a few tapas, as you can see from the pictures, and yes, this place has good, good food. Not to mention it is about 50 meters away from Bodega Santa Cruz and not more than 200 meters from the Cathedral. Taberna Alvaro Peregil is a great place in which to taste authentic tapas. Don’t let the ranking on Trip Advisor fool you and give this place a try. You will enjoy it.
Bar Alfalfa
1455 reviews on Trip Advisor- 53rd restaurant in Seville
I only had one lunch here so maybe I didn’t capture everything right, but for me this place passes as just decent to good. While the staff is OK and the place is a bit bigger than others, I feel that I had better meals in other places and by no means should this place rank above Taberna Alvaro Peregil for example, with such a big difference.
Here you can see that quite a few things from the menu are not original tapas, but you can also find Italian or Middle Eastern food as well. You can try this place if you are curious, but from my point of view I had better meals in Seville.
Dos d Mayo
1842 reviews- 112th restaurant in Seville
Now it is time for my favorite place in Seville. Recommended by a girl from my hotel, I ate here two times and loved it each time.
The bodega is large and also has a terrace outside, but on both evenings I barely found a place at the bar, the place filled with locals and some tourists. The staff is great and I was very lucky to ask one of the guys working there to pick the tapas for me. He asked what I was drinking and chose tapas that matched the drink. I tasted everything from vegetables to cod and found it delicious. I found the cod (bacalao) to be just amazing here and I loved that tapa.
Also the tuna was delicious and it was my first time I ever ate meat that was just medium done. I do find the Tinto de Verano better at La Cata Ciega but not by a big margin, so this place was something special for me. If ever in Seville, this is a must try. I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to eat here again.
Now that the short reviews are done, I just want to tell you a few things about tapas and food in Spain. In my opinion tapas are amazing. They are a real treat and in Spain you can have tapas from 0.80 cents/tapa up to 4.5 euro/tapa (the highest price I remember paying). This is not only something local, something the locals enjoy eating, but also a traveler’s dream.
I am very curious by nature and I do love food, but I could not afford paying for 3-4 dishes at each table to sample everything Andalucía has to offer. Even after I ate at more than 15 restaurants and bodegas and after trying tens of tapas, I do not feel that I am close to what this part of Spain has to offer in terms of food.
But I did get a taste. I got an idea of how it is to live, to eat there, to drink beer, sherry, wine, Tinto de Verano and other local drinks.
So if you go to Spain, if you go to Andalucía, let yourself enjoy these special little places filled with locals, filled with small plates, filled with people standing up and eating while chatting loudly to each other.
Because if you don’t, you will miss out on a lot of things. And I’m not only talking about great food and traditional dishes, but actually seeing how people live, how they interact, how they talk to each other.
Also, if you think of eating full dishes, you could be doing yourself a little wrong. Spain is one of the biggest countries in Europe, with an amazing history where many nations lived, moved, went to war and brought back special tastes. And those tastes and influences can still be found in the food today. So by ordering just one big dish you could end up with a good meal, but you could also miss the opportunity of tasting things that are not available in other places.
I hope you liked this article and found it useful. Next up will be a review of my accommodation in Cordoba (great, great place), so stay tuned!
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