NOU MANOLÍN    Michelin Plate IIO This well-known spot in Alicante’s city centre has two distinct areas. Upstairs is a chic destination restaurant serving consistently excellent, creative seafood dishes. Downstairs, you will find a casual, come-as-you-are type of bar. We r ecommend sitting at the bustling bar counter on the first floor. (It is wise to turn up when they open the doors in the evening. We started with good ostras (oysters), then buñuelos de bacalao (deep-frie

LA CEPA DE CÁDIZ This is a great local bar where you can drink beer, wine, or Manzanilla, accompanied by chicharrones, cheeses, and other products from the Sierra de Cádiz, cold cuts from Extremadura, and a large assortment of tinned preserves. It is a place with a lot of charm, a little piece of Cádiz in Málaga for gaditanos. We settled in and had, Anchoa y leche condensada (tinned anchovy and condensed milk). Chicharrones (Pork belly with spices such as paprika, oregano, an

BODEGA BAR EL PIMPI This boisterous bar, right in the historical city centre, next to the Alcazaba, is one of Malaga’s most famous. El Pimpi is mentioned in every imaginable tourist guide. Despite its reputation as a tourist hotspot, this restaurant has maintained the quality of its food that first made it famous. It is well-priced. Bodegas Bar El Pimpi is an interesting maze-like building with a series of rooms with many different styles and cultural experiences. Photo:...

MADRID TAPAS BARS IN THE CALLE DE JESUS AREA The Plaza de Jesús and its extension, the Calle de Jesús, is a street with many bars, mainly filled with locals, near the Prada Museum and other historic sites, and a good spot for lunch after visiting the museums, etc. On a Thursday lunchtime in February, we had a stroll to a tapas bar for drinks. CERVANTES Plaza de Jesús 7, 28012 Madrid +34 914 29 60 93 We did not eat here this time, but it is a very good cerveceria offering typi

CASA LABRA It is said history was made at this bar on the 2nd of May 1879 with the formation of the PSOE (Spanish socialist party), and on walking in, it appears you could still be back in 1879 as nothing seems to have changed since then! It is an excellent traditional bar. It is famous for its croquetas de bacalao. Some of the best in Madrid. The tajadas de bacalao are pieces of cod deep-fried in batter until crispy. They are served with wooden cocktail sticks or eaten with

JOSÉ TAPAS & SHERRY BAR Situated on a corner of the now-trendy Bermondsey Street, this cosy little tapas bar serves excellent, authentic tapas. Opened by José Pizarro with his eponymous restaurant, Pizarro, further up Bermondsey Street on the same side of the road.   José is a buzzing spot for an atmospheric lunch or dinner. This is not a sit-down restaurant but a Spanish bar where you go to have a drink and some tapas, standing or sitting on stools around a barrel for a tabl

TRAGATÁ TAPAS Chef Benito Gómez, a Catalan with Málaga roots, has been working at Tragatá for 1010 years, having learned the techniques of Ferran Adrià during his stay at the Alquería de la Hacienda Benazuza in Sevilla. He also has the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Bardal in Ronda. The restaurant is informal, lively, and bright, in a space that combines the modern and the Andalucían. The foodis an eclectic mix of traditional Spanish food and international fusion cuisine. T

MARABUNDA FOOD This is an excellent bar on a quiet street in the San Lorenzo area of Sevilla. It has tall stalls at the bar or tables and chairs opposite. The open kitchen allows you to see the food being prepared. The tapas menu is short but well-executed. We have been here three times now. Gilda acostada, anchoa, boquerón, piparra y aceituna kalamata (gilda lying down, salted anchovy, pickled anchovy, piparra and kalamata olives). A must-try is croquetas de pato. Duck croq

UPDATE DECEMBER 2024: This venue has gone through many changes and is now LA MARUJONA CHÁCHARA BAR Calle de Caballeros, 2, 11403 Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz, España +34 618 05 02 82 The venue currently gets good reviews for the food and drink, although we have not been there ourselves. PREVIOUSLY PULPO Y APARTE & LA TAPERÍA MESÓN DEL ASADOR If you are looking for grilled and or octopus in Jerez de la Frontera, this is the place to come. If you like pulpo (octopus), you wi

We returned to Sevilla for the first time since 2019 after many false alarms over the past couple of years due to covid, cancelled flights, etc. This was our second tapas tour with our friend, Shawn Hennessey of Sevilla Tapas. You can see our 2019 tapas tour HERE ;  all the bars are still valid. This time, we headed for the down-to-earth Tirana district of Sevilla, which the Mercado de Triana, a lively market hall near the arched Puente de Isabel II bridge, anchors. Many re