The best tapas bars and restaurants in Seville

In Seville, you can hop from one traditional tiled tapas bar to the next, trying out small plates of baby clams with artichokes, or wafer-thin slices of jamon iberico. Alternatively, you can slide int...
The Telegraph
2022-08-03T09:00:00Z
In Seville, you can hop from one traditional tiled tapas bar to the next, trying out small plates of baby clams with artichokes, or wafer-thin slices of jamon iberico. Alternatively, you can slide into a chic velvet booth and dine on crab tacos and tuna ceviche. Instead of sangria, an over-priced tourist cliché, order like a local and go for tinto de verano (red wine with soda water) – or else sample the sherry selection, available in most restaurants. Be aware that you often pay more at an outside table.
This is still one of Seville’s most authentic bars, with walls covered in Semana Santa (Holy Week) and Feria posters, and hams hanging from the ceiling. Yes, it’s a visitors’ favourite, but has lost none of its uncompromising charm. Stand at the bar, order a tapa of cheese with a glass of chilled Tio Pepe sherry, and you’ll feel like a local. Be sure to watch the jamon being finely sliced behind the bar – the master carvers are highly skilled. Eat inside to get the full experience (you can’t order tapas at outside tables, only big plates), ideally at the corner table by the door.

With two restaurants – in San Lorenzo (Calle Conde de Barajas), and Santa Cruz (calle Mateos Gago) – this gastro-bar which blazed the trail for the new tapas scene 15 years ago still offers an excellent menu and is always packed. Décor is simple, with the focus on the food – four or five daily specials such grilled beef loin with mushrooms or rock fish with spicy tartare sauce; menu staples include filo parcels with cheese, leeks and prawns, and baby clams with artichokes. Dry muscatel Botani is a white wine revelation. The Santa Cruz branch also opens for breakfast.

A modern, stylish space near Las Setas, with an open kitchen and six outside tables on a pedestrianised street – this sherry specialist joint offers an impressive choice of

This sophisticated restaurant on central Plaza Nueva has a lush, jungly feel – the ground-floor bar is under a massive tree canopy, and plants hang from the ceiling. Food is confidently global - sea bass ceviche or chicken gyozas. House cocktails are exotic, beautifully presented concoctions – '1001 nights' has rum, matcha tea, and date and tamarind syrup, and comes in a mosaic bowl, while 'the Silk Road' is gin, saffron and coconut milk. The downstairs area with sexy curved booths is buzzy, while upstairs is quieter. Service from the young wait staff is impressively knowledgeable and attentive.

Dive into this open-all-day abacería (traditional grocery shop, now doubling as a tapas bar) in a homely 17th-century house with walls covered in old photos and knick-knacks. Seating is in cosy areas where you’ll inevitably end up chatting to your neighbours. There’s an excellent range of cheese and cold meat (you can buy them to take away too) such as white pudding sausage and Payoyo goat’s cheese from Cadiz. Hearty traditional numbers include “el plato de Abuelo Justo”: fried potatoes, eggs, peppers and ham, or trust to luck with “lo que diga Ramón” – chef-owner Ramon’s choice. Sip white Rueda or a vermut (vermouth).

From the outside this looks like a typical abaceria (grocery), with its wood-framed display window packed with jars of chickpeas and artichokes. But inside, tucked away at the back, you’ll find a small bar that feels very hidden, with walls plastered in scores of handwritten notes, all overseen by owners, classic Sevillano characters Francisco and Carmen. The menu consists largely of delicious montaditos (small sandwiches) – cabrales (blue cheese) or caña de lomo (pork loin) served on waxed paper. With no tables, and not much space, the lively atmosphere is ideal for a pre-dinner snack and glass of Cruzcampo beer, Seville’s own brew.

One of Seville’s most popular eating spots, Eslava on Plaza San Lorenzo has a tapas space with long bar and tables at the back, and a more formal restaurant next door. It’s usually packed, so squeeze your way in and nab a spot at the bar, or sit outside at a tall table with stools. You’ll want to taste award-winning, finger-licking honey pork ribs, and boletus mushroom cake topped with a poached egg and caramelized wine reduction; the more adventurous might try Becquer’s cigar”, a filo roll filled with squid in its ink, seaweed and bechamel. Venture north to Extremadura for rich red wines from high-tech Habla winery.

This slick joint, steps from the cathedral, is a favourite with groups of friends; the