85 Best Restaurants in Andalusia, Spain

With a young vibe and a vast and inventive menu (which changes seasonally), this tiny restaurant offers a welcome change from Seville's typical fried fare. The owners' haute-cuisine ambitions are reflected in excellent service and lovingly prepared food—but not in the prices. Typical dishes include baby shrimp churros, smoked potato salad, rabbit ribs with garlic fries, and fresh fish from nearby Cádiz. Reservations are available for weekday lunches only; at any other time, put your name on the waiting list and pop to the Azotea bar across the road for a drink and generous tapa (€5) while you wait. La Azotea has two other venues (Calle Mateas Gago and Calle Zaragoza, both open all day, every day), but the original offers the best local vibe.

Opposite the city hall, this busy restaurant with swift service has pleasant outdoor seating under orange trees and a modern interior with low lighting. Albores serves innovative, modern dishes with a traditional base. The menu is extensive and changes often, although must-try staples include barriga de atún con salsa de soja y mermelada de tomate (tuna belly with soy sauce and tomato jam) and Retinta beef. Don't miss the crême brûlée with white chocolate and paired sweet wine.

The recipient of a Michelin star annually since 2013 and maintaining the prized triple star since 2018, Ángel León showcases his creative seafood dishes in this unusual restaurant housed in an 18th-century tidal mill whose decor takes you under the sea with fishtail-back chairs and mermaids. Aponiente serves one tasting menu (€215 , wine pairing €100 extra), and you can expect plenty of gastronomic inventions such as pumpkin tacos with anchovy, cuttlefish with potatoes, and rice with plankton and sea cucumber.

Tables can be reserved only 1–2:15 for lunch and 8–9:15 for dinner, and only via the online booking form.

A block east of the Plaza del Potro, this traditional old bodega with high-quality service is the epitome of all that's great about Andalusian cuisine. The dining rooms are in barrel-heavy rustic rooms and leafy traditional patios (take a look at some of the signed barrels—you may recognize a name or two, such as the former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair). Magnificent vintage flamenco posters decorate the walls. Regional dishes, starring local produce, include solomillo del Valle de los Pedroches dos salsas y patatas a lo pobre (local pork with two sauces—green and sherry—and creamy potatoes) and pâté de perdiz (partridge pâté) with Pedro Ximénez wine. Vegetables come from the restaurant's own market garden, and it makes its own Montilla. There's also an excellent tapas bar (from €3.50).

Located southeast of Granada's cathedral, this modern hot spot is a world apart from Granada's usual traditional tapas bar. It attracts an eclectic crowd of students, families, and businesspeople with a diverse international menu, including Mexican fajitas, Vietnamese nems, and Greek souvlaki. Seating is outside on the pleasant sidewalk overlooking the Botanical Garden or inside in two sizable dining areas.

Cádiz's most quintessentially Andalusian tavern is in the neighborhood of La Viña, named for the vineyard that once grew here. Chacina (Iberian ham or sausage) and chicharrones de Cádiz (cold pork) served on waxed paper and washed down with manzanilla (sherry from Sanlúcar de Barrameda) are standard fare at the low wooden counter that has served bullfighters and flamenco singers, as well as dignitaries from around the world, since 1953. The walls are covered with colorful posters and other memorabilia from the annual Carnival, flamenco shows, and ferias. A few hot dishes are available such as albóndigas (meatballs). This venue is popular, so join the line 30 minutes before opening or try its sister restaurant, Arte Puro, down the block at No. 55.

The city's most veteran Michelin-star restaurant (renewed annually since 2012), El Choco has renowned chef Kisko Garcia at the helm whipping up innovative dishes based on his 10 commandments to preserve good cooking. One of them is that taste always comes first, and that plays out well during a meal at this minimalist restaurant with charcoal-colored walls, glossy parquet floors, and dishes offering new sensations and amazing presentations. You start dinner in the entrance lounge and then move into the kitchen to watch a dish being prepared before you go to your table. Two tasting menus are available (from €120), with plenty of tasty creative surprises. Allow three hours for your meal. Take a cab; El Choco is outside the city center to the east and not easy to find.

The modern wood-paneled dining room and warm lighting form the perfect setting for the creative Andalusian cuisine cooked here by local chef Lola Marín, who learned her trade with some of Spain's top chefs, such as Martín Berasategui. The eight-course tasting menu changes weekly (cold and hot starters, fish, meat, and dessert), and you can opt for wine pairings.

Tucked away in the warren of alleyways in a restored Albayzín villa, this lovely restaurant offers what may be the best food in the area. There's a formal dining room, an outside garden with pear and quince trees, and a roof terrace with Alhambra views. House specialties include codillo asado con salsa de manzanilla (roast pork with dry sherry). The owner welcomes diners personally and keeps a very close eye on the kitchen.

Excellent tapas (try the lamb kebab with dates and couscous), a lively bar, and an extensive wine list await at this restaurant run by the fifth generation of a family of celebrated restaurateurs. The menu focuses on traditional, home-cooked Andalusian dishes, such as cod in a green sauce, pork fillet in whiskey, and cola de toro guisado con salsa de vino tinto (stewed oxtail in red wine sauce). Don't miss the fried eggplant stuffed with prawns or the lamb meatballs. If you want a quiet meal, call to reserve a table in one of the small upstairs rooms.

Just off the main road opposite the Hotel Colón, this small and cozy bar has established itself as one of Ronda's best for tapas, wine, and artisanal beer. Local Ronda wines are a specialty here—in fact, they're the only ones available, although with more than 100 on the wine list, you'll be spoiled for choice; ask the waiter for recommendations and which tapas to pair them with. Tapas (from €1.50) include fideos negros con chipirones y alioli (black noodles with baby squid and garlic sauce) and a mini beef burger with foie gras. This atmospheric place with wood-paneled barrel ceiling and wine bottles lining the walls is popular and fills up quickly, so arrive early (1:30 pm or 8 pm).

The crowds gathered outside this local favorite off the Alameda de Hercules may be off-putting at first, but the creative inexpensive tapas (from €4) are well worth the wait—and so is the house specialty, the Basque dessert sokoa. Try delicacies like the cigarro para Bécquer (cuttlefish in a filo pastry cigar) and yema sobre bizcocho de boletus (egg atop a mushroom sponge). Tables at the tapas bar can't be booked (a call will get you a reservation at the next-door Eslava restaurant); to help avoid a wait, visit between 12:30 and 1:30 pm or between 5 and 8 pm.

Also known simply as Casa de Vinos (Wine House), this place, up a pedestrian street just behind Plaza Nueva, is a must for Spanish wine lovers. The cozy interior is reminiscent of a ship's cabin, with wood paneling lining the walls along with more than 200 bottles of Spanish wines. A different wine is featured each week, and vermouth and sherries are on tap in barrels behind the counter. Choose from tapas (€4.50–€7) or cold meats, cheeses, and pâtés, served on 11 different types and sizes of boards (€10–€25). The house board includes three cold meats, goat cheese, and two pâtés.

Under the gilt-edged ceiling at Seville's most celebrated pastry outlet (founded in 1885), you can enjoy the flanlike tocino de cielo, or \"heavenly bacon.\" For breakfast, enjoy a traditional feed of toasted bread with tomato and a strong coffee, served at a standing bar. Prices are reasonable despite its popularity.

This eatery has a rustic atmosphere with arches, wooden beams, and a fireplace for winter nights. The chef has worked at several top restaurants, and his menu includes traditional grilled meats as well as innovative dishes such as gazpacho with carrots and sardines, and ham croquettes with a curry sauce. He also creates regular themed menus, often based on a sherry or a local winery. Try the menú de degustación (€75): five courses, each accompanied by a different type of sherry. Both the tapas menu and the wine list are excellent.

One of just two triple Michelin-starred venues in Andalusia, noor offers Andalusí cuisine in three tasting menus that explore the ingredients used before the discovery of the New World as well as the fusion of the New World ingredients into Spanish cooking. Local chef Paco Morales and team create in the open kitchen while diners sit at very modern tables under a dramatic Arabian nights ceiling. On arrival, guests wash their hands in orange water and sit for a tasting menu (from €170; wine pairing available). If you go for the full tasting menu, allow 3½ hours for your meal!  Book well ahead.

Offering dining in a dimly lit dining room or on the street-level terrace, this popular Argentinean-owned restaurant near the touristy alcázar has a menu full of surprises. All dishes—which come as tapas, half portions, or full portions (ideal for sharing)—are superb and sophisticated, especially the eggplant stew with tomato, goat cheese, and smoked salmon, and the pork with curried pumpkin and rocket. It can get very crowded and noisy, so it's not always an ideal place for a romantic meal for two.

Slightly off the beaten path but worth seeking, chef Julio Fernández's tasting menu takes you on a journey of the senses featuring seemingly ordinary local produce and traditional recipes elevated with unusual textures and preparations. The menu changes with the seasons, but always has nine dishes (€98) or 12 (€118) as well as extra-virgin-olive-oil menus. The long wine list includes local, Spanish, and international labels, and there are wine-pairing options. The place is relaxed and spacious, with fine crystal and freshly ironed linen on the tables. Booking is essential.

Satisfying vegetarians, vegans, and their meat-eating and celiac friends, this organic restaurant includes some meat and fish on the menu. There's a healthy mix of Mexican, Asian, Spanish, and Italian-influenced dishes, including salmon steamed in banana leaves, Vietnamese salad, and quesadilla with Iberian pork. The extensive wine list includes ecological and Andalusian labels.The interior is warm and inviting, and diners are treated to a soothing musical backdrop of jazz, blues, and chill-out music.

At this adventurous restaurant just off the main street, the chef prepares both Spanish classics, like white shrimp from Huelva and slow-roasted local lamb and goat, as well as innovative dishes like tartar de atún rojo con ajo blanco de kimchi (red tuna with garlic soup) and ensalada de helado de Olavidia (salad with award-winning local cheese). There are also plenty of roast meats. 

Some of the most colorful meals in Andalusia are served inside what were once the stables of a 16th-century palace. Fresh local produce is used to fuse Asian and Mexican flavors in what locals describe as a vibrant explosion of taste. Popular dishes include the peach couscous, the pork brioche with hoisin aioli, and the Pekinese chicharron (pork pieces). It’s barstool-seating-only inside, where an eclectic mix of old and new objects sit under the high ceilings, or outside at tables on the airy terrace under the watchful eye of the statue of flamenco icon Lola Flores.

Traditional bars don't come more authentic than Bar Juanito, which has been serving local dishes for more than 70 years and pairs everything, of course, with sherry. You can eat standing at the bar or seated in the pleasant patio restaurant, where there's often live music on Saturday. You're spoiled for choice with a long list of tapas on the menu, but house specials are artichoke dishes (in season in early spring), meatballs in oloroso, and berza jerezana (stew made with Swiss chard, chickpeas, and pork).

Run by the same family for more than 50 years and lavishly decorated in the colorful tiles that pay tribute to the neighborhood's potters, Las Golondrinas is a fixture of Triana life. The staff never change, and neither does the menu—the recipes for the punta de solomillo (sliced sirloin), chipirones (fried baby squid), and champiñones con alioli (garlicky mushrooms) have been honed to perfection, and they're served as tapas (from €3.50) or raciones (shareable portions) that keep everyone happy.

This lively bar (with sister branches on Plaza Nueva and in Calle Navas) is a big favorite with locals and draws crowds whatever the time of year. Specialties include fried fish and seafood—try the surtido de pescado (assortment of fried fish) to sample the best—as well as sesos (fried lambs' brains). No reservations are taken and seating is inside or outside with views of the Plaza de Bib-Rambla, so arrive early (1:30 pm or 8 pm) to grab some bar space or a tall table outside.

This very small, quintessentially Spanish bar, with no seats and numerous photos of matadors and flamenco dancers, seems out of place surrounded by the tourist shops and overshadowed by the Mezquita, but its appearance—and its prices—are part of its charm. Tapas (from €2.50) such as albóndigas en salsa de almendras (meatballs in almond sauce) and bocadillos (sandwiches that are literally "little mouthfuls") are excellent in quality and value, while the tortilla de patata (potato omelet) is renowned and celebrated both for its taste and its heroic thickness. When it's busy, drinks and food are served on plastic and you often have to eat outside on the street.

A block from the cathedral across Gran Vía, this is a delightfully typical Granada bodega with low ceilings and dark wood furniture. In addition to the wines, specialties here are plates of cheese, pâté, and embutidos (cold meats). You can also order a bandeja tradicional that comes with a taste of all traditional Spanish tapas or the value menú del día (weekday lunch only; €14).

A couple of blocks west of the cathedral lies one of the city’s best-loved tapas venues, usually jam-packed with locals enjoying an aperitif. Established in 1939 and now in its third generation, the bar is most famous for its meat dishes including the pringá sandwich (slow-cooked pork, chorizo, and black pudding in a bun) and pork cheeks. Cod also stars on the menu—try the carpaccio or crispy fried—along with a good selection of vegetable dishes such as the local spinach with chickpeas. Be sure to order a plate of the house potatoes, marinated in garlic and made by the owner every morning. There’s an excellent choice of wines, and sherry lovers are in for a treat because the list runs long. A warm welcome and service with a smile come guaranteed.

If you fancy treating yourself to some of the best fish in town, head for this modern Michelin-star restaurant just down the road from the Palacio de la Condesa de Lebrija. Seasonal fish and seafood take center stage; you can see the catch of the day displayed in the window. The white-tiled venue has an open kitchen—choose barstool seating for the best view of the action. Look out for the daily specials—the marinated sardines are a must in summer—and staples such as swordfish on toast, shrimp tartare, or squid stuffed with pork or seafood. The wine list offers a good by-the-glass selection, and tasting menus with paired wines (from €110) are also available. For a budget-friendly alternative, head for La Barra de Cañabota two doors away at No. 5. Advance booking is essential.

Meals here are served in a train-carriage interior decorated with railway memorabilia, while tapas reign at an outside terrace and at the bar. This distinctive eatery serves two tasting menus (from €37; prebooking only) and always has a guiso del día (stew of the day) as well as creative dishes like milhojas de cordero con boniato (lamb millefeuille with sweet potato). There's also an olive oil–tasting menu (€5 per person).