Eating Tapas
 

I have never been to Spain before.
I am traveling with my husband and 16 year old son. I can only one or two glass' of wine and then get tipsy or sleepy. Can I order soda or something else? Do I have to order any beverage to get tapa's? My husband can drink one or two glasses or two beers with the same results. We both want to try excitng new foods.
Also, is there any problem having our 16 year old with us at Bars? Obviously he would not drink liquer.
Should we pay each time we are served, or do we get a check?
Thanks for the help.

You don't have to drink at all to have tapas...it's just fun to :D

You pay when you're finished eating, not as you go.

And as for your son, no problem, it's up to him if he want to drink--they will serve him (as they did our daughter when she was 13).

I do not drink at all, so you can order a soda or even a water.

A paper check is rare at tapas places. You are charged per dish and per drink. There are no minimums. They can be so crowded you elbow your way to the bar, or you can order and find a table.

You will see men and women stopping off after work for a quick drink and bite, friends and families.

HI Sephill

You will love Tapas. You can drink something else don't worry about what others drink. But the house vino tinto is usually good and affordable, and you could get a glass and make it last if you order some bottled water too. You son will have a blast. He is not expected to drink alcohol.

You do not pay each time only at the end. They keep track. Have lots of fun. The key is not to allow yourself to feel intimidated by new experiences. Just go on in check it out look at the choices. They are delicious!

It is something very simple. Order what you LIKE that is all. No problems.
You should know that tapas come in 3 different sizes as far as I know, tapa the smallest, racion the largest, and 1/2 (media) racion, one half of the racion.
Some are large like the tortilla de patatas, delicious potatoe omelete, do not be shy and ask the bartender or waiter about the size, if you do not speak Spanish hand language will do. For instance if you ask for croquettes, delicious, ask how many ?

To drink, sider is good, and also a mix of beer and lemon soda, called clara or claro , I am not sure, be sure to find out because one is a wine based drink the other the beer+soda, which is light and delicious too.
Actually there are many different possibilities and forget understanding the waiter when he tells you often at high speed all the tapas available, better use your eyes, and may be look what others are eating...and say the same if you think you will like it.
Buena suerte. You are going to have fun....for sure.

Going tapas people drink:
* Caña (a glass of beer)
* Cerveza sin alcohol (non-alcoholic beer)
* Clara (beer & soda)
* Clara con limón (beer and lemon Fanta)
* Vino tinto (a cup of red wine)
* Vino blanco frío (a cup of cold white wine)
* Vino rosado (a cup of cold rosée wine)
* Vino con casera (red wine & soda)
* Tinto de verano (red wine, soda and ice cubes)
* Fino (a cup of cold dry sherry, delicious but alcoholic)
* Sidra (cider)
* Mosto (grapes juice)
* Vermut (Red Martini and ice cubes, very alcoholic)
* Vermut de grifo (tap vermut)

Go on ....be European. Let your boy have a beer!

Thank you Revulgo, I was confused and was not sure if it was Clara or Claro, Clara it is, in Franche Panache and in Argentina Shandy, I hope I was right on the sizes of the tapas, which is important I guess, it surely should be important to Sephill if they are three persons. Muchas gracias, boy... I wish we had real tapas here. They might call them tapas in some places but something is surely missing.

Claro is commonly used in conversation as a polite "of course".

Thanks everyone
I can't wait to get started
I do love red wine.
So at least I can partake a little.

Revulgo thanks for the specifics
Is Vino con casera with sweet soda or soda water?

Graziella5b
What fruit is Sidra. In north america it is always apples but other places other fruits. What in Spain?

As for pointing at food and using hand gestures we are very practiced and brave about that. You should have seen us in San Fransisco. We ate many times in only chinese written and spoken resturants. NO ENGLISH SPEAKERS! Really,really good!
Only problem you can never figure out how to order the same thing twice.

Casera (trade mark) is mildly sweet. There are other gaseosas, but are more or less the same. I add enough wine as not to notice the difference! Sidra here is only from apples.

tapas were my survival tool in Madrid! I'm such a slave to my feeding times that the wait for the restaurant dining hours was tough. A few tapas (OK, one per beer was about right) got me through my hunger pangs. Breakfast outside a major hotel can be interesting, as well - my daughter's favorite place served a "desayuno completo", which consisted of tostada (a slice of toast), cafe (coffee, of course), and zumo (juice, in this case orange). Seemed like a good start to the rest of breakfast to me ;-) Especially since I could see the tortilla in the fridge case... "sorry, that's for lunch". I fixed that - I bought an entire tortilla at the neighbor market and ate from it whenever I wanted (we had a fridge).
The pervasive smoking and jamon legs hanging throughout most of the cafe's and "bars" got a little wearisome for me, but when in Rome... have fun!

I have had a plenty of tapas without ever drinking.

THANKS!,THANKS!,THANKS!
On this subject I now feel really prepared...and of course ready to eat:)

What fun are tapas!? You must have fried artichokes, they're fabulous.

Hi again. I see you are there in the heat so as mentioned before by someone the tinto de verano will be a good option if you want to montitor the alchohol %...maybe ok for your son too although it is not sweet if he is used to soft drinks he may not care for it.

Please let us know when you return & how it went for you.`

tinto de veranos are very good..those are what I always drink when there..not to much wine this way :) All this talk of Tapas is making me wish my trip to Seville in December was sooner..I so love the food there.Make sure you try the octopus..I am so glad I did as it ended up as one of my favorite foods there..yum.. Sephlll my son who will be 16 is going with me in December too..I cant wait for him to see Seville...it is so pretty with so much history. I am even thinking of going to Morocco just so he can say he has been to Africa too.

You can drink whaatever yuo wnat, wine, water, juice etc - although I wold stick with wine and water to match the food. They are likely to serve your son wine too if you order a carafe - so if he doesn;t want any tell them just water or soda (but it will be hugely expensive and come in tiny cans) for him.

(Generally in europe kids start drinking wine - sometimes with water - in their early teens. And drinking laws almost everywhere allow 15 or 16 plus to drink wine and beer legally.)

angy400 - we went to Morocco in March for 8 days after spending 5 days in Barcelona. We all loved it!! But we were definitely looking forward to returning to Barcelona (for one night before we flew home) so we could have some more tapas!!