geez

I've seen questions re. Italy and ordering small meals at dinnertime. Is it acceptable to only order tapas in restaurants in Spain at dinner time? Or do they want you to order the bigger meals? We like to have our "big" meal at mid-day and lighter in the evenings. Tapas eating seems perfect for us but we don't want to make a gaffe by ordering them at 9 or 10pm at night.

RnR

I suppose one may use Madrid as a decent guide on the ins and outs of bigtime tapas'ing. It's simply an all-day affair, if that's your style. At the lunch hour, one goes quickly from place to place, sampling, and the same for the early evening. It's equally a social endeavor - you're not merely taking on fuel for the late night adventures. You may also follow this pattern for the late evening meal, say 11 p.m. or later, since Madrid never heats up before 2 a.m. The trick is to discover which place does the best of this and which that. And then you join the merry merry-go-round of fast tapas scarfing.

Joyce

Tapas bars sell tapas all day. You can lunch and dinner. I even saw some open around 9 AM.<BR><BR>I recently returned from Madrid, and I have to say the tapas bars, although interesting to visit, were not very pleasant. Many people smoke in them, and I found it nauseating to be surrounded by so much cigar and cigarette smoke.<BR><BR><BR>

Maria

My only comment about having tapas as your evening meal in a restaurant is that you probably want to stay in the bar area rather than be seated in the formal dining room. You can definitely order them anytime in the evening after 9 or 10 or even midnight in many bars, not dining rooms. We routinely have tapas for a lighter dinner rather than a heavy 3 or 4 course meal late at night. <BR><BR>As another poster noted, yes, Spain has many smokers and they all smoke freely in bars and this can be a concern. We never had an experience that ruined our meal by any strech of the imagination but many non-smoking Americans are put off by this in Spain.<BR><BR>Good Luck!<BR><BR>Maria

Doris

Definitely you can have " tapas" at any time of the day, specially at tapas bars accompanied by a "chato" (wine glass) or a "cana" (beer). But for dinner time in a formal restaurant,, my recomendation is, do not order tapas. Sometimes the Spanish are a little rough and you may get a nasty response.

jason

Smoking is cool. After ordering some tapas, we proceeded to order some steaks, this was later in the evening by the way, and our waiter suggested that this may be too much food for us. This was an odd thing to say as other tables we're ordering tapas and Paella (Don't know if he said something to them about too much food). We ignored his suggestion and had a large meal, enjoying every bite while also enjoying a digestive walk back to our hotel. The Spanish waiters are fickle about what and when you eat, you just have to be thick-skinned. You can really shake-up a Spanish waiter's world if you're too busy sight-seeing and forget to eat lunch until 5pm, as we did one day, they'll serve you, but you may get a lecture on what time people normally eat. If you think you're not following the eating customs, leave a nice tip and I'm sure they'll overlook any strange eating habits.

Graziella

Hi , you can get all kind of different scenarios, for instance I have found that in some restaurants like Casa Paco in Cordoba that they have besides the bar, different rooms or dining rooms some with tableclothes + for formal dinning others without tableclothes for having tapas.<BR>There are places like La Trucha in Madrid where you can sit on any table or you go to the bar and have only tapas...<BR>I think the best solution is to ask when you come in, We wish to have tapas where shall be go?<BR>Obviously I agree that in a very formal restaurant probably the above is not acceptable. Ok?

cynthia

Be sure to enjoy the tapas at La Trucha in Madrid. I have been there a multitude of times and enjoy every morsel.