The Tapas Guide You Need If You're Traveling To Spain

When dining out for a special occasion or celebration, people enjoy ordering an appetizer before their main course, from a fancy salad to fried calamari to any number of dishes. In Spain, the popular thing to do is to eat tapas, and you'll find many restaurants featuring tapas when planning your trip.

A post on Reddit sheds some light on the experience of enjoying tapas in Spain. The user shares that if you're traveling to Granada, you're given free tapa when you order a drink, and in Sevilla, you'll see people having a beer and "two-three tapas."

There is a lot to know about tapas, from how to order to what restaurants serve up some interesting offerings. Keep reading for the tapas guide that you need if you're traveling to Spain.

Some Information About Tapas

Before you figure out where to go for tapas, it's a good idea to learn some information about it.

According to Trip Savvy, tapas and appetizers aren't the same things because it can be a meal, not the beginning of one. It basically can be explained as a tiny amount of food. The publication explains, "Tapas is not a particular type of food. Anything can be tapas: paella, croquettes, ham and cheese on toast, truly anything. As long as it is small and served with your drink (either free or at a surcharge), it is tapas."

This is good to know, along with the types of food that are usually considered tapas in Spain: olives, paella, pan con tomate, and jamon/cured ham. Sounds delicious.

How To Order Tapas

Totally Spain Travel has some really helpful advice on how to order tapas during your trip to Spain. For one thing, you might be curious about the amount of food to order. They suggest "perhaps one meat, one fish, one salad and a wild card."

The website also says that travelers going to Granada will often get something like patatas brava free of charge when ordering a drink. Some Madrid places give customers free chorizo, olives or chips when they put in a drink order. Either way, it's considered a good idea to decide what you want to drink before ordering any food, so that's the way that people usually do it.

Finally, it's a smart idea to go to a few different places that have tapas and to figure out the time of day that locals like to enjoy tapas. Totally Spain Travel explains that tourists should "try to stick to the Spanish times of 1.30-3 pm and 8.30-10:30 pm to guarantee the freshest of food and the best of atmospheres."

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Try Tapas At Sensi Bistro Barcelona

The official website for the restaurant Sensi Bistro Barcelona says that it has been around since 2013. The description says, "At Sensi, we are known for taking the traditional aspects of tapas and creating a new experience." The menu here is broken up into various categories: classic tapas, vegetarian tapas, meat tapas, seafood tapas, rice, and pasta. This would definitely make ordering easy as you could choose a few things from each section.

Some stand-outs on the menu include Yuca and goat cheese croquettes with onion chutneys, Roasted pork ribs with an old-style mustard sauce and Canarian potatoes, and Spanish cheese platter.

Thanks to this Trip Advisor review, we know that the food is not only awesome here but there is a lot of bread (which is always welcome): "The food at this bistro was soo delicious! My friends & I ordered a lot of tapas and they were all great! But beware if you don’t tell them to stop bringing the bread, they’ll keep it coming ha."

Check Out Taberna El Sur In Madrid

Another restaurant for tapas in Spain is Taberna el Sur. People have left many reviews on Trip Advisor talking about the sangria and paella here.

This place also has good seafood. Judging from those beautiful plates of paella with mussels and shrimp (along with the dish of shrimp in some kind of broth/sauce), this is the place to order those types of dishes.

It's not possible to travel to Spain without trying tapas, but before digging into gorgeous and delicious plates of cured ham, shrimp, and other dishes, it's good to learn more about it. These two restaurants serve up interesting tapas, so now that you know the right time of day to go for tapas, how much to order, and what types of food to expect, you're all set. It's time to enjoy a nice drink and some delicious dishes.

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