608 Best Restaurants in Spain

This restaurant takes contemporary decor and fine-dining style and adds the pizzazz of open-kitchen cooking. It's known for its decadent tasting menus, and the star dish is a rich mar i muntanya macaroni with lobster, foie gras, and artichoke. The contemporary decor combines gleaming traditional copper with retro-cool mid-century modern furniture. Wine selections can be added at a surcharge per person. 

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.

This historical Bilbao haunt (est. 1903) in the Ensanche's most popular garden and square has azulejo-lined walls, dreamy murals of rural scenes, and a painted artesonado ceiling. Stick to tried-and-true classics like Basque steak frites or bacalao al pil pil. The room overlooking the square is the place to be—if they try to stuff you in the back dining room, resist or come back another time.

It's been in a permanent feeding frenzy for more than 30 years, intensified by hordes of tourists, but this loud, hectic bar manages to keep delivering the very highest quality tapas, year-in and year-out. Be prepared to wait up to an hour for a place at the counter; reservations for the tables in the tiny back room and on the outdoor terrace are accepted, but the counter is where the action is.

In this ivy-covered stone-and-mortar farmhouse perched over a deep gully in nearby Rocabruna, feast on carefully prepared local dishes like vedella amb crema de ceps (veal in wild mushroom sauce) and the Catalan classic oca amb peres (goose stewed with pears). In winter, spring for the civet de porc senglar (stewed wild boar) or any of the wild mushroom dishes.

A Menorca institution set above Cala Sa Mesquida, a short drive from Mahón, Cap Roig owes its well-deserved fame to the quality of its seafood and the splendor of its views. The mussels from the port of Mahón are excellent, as is the lobster, which can be served grilled, in a stew, or as part of one of the restaurant's celebrated rice dishes or paellas.

Four generations ago, Pablo Cámara turned this 19th-century fishing wharf on the Pasaia narrows into a first-class seafood restaurant with lovely views over the shipping lane. A steaming sopa de pescado (fish soup) is just the ticket on a wet Atlantic day, or try cangrejo del mar (spider crab with vegetable sauce) or the superb hake with salsa verde. A central "live" tank rises and falls with the tide and has lobsters and crayfish that can be hauled up for your inspection.

Carabanchel's best-known bar, Los Minutejos, is synonymous with distressingly inhalable griddled sandwiches of crispy pig ear doused in fiery brava sauce. Tamer tapas are available for the squeamish. To drink? An ice-cold Mahou, of course.

This gourmet shop (established 1931) doubles as a cozy bar where you can sample most of the stuff on the shelves, including canned asparagus, charcuterie, anchovies, and a varied well-priced selection of Spanish cheeses and wines. It also serves good inexpensive breakfasts.

Approximate a vacation to northern Spain by dining at this true-blue Asturian restaurant (or at the more casual sidrería in the bar area), where that region's unsung comfort-food dishes—such as fabada (pork-and-bean stew), Cabrales cheese, and cachopo (cheese-stuffed beef cutlets)—take center stage. The obligatory tipple is sidra, bone-dry Asturian cider that's aerated using a battery-powered gadget designed for this task.

Whether you pull up a stool at at the marble bar or sit down for a soup-to-nuts feast in the azulejo-lined dining room, you're in for some of Madrid's finest traditional tapas with a twist here. Madrileños come from far and wide to share heaped plates of ensaladilla rusa, a house specialty, as well as textbook-perfect croquetas and hefty steaks served with sherry gravy and house-cut fries. Vermouth (on tap) is the nonnegotiable aperitif, and there are always several Spanish wines to try by the glass.

You’ll mainly hear Catalan conversations in this 10-table establishment that feels like eating at a Spanish relative’s house, with food as locally sourced as its clientele. Rice dishes are the main event, particularly the squid-ink variety and, if you're lucky, the seasonal special topped with perfectly cooked steak.

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.

Fusing traditional Galician cuisine with Japanese, Mexican, and Peruvian, among others, Casa Marcelo whips up creatively plated dishes in an open-plan kitchen. The jovial dining area—always full and always loud—seats guests at long communal tables, a nod to the fact that the dishes are meant to be shared.

Charming and cozy, this centenarian Bilbao institution is essentially a series of nooks and crannies tucked into a fine food, wine, olive oil, cheese, and ham emporium. Leave it to the affable owners to recommend specialties such as txuleton (gigantic T-bone steak), which pairs wonderfully with the house Rioja or any red from the 1,000-bottle-strong wine list.

Pine walls and floors, red-and-white-check curtains, and flowy white tablecloths furnish this stuck-in-time restaurant in the gray-stone village of Gessa between Vielha and Salardú. Try the grilled venison with honey sauce or the local baked river trout. Book ahead online as hours are unpredictable.

Whether you approve of bullfighting or not, the culinary excellence of Casa Salvador—a checkered-tablecloth, taurine-themed restaurant that opened in 1941—isn't up for debate. Sit down to generous servings of featherlight fried hake, hearty oxtail stew, and other stodgy (in the best way) Spanish classics, all served by hale old-school waiters clad in white jackets.

Crackly fried pig ear, fat wedges of tortilla de patata (potato omelet), and garlicky rabbit al ajillo are a few of the many old-school standbys that have kept this cubbyhole bar in business since 1934.

Don't be put off by the outdated decor of this Parte Vieja icon—the kitchen at Casa Urola is easily one of the city's most adroit, whether you post up at the informal bar or sit down to a multicourse meal. In the dining room, savor appetizers made with hard-to-find regional vegetables like cardoon, borage, and caviar-like de lágrima peas before moving onto entrées like seared squab, presented with a pâté of its own liver, and roasted hake loin, served with white wine and clams. Save room for the signature torrija, custardy fried bread crisped in brown butter and dusted with cinnamon sugar.

A favorite with visiting gourmands, this often overcrowded little counter serves some of the best beer and tapas in town. The house-brewed artisanal draft beer—named after the Fort family who owns and runs the bar—is drawn and served with loving care by veteran, epauletted waiters who have it down to a fine art.

According to Spain's top food critics, this restaurant ladles out the best cocido madrileño in all the land. Each component of the multicourse dinner, from the chickpeas to the chorizo to the pickled peppers, is sourced from top-notch producers from around the peninsula. Fret not, summer visitors: a variety of traditional seafood, vegetable, and meat dishes is available for days when a hot stew doesn't appeal. 

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 word compartir means “to share” and this excellent restaurant bases its menu on a small-plate sharing approach that has been taken to another level by the culinary team of Mateu Casañas, Oriol Castro, and Eduard Xatruch (who also run Barcelona's three-Michelin-starred Disfrutar). Each dish is served by attentive staff within an 18th-century courtyard.

In his thirties, Salamanca-born chef Carlos Hernández del Río cut his teeth in such star-studded kitchens as Elkano, Zuberoa, and DiverXO before returning to his roots in 2020 to open this restaurant showcasing the best ingredients, techniques, and wines from his native region—with a few geeky French touches. Expect immaculately prepared appetizers like sobrasada (cured sausage) eclairs followed by mains including stewed white beans with duck and marinated Tormes river trout, all served in a bright dining room with checkerboard tile floors.

Once you find this spot, tucked inside the boutique Wittmore Hotel at the end of a tiny alley, you’ll be rewarded with a wonderfully creative menu of small plates and hearty baked pastas. Dishes are served in the lounge-like dining room or out on the courtyard patio with its twinkling lights and impressive vertical garden.

With a "short" 10-course tasting menu priced at just €58 (the longer one is €82 for 14 courses) Cruix is the fine-dining restaurant for people who don't want to spend hundreds of euros on a meal. Everything here is laid-back and unpretentious, including the exposed-brick interior, but the quality speaks to the Chef Miquel Pardo's pedigree: he worked under Spanish superstar chefs like Albert Adrià and Jordi Cruz before opening Cruix in 2017. 

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.

One of the buzziest restaurants in Madrid, this modern seafood mecca—with sleek wooden tables and floor-to-ceiling windows—serves rare delicacies from the country's top fishing fleets. On the ever-changing menu, you might find quisquillas de Motril (sweet white shrimp with bright blue roe), precious little elvers, or Basque lobster stew—all accompanied by wines selected by Sergio Otero, of DiverXO fame.

Local culinary wunderkind Santi Taura is using his eponymous restaurant in the El Llorenç Parc de la Mar hotel to explore historical recipes of the island, served in an ultrachic, contemporary setting. Some of the most emblematic dishes include panada de peix de roca—a "Mallorcan dim sum" of rockfish pie, believed to be one of the oldest recipes on the island—and a dish of rabbit with lobster, which combines the sea and the mountains. Try to sit at the counter, where the charismatic chef presents his creations in three languages.

Three former head chefs from the legendary former best restaurant in the world El Bulli combined their considerable talents to create this roller-coaster ride of culinary fun (the word "disfrutar" is Spanish for "to enjoy") spotlighting tasting menus of dazzling inventiveness and good taste. Bowls are swirled to reveal beetroot meringues emerging from sesame-seed "earth" (the seeds are made to look like soil), and jellied truffle-and-egg tempura hit the bull's-eye of pure pleasure; desserts are otherworldly. No wonder, then, that the three chefs now hold their own spot close to the top of the World's 50 Best Restaurants list.