99 Best Restaurants in Spain

\"From market to plate\" is this nueva cocina restaurant's philosophy: chefs start and finish the day with an empty larder and a blank menu. The freshest fish and produce are handpicked at the neighboring Mercado de Abastos and coaxed into exciting dishes that defy tradition. Be sure to book ahead as the industrial-chic dining room and terrace fill up fast. 

This spot just around the corner from the Liceu opera house is one of Barcelona's best tapas restaurants, with a long bar overlooking the burners and part of the kitchen that leads down to the 20-seat communal tasting table at the end of the room. Specialists in Ibérico products, they serve obscure cuts of Ibérico pork, such as pluma ibérica and secreto ibérico (nuggets of meat found on the inside of the shoulder blade and much-prized by Ibérico fanatics), though the real highlight of the menu is the market-fresh seafood that ranges from oysters to grilled baby scallops and house special dishes like the baby squid (chipirones) with white Santa Pau beans.

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.

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.

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.

Tinajas, huge clay vessels once filled to the brim with bulk wine (but now defunct), sit behind the bar at this raucous no-frills 1895 bodega specializing in Spanish cheese and charcuterie. Ask the waiters what they've been drinking and eating lately, and order precisely that. The washed-rind cheeses from Extremadura (Torta del Casar or similar) are always a safe—and pleasantly putrescent—bet.

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.

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.

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.

A long list of seasonal Mediterranean small plates, ranging from coal-grilled octopus to calamari with green-curry mayo to traditional Catalan sausage stew, is chalked up on the boards each day. Inside, it's casually hip, with exposed brick walls and vintage furniture; there’s a small back patio for alfresco dining as well as tables out front on the Rambla del Poblenou for excellent people-watching.

There’s almost always a line outside this old-school, family-owned tapas bar, a local favorite since its founding in 1940. If you can’t get a table, sidle up to the long wood bar, choose from the display of bite-size, toothpick-speared pintxos and eat them standing, or walk one minute down Carrer d’Angel Vidal to its terrace-restaurant, Els Jardins del Retiro, for an excellent outdoor prix-fixe lunch deal.

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.

This legendary tavern (established 1968), which remains surprisingly calm even during San Fermín, serves some of the city's best tapas. Choose between classics like garlicky mushroom brochettes and jamón-flecked croquetas, or spring for more modern creations such as seared goose liver toasts or almond-encrusted morcilla. It opens at 9 am.

This tony gastro bar serves newfangled tapas that are well worth their higher-than-usual price tag. Spring for the tempura soft-shell crab bao with chive mayonnaise, garlicky artichoke flatbread, or any other tapa del día, but whatever you do, order the famous tortilla de patata, irresistible with its molten core and handfuls of caramelized onions. The dulce de leche "volcano," cooled off by a scoop of banana ice cream, may be Madrid's most craveable dessert.

One of Barcelona's most beloved bars, La Alcoba Azul offers a wide selection of tapas with a full-on immersive atmosphere. The decor reflects the Moorish influence of Andalucía mixed with the quirkiness of the original owners, so you'll get illuminated lanterns and broken birdcages hanging from the ceiling, while a years-old candle burns in a corner. In case you can't get a table here, try one of their sister restaurants a couple doors down, La Alcobita. 

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.

There's no glitz, no glamour, and not even a sign outside, but the battered wooden doors of this old, family-owned tavern hide a tapas bar to be treasured. Loyal customers and hordes of tourists queue for the fresh-as-it-gets seafood, served from a furiously busy kitchen.

One of the best bites in San Sebastián (and perhaps on earth) is the humble \"Delicia\" pintxo—anchovy, hard-boiled egg, and parsley-onion vinaigrette on a baguette slice—at this no-frills bar that's always filled with locals.

Don't be deterred by the graffitied walls: the innovative tapas at La Pepita lives up to the hipster hype. The room is dominated by a long marble-topped bar—there are only a handful of tables in the narrow space—so it’s best for couples or small groups; next door, sister eatery La Mini Pepita offers up further stool seating.

Standards like Ibérico ham and patatas bravas are on offer at this snug tapas bar, but it’s the rotating selection of seasonal small plates that really make it worth a visit. There’s no menu; a chalkboard brought to your table lists the main ingredient—cod, pork rib, sweetbreads, for example—and friendly servers will explain the daily preparation for each.

La Ponderosa is a quintessential yet elevated Castilian bar where locals mingle at high volume while tossing back local wine and munching on well-priced seasonal delicacies like griddled wild asparagus, suckling lamb chops, and seared wild mushrooms. It's a standing-room-only joint, so if you want to sit, you'll have to come early and find a place on the terrace.

This no-frills bar draws the hungry hordes with its worth-the-hype \"burnt\" Basque-style cheesecake that originated the viral trend. The silky, oozy dessert pairs perfectly with a cup of coffee, while, on the savory side, homey croquetas, bacalao-stuffed peppers, and veal meatballs sing alongside a glass of Rioja.

Madrileños pour in from far and wide for Esther's famous patatas bravas, fried potato wedges cloaked in vinegary paprika-laced chili sauce. A menu brimming with snails, fried lamb intestines, pork rinds, and Castilian blood sausage confirms that you're in el Madrid profundo. Breakfast is also served.

For upscale tapas, sharable raciones, and a more sedate atmosphere, step into Palomeque. Dishes hinge on market produce and fuse traditional recipes with playful modern plating. Staff are happy to recommend wine pairings for any of the zany, updated versions of risotto, gazpacho, and other restaurant standbys.

The old-fashioned azulejo (glazed tile) walls, painted red facade, and squat wooden barstools might fool you into thinking this newcomer is any old tavern, but behind the swinging door, cooks are busy plating novel takes on tapas that you didn't know needed improving. Take the crispy pig ear, doused in the usual spicy brava sauce—it gets an unorthodox hit of freshness from tarragon-packed mojo verde. Then there are the stuffed mussels called tigres, amped up with defiantly non-Spanish amounts of chiles, and a bounty of seasonal tapas that always impress.

This cozy tiled bar will teleport you to the coastal Andalusian city of the same name with briny olives, bone-dry Manzanilla sherries, and shatteringly crisp tortillitas de camarón (shrimp fritters).

Decidedly modern, dependably delicious, and shockingly cheap, Tapas 2.0 might pull you back for a second meal. The cool ensaladilla rusa (tuna-and-potato salad), croquettes, and callos (tripe stew) are award-winning; then there are more substantial dishes, like stewed broad beans with octopus and shrimp and saucy chicken cannelloni. If you can't snag a table, pop around the corner to Tapas 3.0, its sister restaurant.

Triciclo serves inventive Spanish-style bistronomie—think tuna-avocado tostas and oxtail canelones with wild mushroom sauce. Raciones (sharing dishes), in one-third portions as well as half and full ones, are ideal for creating your own tasting menu whether at the bar or in the dining room.

A mano means "by hand" in Spanish, and lest this experimental white-walled tapas and wine bar come across as pretentious, there's an entire section of the menu devoted to finger food. Whet your appetite with one-bite wonders like fried eggplant drizzled with honey and garlicky salmorejo (a cold tomato soup), then settle in for heftier plates like stewed oxtail, which basically melts on fork impact.