Tapas: The Definitive Guide to Getting Your Small-Plate On in Granada

I’ll get to posting reviews of tapas bars shortly, but before you can start to enjoy the plenty of Granada’s bars, you need to know what a tapas bar is.

I know what you’re thinking: Duh. Of course I know what a tapas bar is. It’s a bar where you go to eat small plates of usually-expensive Spanish-themed food.

In the context of Spain, most bars are tapas bars in that a request for a tapa of something results in your receiving a small portion of food, for which you are charged a couple of euros (or more, depending on the bar.) In that case, the tapa is in contrast to a ración, or meal-sized portion, or a media ración, a half-meal-sized portion. In most bars in Spain, things that can be ordered as a ración can also be ordered as a tapa.

In Granada, however, with the noteable exception of some of the bars where young people who are or who think themselves beautiful go to see and be seen (and at which drinks are either very expensive or very cheap, but I will get to that at a later date), all bars are tapas bars because it is your God-given right to a tapa, as long as the kitchen is open (usually from about 1 to 4 and then again from 8 pm through midnight), and even sometimes when it isn’t.

You need to know both to expect a tapa and, if need be, to ask for it, in order to have a not-too-expensive, somewhat filling evening out. If your Spanish is rusty or your Granaino nonexistent, you might come to Granada and go to plenty of bars without realizing that a) that tapa is yours, and that b) it is included in the drink price. Tapas are not included with mixed drinks, but are included with beer, wine, and soft drinks. Some bars will also serve a tapa to accompany an order of juice (when it’s not ordered at breakfast) and bottled water (although tap water in Granada is neutral and delicious and most bars and restaurants will serve it non-grudgingly.)

You should also be aware that tapas vary widely in size. At some places, what you will be served is no greater than a stamp-sized slice of bread with a paper-thin piece of ham or cheese; in others, you will initially presume that the bar mistook your drink order for a meal order. The quantity and type of food that you will get varies by both bar and neighborhood: in areas with fewer tourists and more students, tapas tend to be more generous, if sometimes less inspired. In some highly-touristed areas, the prominent display of a tapas menu with prices encourages the uninitiated to order tapas off the menu and forego the freebie. At some other bars that are also in the epicenter of Granada tourism, however, the tapas are innovative, more than a single bite, and satisfying.

If you are going out more to eat than to drink, be sure to ask the bartender if there are tapas at that particular moment: some bars open the kitchen later or close earlier than you’d expect, and the answer to the question of “hay tapas?” will be enough to let you know if you best return later, as the drink price remains the same during hours when no tapas are to be had.


If your tapa is not served at the same time that your drink is served, but your drink is brought to you, you merely need wait until your tapa is brought. If your drinks were served at the bar and you picked them up, you will frequently need to glance at the serving area to see if your tapas have come up. In some crowded bars, if you ignore your tapa for terribly long, a group of young adults (college students or the like) will be happy enough to adopt your tapa, and, unless you immediately notice and tell the bartender that you are still waiting for your tapa, the burden of proof will be on you. In short: watch the bar for your tapa.

There are basically three ways in which tapas bars work, and your awareness of protocol could make the difference between contented you and vaguely-dissatisfied you.

First, there are bars in which the tapa served progresses (growing in, it is presumed, complexity, quality, or size) with the number of rounds that you order.) In these bars, you will usually hear the bartender yelling back things such as “dos primeras” (two firsts) or “cuatro segundas” (four seconds) to the kitchen. Occasionally, bars post a list of the primeras, segundas, terceras, etc. outside, so you know what to expect with each round. In most cases, however, the progression is not posted, and if you are interested in knowing what the tapas are, you will need to ask.

Second, there are the bars where you order a drink, and you are given a small portion of whatever the kitchen staff feel like serving you at that particular moment. In some cases, these are bars that give you some of whatever it is that they also serve in larger sizes, or that vary the tapas according to the day of the week. In others, these are bars that specialize in a particular type of dish (such as fried fish), and every tapa that you are given will be some iteration of the same kind of dish without a progression (for example, you will first get octopus and then sardines, while the table next to you will first get the sardines, because their first round coincided with your second, and both coincided with whatever happened to be ready at that moment.)

Finally, there are bars with an extensive tapas menu (without prices, as these are tapas that are included with a drink), and it is upon you to tell the bartender what tapa/s you’d like when you order drinks. At most, but not all, of these kinds of bars, there is a maximum of two tapas varieties per group: if you are a group of two, you can each order the tapa that you’d like, but if your group is larger, some consensus needs to be reached.

Next entry: Reviews of Minotauro and Bella y La Bestia.

Still in Granada. Still Eating. Just not writing about it.

Dear Reader,

I didn't tell you this, but since last March (over a year ago), I've grown more than jaded of shawarma, moved to a street with significantly fewer bars (and that is not in the shawarma-dense neighborhood of Calle Elvira), and I've been eating, somewhere in the range of three meals a day. And at least once or twice a week, I've been to tapas bars. Sometimes those tapas bars have even been new and exciting ones, or horribly disappointing ones.

But I haven't been writing about it.

Anyhow, it turns out that I'm doing society a disservice: Google analytics tells me that the bulk of the (very few) visitors to this site find it through a search engine. There's obviously a need for people to have someone sift through the chaff of Granada dining establishments so that they don't starve while they're in my fair adoptive/adopted city. And I haven't been holding my end of the stick.

So, from now through the end of the summer, I promise: an extremely short daily review. Of something. Probably eatable.