Tuesday 26 November 2013

Granada – The best (free) tapas bars

The two things that everybody knows about Granada is that it’s the most beautiful city in Spain and the tapas is free! Whenever you order a beer, a glass of wine or a soft drink you will get a free tapa with it. In some places you get what they put in front of you but in others there’s a whole selection you can choose from. In a few places I even saw vegetarian tapas on offer and that’s something as it’s hard to be a vegetarian in the country of jamón!

There’s a wide selection of bars and when I say ‘wide’ I mean there’s so many that it’s just impossible to choose! Even if you ask a few locals which are the best places they will probably tell you five names in quick succession and they will be all different. I would say don’t be shy, go and have a drink in all of them you fancy the look of!

They say nothing is free in this world and it’s true for the ‘free’ tapa, too. Apparently the price of the tapa is calculated in the price of your drink but still, for a couple of euros you get a small beer and a small plate of food, in my eyes this is a bargain! Just look at the beer prices in London! Or Madrid, for that matter.

The other side of the coin is that even though the food is free the quality can leave something to be desired. During our stay we ventured into bars that had been suggested and bars that hadn’t and I made a short list of the ones that in our opinion serve good quality free tapas.

1.      Diamantes
Whenever you search for the ’10 best tapas bars Granada’ this will be pretty much always on the top of the list and this is also my favourite. The reason is simple: they serve the best seafood you ever get to eat in Andalucía. This is one of those bars where you cannot choose your tapa. Every time we went inside we got a different type of food but they were all exceptionally good. Paul later figured out their trick. Every time a customer orders a whole plate they make a bit more of it and give the extra to the next customer as a tapa. It works so well that they have two bars in the centre. There’s a big one on Plaza Nueva,13, but we prefer the small one on Calle Navas, 28. 

2.      El Espejo
This is Paul’s favourite. There’s always a list of about 7-8 interesting tapas to choose from and they all made of quality ingredients. Every time we went out to sample a few new places we always ended up here. We trusted their cooking so much that we even tried eating snails here.
Calle Elvira, 40.

3.      Om Kalsum
We discovered this little gem quite late in our stay so unfortunately didn’t get to eat through their menu. It’s a bit away from the centre and has an Arabic vibe to it and got its name from a famous Egyptian singer. The tapa is based on Arabic tastes and they are all very tasty.
Calle Jardines, 6. 

And this is it! I’m sure you will find other bars that you like as well but these are the ones that we would suggest going to.

Oh, and a piece of advice: don’t try the Chinese tapa!

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