It's been a few years since we've traveled in Spain and we will be heading there soon.
We know that Spaniards dine later than we usually do. We want to be in sync with the local tradition. We'll be in Seville, Cordoba, Cadiz, Madrid and Vitoria-Gasteiz.
What is the traditional time for dining in the evening?
Thanks!
I was just in Spain in September and most locals eat supper at 8:30-9:30 in the evening, some even later. The good news is that if you want to eat around 7-8:00 (when we did) it was easier to get reservations during that time span. I would recommend that you get reservations at restaurants that are "local destinations" early, because we found that several in Mallorca where booked a week or two in advance.
9-11.. Spanish friends in Madrid picked us up at our hotel to go to dinner at 10:30 pm.
If dinning out with friends, I usually head out 9:30ish, dine from 10-11pm, then linger until 12 if we are having a good time, that's what we call a sobremesa in Spain.
However, the main meal of the day in Spain is lunch (2-3 pm), Spanish dinner are usually a lighter affair than lunch, not so heavy as the American dinners.
If wanting to eat between those times, let's say 5 pm- 8 pm, Tapas bars are a good choice, we locals eat tapas by around that time too, after work, so it would still be considered typical.
Thank you for the replies!
Very helpful!
We're looking forward to some delicious meals!
Make sure you try some Jamon Ham, it is amazing. We also found the Paella to be excellent. Agree with the prior post, Tapas Bars are one of my favorite things about Spain.
We could say that your lunch is our dinner and our dinner is your lunch, in terms of quantities. On weekdays, we like to dine early, that is, aroun 0900pm-0930pm. On weekends, if you go to a restaurant (if it´s open!) at 8pm you´ll only find foreigners there, locals would never ever dine so early. I´d say that it´s customary to dine at 10pm on a weekend...something light, not too big, and a long dinner. On weekdays it´ll be easier to dine earlier, but only in big cities.
@Donald - Jamón just means ham. Believe you probably meant Serrano or the more expensive Ibérico hams. Also, all paella isn’t the same. Much of the paella sold in bars as individual servings, coming from a list of 15 varieties on a menu board, and served in 15 minutes, is kind of like getting Rice-a-Roni paella.
Make sure you try some Jamon Ham, it is amazing.
As has been pointed out, Jamon is Spanish for ham and there is a wealth of variety and quality. The ham that's considered the best is from Iberico pork which is ham from a pure Iberian pig that has been fed on a diet of 100% acorns. This ham is labelled Pata Negra and is the most expensive. Next down the line are Iberian pigs fed a diet of acorns and commercial feed and this ham is labelled Cebo de Campo and finally those that have only been fed a commercial feed which is lablled Cebo.
Serrano ham, whilst produced in the same way as Iberico, is typically made from the Landrace breed of pig. It's less tender than Iberico ham and often tastes saltier.
Then there are the wet cure hams which are often referred to as Jamon York which is more akin to the hams of the UK or US. This style of ham isn't worth eating in Spain as I've never encountered any that comes anywhere near a good brine cured ham in the UK.
Buying Jamon is Spain is often a challenge due to the huge variety and quality. Viisiting a large supermarket such as a Carrefour will present you with a large section dedicated to Jamon with a deli counter behind which hang whole harms. Most of the time you can ask for taste samples and the staff will offer advice to help you choose. I have to visit the supermarket alone as my wife and children fail to understand what takes me so long!
And there´s one thing we love to do all over Spain: the "sobremesa", a word I find hard to translate into English. When we go out for lunch or dinner we do not leave the table right after we are finished. We just love to have another coffee and talk, or a fantastic gin&tonic the local way (big glass, lots of icecubes, not much gin, and a good tonic water, with a slice of lemon peel) so it can be drank slowly... A long chit chat conversation after lunch or dinner is very important for us, your table is yours until you leave and no waiter will come to ask you to leave because they have people waiting (at least, in the vast majority of places), that would be very rude.
We love to do the Tapas that are usually available 5-6 PM. Make a meal of them.
I remember in Barcelona, we wanted to dine at a highly rated restaurant. I found it and we went there about 9PM. we discovered it wasn't open until 10PM. We did not want to wait until that late.
Many restaurants in Spain are open earlier to accommodate the tastes of foreign visitors, but some still don't open until late.
We'll be in Seville, Cordoba, Cadiz, Madrid and Vitoria-Gasteiz.
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Locals have a time for tapas, normally on the "aperitivo" time on Saturdays and Sundays (from around 1pm to 3pm) and maybe around 7pm before dinner. In Vitoria-Gasteiz (any particular reason for this city??) you will not find tapas but "pintxos", which are never a meal for us but an appetizer before lunch or dinner, while socializing in bars with family and friends and a glass of wine. On weekdays we may have tapas or pintxos (I´m Basque) around 7 to 9 pm, before our dinner time. But of course you will find no problem in having them some time earlier.
Tapas at 5-6 pm?
What are those..."Early Bird Tapas?" LOL
We just returned from 2 weeks in Spain. What we decided to do, and it worked well for us, was have our main meal between 2-4PM.. We skipped going out for dinner. We didn't need to eat again. We had a few snacks in our hotel room if we got hungry, but found we were fine, and didn't desire another meal. We just can't eat that late at night (after 8PM) and get a good night's sleep.
If you are totally up for eating with the locals, then plan on 8:30-9Pm and even later.
Agree with most of Bill´s words, as a local Basque. We dine out basically on weekends only, and we like to go to the restaurant around 0930-10pm. The rest of the days we dine at home, most of us still love home cooking. Our lunch is long (around 2-4pm), and it consists of a first, a second and a dessert (fruit, in most cases), with our crusty bread aside, and many people still have a customary glass of wine with it. Our dinner, which on weekdays is around 09-10pm in most households, is very light: an omelette, or some fish, or a salad, or a soup. BEFORE dinner (and on weekends, before lunch too), and as an afterwork activity, we like to meet with friends, family or colleagues for a couple of glasses of wine or beers and some pintxos (in the Basque Country and Navarre) or tapas, a great way of socializing but never a meal for us. We do not understand the concept "pintxos bars" or "tapas bars" that some countries offer, it´s not our way and it is misleading for many visitors in Spain when they ask for them. Or when people have tapas as dinner. But of course, no problem at all on eating at your convenience, after all you´re on vacation!
Mikel
I am in Spain now and want to thank Bill and Mike for their explanation — very helpful in “demystifying” the topic for me!
...not to mention that paella is best outdoors on a family or friends gathering, cooked on the "paella" (the name of the recipient has given the name to the dish) on real fire, and with just a few ingredients that normally are those not offered on restaurants. Good paellas are not that easy to find outside of Valencia or maybe Catalonia and part of the Mediterranean coast, the rest of the country offers "heavy rices" as Bill rightly says :)
