Tapas in Spain

As a non-drinking introvert not accustomed to eating standing up, I wasn't thrilled with the tapas scene in San Sebastian, either. Mobs of people (probably mostly tourists) and no possibility of finding a place to sit down. Convivial bar-hoppers would probably love it.

What I found surprising about the tapas places in San Sebastian, was that everyone just throws the little paper wrappers, if that's the right word, on the floor. So when you look through the open door what you see is a bar with hundreds of white papers on the floor. Very strange to this Canadian but it is obviously the Spanish way so that's OK.

. I felt they bar owners knew the tourists were in town for it and priced accordingly. I saw prices right up to €3.80 for an item

Don't know where you come from... but that's nothing out of the ordinary for a high-quality tapa (at least where I live)..... or if you were gullible enough to get into a tourist trap -those are extremely easy to spot, though.

But again, I can understand -and share!- your aversion to crowded noisy bars where you have to stand up shoulder to shoulder. Note however that "going for tapas" has little to do with this: you'll find crowded noisy places and you'll find quiet ones where you can sit and enjoy your food without the bustle. In other words: "tapas" is not necessarily inherent to noisy, stand up, shoulder to shoulder.

Funny thing about the comment made by Norma... I lived for a while in Madrid many years ago, and I couldn't get used to this custom of throwing to the floor the "napkins" (for lack of a better word) and also the toothpick that's often used to keep the tapas together. In Barcelona you don't do this, you keep the toothpicks aside, along with the used napkins, and then when finished you put them on the empty plate, so the waiter picks everything up without making a mess of the place. However, in other shores (ie. Madrid, Bilbao...) it's the waiter himself that throws them to the floor if you didn't do so. I once asked a waiter, but "wouldn't you prefer I help not to mess it up by putting this on the empty plate?", and he responded that that was the custom, everything goes to the floor and from time to time a waiter will sweep it. Well... who am I to argue with local customs, right?, LOL!

No doubt the experience is not for everyone.

On my trip to northern Spain in May, a free tapa/pincho frequently accompanied our drink order, alcoholic or otherwise. Great way to sample a variety of tapas.

Enric - I like that in Barcelona you don't throw napkins and toothpicks on the floor. I'll try to remember.

I am getting excited about our upcoming trip. In Barcelona we will be staying near the Hospital Clinic metro stop. Any tapas or restaurant suggestions for a couple of Texans with marginal Spanish skills?

you don't throw it.... "generally" :)

Tapas unfortunately became a 'thing', was written up in travel articles, and hence a bandwagon ensued. Some enterprising restaurateurs and bar owners (seeing $$) got on board, and we now have the need for greed in a feed. It's important to distinguish between tapas as a small free snack received with a drink order, and tapas as a style of dining by ordering lots of small plates. Either way, the essence for me is it's just a snack. We all snack now and then, wherever we are, and with all sorts of food. Maybe we need to let go of the word 'tapas' as not meaning something special, and certainly not a motivator to travel half way across the world, or to a specific city. Food is an everyday thing. Eating is an everyday thing.

I agree with a post above. We are going to Spain in the spring & after reading up on the subject, I think I now see Tapas not as a free bit to eat, but as a sample of Spanish food. I am an old guy who believes we get what we pay for. I would just as soon pay a few euro's and get a taste of the city vs. expecting something for free & not being happy with a half bit of mystery meat. I also think the idea may be to try to stay away from the tourists traps, easier said than done.

The best place we had tapas was in Mallorca. Other than that, I didn't really get into the tapas thing, preferring to sit down during my meals.

I was glad to see, though, that there was less napkin tossing in Madrid than the last time I was there 30 years ago. It is the one thing I remembered about Madrid, and it was always amazing how dirty the floors were with all the napkins.

It sounds like "tapas" should be approached like "bar snacks" and don't worry about it.

@traylaparks, it seems I owe you part of a response above, sorry ;)

Recommending it's complicated because, as we say in Catalan: "taste are like butts, everyone has got his own", LOL! In my culture, eating, and most especially eating out, it's not just about "feeding", it's about the whole social experience, so the surroundings, the premises, the ambience, the people, the service, the food, the quality and the price all make a complete package and it varies depending on one's mood, the company you go with, the time you have, the money you want to spend, and your cravings today for this or that type of food, of course. Therefore, it's quite normal that many of us don't have "a favourite" place but a bunch of them moreover taking into account the dynamism of the restaurant/bar scene in a city like Barcelona where lots are going on all the time.

Having said that, off the top of my head I can name a few places I go from time to time when I'm in the area. I purposely list places in different neighbourhoods, so it gives you a choice depending on where you are:

• Lo Pinyol in Gràcia
• Can Recasens in El Poblenou -if at night on Fri or Sat, you need to pre-book.
• Cova Fumada in La Barceloneta
• Casa de Tapas Cañota in El Raval
• La Taverna del Clínic in L'Antiga Esquerra de l'Eixample
• La Plata in El Gòtic

Map of neighbourhoods

There are all unassuming no-frills cosy places. But again, there are literally dozens more that I could be listing... there are over 15,000 eateries in the central districts of the city!

You'll see I am mentioning almost none of those often appearing in all the tourists guides... for obvious reasons :))... this is not to say some of them are not OK, it's simply that, flocks of people are not my cup of tea when going out and I tend to avoid these places, regardless whether they're packed with tourists or with locals -something difficult to avoid at times!

A word about Can Recasens: to mention that this is not "tapas" as might be understood by some people, or elsewhere, in Spain. Can Recasens is a cosy and romantic family restaurant (yet noisy at times!) located in a non-touristy (or I should say, less touristy) area of the city, by the Rambla del Poblenou. This restaurant is run by the descendants of a family of butchers, very famous in this neighbourhood, that served its neighbours since the early 1900s with the finest cheeses and cold cuts. Next door, they also had a convenience store, which was lost during the Civil War (1936-39), but the charcuterie continued to our days. In 1995, they moved the shop elsewhere in the neighbourhood and adapted their old premises for the opening of this restaurant. It's very popular and gets full every weekend -hence the reason you need to pre-book. Their menu consists of tables of local cheeses, cold cuts (including Iberico hams and sausages) and the finest pates, alongside proper pa amb tomaquet (of course!) as the quintessential side dish of Catalan traditional cuisine, and also a variety of interesting salads, carpaccios and cheese and mushrooms cassolettes and fondues. Add to this a decent list of nice Catalan wines and cavas and voilà, your perfect unassuming evening, just good food and good ambience.

This restaurant embraces what it meant for many Catalans "going out for tapas" -which could perfectly be translated as "going for a snack"- before all the fuss about tapas became so hype, with all the molecular chefs and the other shenanigans. A couple of Tuesdays every month, they offer a live jazz concert which is great company while dining and chatting with your other half or your friends. If anything, note they only hold your table for 10' if you're late and also that on Fri and Sat nights they offer two "turns", one at 9pm and the other at 11pm. If you book for 9pm, it's understood you'll vacate your table before 11pm so the second "turn" can be served. Yes, they have the menu in English (and in French, and in German I believe....)

See a few pics here, and for details and to pre-book https://www.facebook.com/canrecasens?fref=ts Also, worthwhile seeing their video, in the facebook page, presented by one of the grandsons, now running the restaurant. Despite it is obviously in Catalan, you can see bits and pieces of the place and its general "tone", if you catch my drift. As per prices, say around 30-35€ per person, and wines are in the range of 15-25€ which, in our restaurants, this translates in very decent to great wines -don't forget we're land of wines and cavas here in Catalonia, with over 600 producers in a territory the size of Maryland ;)

I would also like to say (again!), as per a previous post, that tapas IS NOT necessarily a "standing up, shoulder to shoulder" experience... it some bars/restaurants it is, but in many others (the vast majority!) is not -at least here in Catalonia. I like the "bar snacks" definition because it's precisely that.

Enjoy!

PS: As per your marginal language skills, don't worry about, firstly Catalan is the local language not Spanish, albeit it's co-official and everybody can communicate in it (and you'll also find people for which it's their mother tongue), but most importantly, lots of people speak (or at least mumble) English, and even bits of French... this, of course, when you're not stumbling upon residents from one of the 120+ nationalities living here.

PSS.... their website (canrecasens.com) seems to be down, but the contact details are also in the facebook page.

Thank you so much Enric! I am going to print out your posts and take them with me to Barcelona.

My husband and I avoid the places with standing-room only crowds in our hometown. It doesn't make sense to seek them out when we're traveling. I need to remember that.

We had some spectacular Tapas in Ronda and found one place in Madrid where we were able to order them off a menu in the evening and had some really interesting things. But places that catered to tourists like the horrible San Miquel Market they had lukewarm mediocre product. The stuff at that market was pretty awful and it seemed to be primarily a place where they dumped off tour bus groups. We had stumbled on it while out and about and thought it looked like fun and didn't realize it was a tourist trap until we wandered in and sampled the wares.

Bar tapas on Cava Baja for example varied a lot in quality but we did have some very tasty things.

So tired of Tapas. Tapas everywhere. In Granada finally found an interesting gluten free eatery that satisfied a need for a change of pace. Next we're going for Mexican food.