Seville Restaurants and Dining

(Seville, Andalucia, Spain)

Seville restaurants provide an enjoyable place to dine in the city, with some delicious food available. When dining in local tavernas, cafés and bars, the food is based on a combination of fresh produce and home cooking, with the result being quite delicious.

The city of Seville is ideally placed for the freshest seafood and fish. High quality Spanish fruit and vegetables are also readily available, and so restaurants here are able to obtain a wonderful array of fresh ingredients when preparing their meals.

Breakfast

Breakfast in Spain tends to be eaten twice and Seville is no exception. The first breakfast is usually a light meal, such as toasted bread with butter, jam or olive oil, together with a milky coffee (café con leche). A little later, sometime between 10:00 and 11:00, a more substantial breakfast follows, usually in a café. This often consists of a sandwich (bocadillo) or muffin (mollete), with either ham, cheese, sausage or a slice of traditional Spanish omelette. Churros are also popular for breakfast in Seville and these are simply fried dough strips, sold mainly from stalls around the city centre.

Lunch / Tapas Bars

Those dining out for lunch in Seville will find that lunchtime generally starts from 13:00 onwards, usually with tapas. These are bite-sized snacks that accompany drinks and they are a real part of Spanish culture and very popular in the city. The tapas bars (tascas) can become very busy and they usually have plenty of atmosphere. Tapas started in the 18th century when Carlos III asked for his wine to be covered with a plate of food, to stop the dust from getting into it - 'tapa' literally means 'lid', which is where the name comes from. These days, the most common types of tapas include snails, deep-fried squid, mushrooms, baby eels, tripe, prawns, cold potato omelette, meatballs, potato salad, olives, cheeses, cold meats and tortillas. A meal in a tapas bar or café in Seville is a very social way to enjoy and share a large variety of food and different tastes.

Lunch in Seville is eaten between 14:00 to 15:00 and is usually followed by an afternoon siesta. A typical lunch menu in a local restaurant might consist of tortilla de patatas (a traditional Spanish potato omelette), Cazuela de Arroz con Mariscos (a version of seafood paella), pollo al ajillo (chicken in olive oil and garlic), pesca'ito frito (fried fish), many salads and perhaps gazpacho (a traditional Andalusian cold soup made from tomatoes).

From 17:30 onwards, cafés, tea rooms and pastry shops begin to fill up for pastries, cakes and sandwiches, and tapas bars also start to become busy. A little later, at around 21:00, eateries begin serving supper, although some restaurants in Seville may open a little earlier for tourists. The restaurants may stay open until after midnight and many locals in Seville enjoy dining out in restaurants on a regularly basis, particularly on Sundays.