Thinking about travelling to Granada? Learn more about our trip, especially about the gorgeous food, which might persuade you to make the trip.

P.S: I’m sorry my photos aren’t great, I took the pictures before I thought about writing this, ¡Lo siento!

My girlfriend and I have just come back from a trip from the beautiful Granada. At the place we’re staying at the moment in Murcia, there isn’t a lot of Spanish options to choose from (its catered to English retirees) so we really made the most of this trip when it came to the food.

Granada is famed for its beauty and its amazing attractions, like the Alhambra, a palace and fortress that sits on a hill (mountain?) that overlooks the rest of the city.

However, arguably one of the best things about Granada is that they do tapas the original way. As in, if you order a drink, you get a tapa for free!

Day one in Granada

When we arrived in Granada, we quickly made our way into the city to go and explore, and one of the first things we did was find food.

Once we did a little bit of exploring, we came across a ‘bocadillo’ (sandwich) restuarant. As soon as we had sat down at a little restaurant called ‘Ibericos y Alhambra‘ and ordered drinks the lovely waitress brought out our first tapa: Iberico ham (Jamon ibérico). It was only simple, but it was delicious.

We followed this up with a shared bocadillo that was made up of pastrami, pickles, mustard, aioli and apple. I didn’t take a picture of it because we ate it before we had a chance, but it was amazing. If you are going to Granada and want a light lunch and excellent service, this is the place to go.

After this, we wandered around the city a bit more, shopping and taking in the beautiful scenery. We also went for drinks at quite a big bar. It was the only place where they didn’t give us a free tapa, and they tried to charge me twice for what we ordered. This was the ‘Siloé bar and grill‘ and, although it looked pretty, I don’t think I’d go there again.

After a day of walking and drinking, we got really hungry. But by that time, most of the restaurants was full, so we made the mistake of walking into the first restaurant we found. This was the ‘Él Aguador’. The service was friendly and we got hit on by a good-looking waiter which was interesting and he definitely dodn’t work out that we were a couple (or chose to ignore it?). There wasn’t a lot on the menu that we were really interested in was the Jamon Ibérico and the traditional ham croquettes.

Okay, so we ate a lot of Ibérico ham the first day. But it was worth it. I didn’t take a picture of the croquettes, but they were HUGE and we only managed a couple between us.

After that, we headed back to the hotel and fell asleep in a food coma. Era muy bien.

Day two in Granada

We woke up and straight away we headed downstairs to the all you can eat breakfast. There was tortilla, bacon, eggs, sausages, cheeses, fresh fruit, cereal, churros… and we ate it all.

After that, we headed out into the city again for another day of exploring and drinking. We went for a walk along the ‘Carrera del Darro’, or the Gold Road. At the top, there were array of different restaurants, all of which had great views of the Alhambra. We stopped at the ‘Puerte de los tristes‘ and had a drink and a tapa. They gave us a tapa of patatas with a spicy sauce (I think it was bravas sauce), which was nice, even though the service was so slow, so we decided not to eat there.

It turns out that deciding not to eat at this restaurant was our best decision we made all holiday. We walked back down the river and walked around a bit more. We walked into the ‘Plaza Bib-Rambla’ to find something for late lunch, and this where we accidentally walked into the best restaurant of the trip: The Laseda. We didn’t even look at the menu, we just walked in and that was such a happy accident.

It took us a while to find us anything on the menu that my girlfriend would eat, so we ended up going for the ‘Salmorejo’ , goats cheese ‘mille-feuille’ that was layered with mango and chicken in coriander and lime. This was SO GOOD, and the waiter was so lovely.

The photo, like all of the others, does not do the food justice. The soup is called ‘Salmorejo’, is a cold soup made from tomato, bread, garlic, and oil, and it is usually served with ham and egg. We were a bit sceptical about it, but it was one of the best soups I’ve eaten, and I’m definitely going to make it and write a recipe. The goats cheese, mango and honey was incredible, though it was really rich.

This was the best meal we had in Granada. If you want a bit of a fancier treat while you’re travelling in Granada, this is the place to go.

Our final food stop wasn’t till about 9pm, because we were so stuffed from the previous meal. I booked a table at a nice restaurant because it was our anniversary. It was called the ‘Restaurante Pub Albanta’, and it had a beautiful patio. I ordered the ‘Iberico with Pedro Ximinez’ sauce. I had no idea what it was, but it was so tasty. Turns out it was a sweet sherry sauce with raisins and onions, and it is something that I now desperately want to eat again.

Again, I’m sorry the photo is so rubbish, it really doesn’t do the food justice at all. This was the second-best restaurant we ate at. The sauce was so sweet which paired well with the salty pork. This is another restaurant that you’ll want to try if you head to Granada!

Final notes

We ate a lot of food in Granada, lots. Most of it was good, some was average and a couple of places weren’t worth going to. Considering that we knew nothing about the place, I think we did very well.

If you are planning to go to Granada, I would definitely recommend The Laseda, Restaurante Pub Albanta and Ibericos y Alhambra. These were the best restaurants we went to in terms of food and the service.

If we could do it again, I would definitely try and get more tapas. The drinks are very cheap (think $2-2.50 euros for a beer or a glass of wine) and you get a free tapa with each drink. If you want a day of drinking and free food, take yourself on a tapas tour around the city. Just bear in mind that tapas restaurants can get very busy, and they usually close between 4pm-8pm.