From Cádiz to San Sebastián: ten classic places to have tapas, eat or have a sweet without fail

This restaurant, awarded the Repsol solete just two months after opening in Jerez de la Frontera, defends “the cuisine you remember.” That of the mothers and grandmothers from Cádiz to whom they pay tribute David Ripalda and Mario Pizarro in the old premises of a classic, the Jerez bar. There, with a contemporary and very personal review of the recipe book, they serve their aliñás potatoes with stew pringá; an oyster from Cádiz with lime, garum and tobiko roe; or a beef tongue stew but with miso and palo Cortado, proving that tradition is not something immutable.

Address: Medina, 20. Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz).

This Granada tavern enjoys recognition as a Local Monument by the City Council of its city. It is, in addition to being a tapas institution, a living example of the bar culture that survives beyond the historical space it inhabits. On its walls the tiles from the historic Ramos Rejano factory in Seville are proudly maintained. In the hubbub of his bar, the fresh fish and the good fries –they brag about their dogfish– which have always been the watchword of this house, since last Monday with a Repsol solete for their tradition.

Address: Beautiful, 5. Granada.

Córdoba, host city of the gala in which the Repsol Guide has made public the 330 new suns of 2024, has several examples of these guarantors of tradition. Some of them young like Rafael Ordóñezgrandson of the founder of this Jewish tavern where his grandfather began selling wine and where his father introduced cooking. Two worlds that it defends from the third generation at the helm. The oxtail – his grandmother’s recipe – and the rice with this piece of beef are his star dishes, without missing the salmorejo or the porridge.

Address: Deanes, 2. Córdoba.

Miguel Gonzalezowner of the restaurant El Bierzo de Barbieri, is probably the oldest hotelier active in the city of Madrid. Soul of this icon of Chueca, and its historic chef since he opened his restaurant, with a menu of the day –17 euros–, in 1971. He cut his teeth as a stew on the old Renfe trains that operated with sleeping cars. At 84 years old, he is still at the foot of the stove. Homemade dishes, with fetish recipes such as consommé with yolk, liver with onions or stewed partridge – on request. Since this week he has been wearing a solete from the Repsol Guide.

Address: Barbieri, 16. (Madrid).

Luis Álvarez –in the photo– spent five years in the kitchen and six in the living room before taking the helm of La Gran Tasca. A temple of traditional cuisine recognized with solete in this latest update of the Repsol Guide. With the cooked As a great specialty, it has been in the lives of Madrid residents for more than eight decades. The iconic dish from traditional recipes is served every day – except in June, July and August when it is closed – in two shifts. It costs 33.5 euros. It is accompanied on the menu by other classics such as calluses or frog legs with garlic.

Address: Santa Engracia, 161. Madrid.

There are documents, in the Municipal Archive, that show the presence of a bakery, as early as 1810, where the oldest pastry shop in Madrid was built. His long life began in 1830 with the Agudo family. A century later it changed hands with the pastry chef Julián Leal. Today, their successors – already in their third generation – keep intact the house that seduced notables of the stature of Pio Baroja –despite being linked to another historic workshop such as Vienna Capellanes–, the doctors Gregorio Marañón and Carlos Jimenez Diazor the playwright Jacinto Benavente. There is no shortage of history in this business recognized with the Repsol solete and in which its sponge cake and puff pastries that made it famous continue to shine. Also sweets that were once very popular in Madrid and almost forgotten like bartolillos.

Address: Pozo, 8. Madrid.

It is, by right, the oldest bar in Lion. Centenario – founded in 1915 – is part of the incessant pulse of the history of the Húmedo neighborhood. It is, above all, a symbol of resistance and a museum with tradition, which is why it deserves Repsol’s ‘solete’. A place to remember the characters who sat at their table: from Paco Umbral to Stanley Kubrick, Florinda Chico and Julio Llamazares. Here thirst is quenched before hunger, unless it is through anecdotes. He is appeased with a dish of olives.

Address: Plaza Mayor, 20. León.

A few months ago, Martín Pimentel opened in El Born the bar that his grandfather Chujo Pimentel – a Dominican who was preceded by his hospitality in feeding his acquaintances during the Trujillo dictatorship – would have liked to have. Its spirit, that of comforting those looking for homemade food, is in force in this new classic bar with ‘solete’, without artifice and with simple cuisine. Víctor Serrano – who passed through El Celler de Can Roca – takes charge of it without regional ties.

Address: Carders, 11. Barcelona.

In the network of medieval streets of the El Born neighborhood, in Barcelonathis project with a tavern soul was born three decades ago. A place to relive the classics, with that tapas culture that Barcelona has always boasted of. With the usual snacks – salad, bravas, tripe, meatballs, croquettes or roasted cannelloni– and with more contemporary nods typical of the cultural mix that this city represents. A reference place for wine lovers, now with ‘solete’, with various Catalan and French references.

Under the arch of Pescadería Street, at its entrance to the Plaza de la Constitución in San Sebastianis one of the institutions of San Sebastian’s ‘pintxo’. This house, run by the family that owns another emblematic bar in the Old Town – the Gambara – has received the ‘solete’ from the Spanish gastronomic guide.

In their repertoire of snacks are their pipas –battered shrimp–, anchovy tempura, stuffed peppers, hake pie and ‘txangurro’ or the mushroom skewer. In addition to the Repsol ‘solete’, it has the seal with which the Pintxo Institute protects the quality of this culinary concept of Basque gastronomy.