Seville, Spain

Last week I went to Seville in Spain with my dad for 4 days, Seville is known to be the most beautiful city in Spain, and I cannot contradict that statement. Seville has a lot of small streets where you can wonder around for hours, beautiful landmarks and many, many, many tapas bars. And that's probably the reason why you're reading this post; to know what I ate in Seville and where?

1

First of all; breakfast. We stayed in a hostel called The Corner House. It's a very cosy and well situated hostel with very friendly staff. We had breakfast included in our accomodation so our hotel is where we ate every morning. We had 4 different options to choose from, every different option represented a city in Europe; Seville, Paris, London or Healthy.

- Seville:

2 slices of toasted bread with Serrano Ham & tomato with fresh fruit or muesli with yoghurt

- Paris:

Croissant (plain/ nutella/ ham&cheese/ butter&jam) with fresh fruit or muesli with yoghurt.

- London:

Scrammbled or fried eggs with bacon and 2 slices of toasted bread

- Healthy:

2 slices of toasted bread with avocado and tomato with fresh fruit or muesli with yoghurt

I ate all of the options besided the Paris one as we only had 3 mornings, all 3 of them were really delicious and certainly enough to start of your day. As a non-guest it's also possible to grab breakfast there.

2

The first day, we arrived around lunch time so we sat down at a restaurant called Placentines. We ordered several tapas and had some rosé. The restaurant is situated in a narrow street close to the big Cathedral and has an art store across from it, this will give you something to look at while eating. We had Pimientos del padron (peppers) (€5), Chipirones a la plancha (squid) (€6,32) and Jamon Iberico (€12,5). The food was really good, especially the garlic dip that came with the Chipirones and the staff was really friendly as well, I would certainly recommend this place if you like typical Spanish Tapas.

3

In the evening, we had dinner at our hotel restaurant. It is called "El disparate" and it serves foods from all over the world. As a starter we ordered Gazpacho and for our main dish we chose for the "beef brochette with trinchat of truffled potato and sauteed mushrooms" (€12,50) and my dad chose the "tuna tartar with avocado and banana chips" (€12). The Gazpacho was really nice and refreshing and our main dishes were both extremely good and the best dinner we had during our whole stay. The prices are also very low compared to what we pay in Belgium and the quality of the food was really good. The only thing that wasn't as pleasant, was that the main dish came before I had the chance to finish my starter, however this was the case in a lot of the restaurants in Seville. So a big tip I can give you is to order your starter, eat it, and after you finish it order your main dish seperately, this way you'll have the time to enjoy all the meals to the fullest.

4

The second day we went to Lunch at Cinco Jotas, not so far from the city centre. As it was really busy on the terras we went to sit inside, which normally isn't that pleasant but this tapas bar had a really nice interior, plus we had a table that was positioned towards the window, which made it feel like we were still outside. We ordered the Cinco Jotas Croquettes(€3,95), Iberico Mini-Hamburgers (€3,75), fried calamari (€3,65) and patatas bravas (€3,50). Here as well, the tapas were really good, nothing really special but still delicious.

5

In the evening, we went to a place called Casa Antonio, this was one of the worst meals we had during the entire trip. First we ordered some croquettes (€2,90) again and caracoles (€2,90) for my dad. The place is known for its caracoles so these weren't bad at all, but the croquettes were tasteless and had a weird texture. Next, for our main dish we ordered swordfish loin fillet (€13) and Gamba blanca a la plancha (€13). Again, my dish wasn't that good, the swordfish came on its own with no side dish at all (potatoes or fries) which made it very monotonous to eat after a while. I only finished half of it as it was too much to eat and because it was too much of the same thing. The shrimps were just good, but not overly delicious, plus we expected the really big Gamba's which you normally get when you order Gamba a la plancha. Nothing bad to say about the dishes my dad ordered; Caracoles and Gamba, but it wasn't surprising either. What made the experience specifically bad, for me, was that the waiters also weren't that nice, in my opinion, and that ruins the atmosphere as well.

6

On the third day we went to Triana with our bikes, we ate at a restaurant called Victoria 8 which I found through YouTube. The restaurant is really remote and is not that noticeable when you walk passed it, thus only locals or people that really know about the place are to be found there. When we came in, we were welcomed with open arms by very friendly staff and a lady that I assume is the owner of the place. The lady gave us a small dish from the house that didn't look very delicious at sight but when I tried it, it was really delicious. It was a very simple dish; potatoes with oil, garlic and onions, but so surpisingly good. We ordered a plate of Iberican ham (€18) as a starter and afterwards paella with fish and meat (€30) as our main dish. The paella was really really good and just enough for 2 people to eat from. Afterwards, because the food was so good, we also ordered some desserts, I ordered "coulant con helado" (moelleux au chocolat) (€4) and my dad ordered a 'marquesitas chocolato blanca" (€3,50), which is actually a white chocolate mousse but then frozen. Both desserts were delicious, only the coulant was way heavier than the ones I am used to. I recommend this place to everyone who goes to Seville as it is so pleasant to eat there, the atmospere is great and the food even greater as well as the staff.

7

In the evening we went for dinner at El Pinton, a place that a friend recommended me to go to, she described it as a tapas bar but in a fancy way, and also the pictures looked very promising. This restaurant is situated right next to "Placentine", the first restaurant I talked about (N°2). It is cosy both inside and outside, so it doesn't really matter where you are seated. We started off with a burrata salad with tomatoes, avocado and some truffel oil (€9). The salad was, as we expected, really nice and the truffel oil made it even better. For my main dish I chose for a "Salmon Taco with seasonal vegetables" (€11,5)and my dad chose for the "Iberion sirloin stuffed with mushrooms and mushroom sauce" (€12,50). I expected to get a real taco with salmon and vegetables in it, but instead I just received a salmon fillet that wasn't even fully cooked with some vegetables on the side. Afterwards I learned that "taco" means "a piece of" in Spanish, the waitress told me, so that is why I didn't get a real taco. My dad's dish also wasn't as good as we expected, there was hardly any stuffing to be found in the meat and the sauce was so thick it looked like some kind of mashed potatoes, plus getting only 4 fries on the side is very sad. I had high expectations of this restaurant but they let me down, unfortunately, so this isn't a place I would visit again when going to Seville.

8

The last day we had lunch at a very new place called Torero. They also serve tapas just like all the other restaurants, but they make them with a twist, plus they are all ecologic. At this place, we had the best tapas we had during the entire trip because it wasn't like anything I tried before. We ordered 4 different dishes; Fish meat balls, eggplant with tuna, Iberian taco and potato salad with king prawns. The potato salad was made very finely and looked more like a dip, so we ate it with the bread-like chips you get in the bread basket, called regana, it was really delicious and fresh as well. The fish meat balls were also very special but very tastefull and you get some potatoes with it too. The Iberian taco was presented on pita-bread with avocado, onions, tomatoes, parmezan and rucola. The meat was delicious and the dish as a whole was excellent as well, but it was a lot so if you order this dish make sure you don't have too many starters up front. The eggplant with tuna was surprisingly good, for me, a non-tuna-lover, so this tells you a lot about the meal. It was very similar to an Italian dish that we know as "melanzane" it also has tomato sauce and melted cheese in it which makes the meal wonderful.

Overall, there wasn't one thing we tried that I didn't like and the waiter was very friendly as well, he helped us with making the right choices, to make sure we ordered the best of the best. Torero is another restaurant that I would recommend to everyone visiting Seville, as the dishes are so different and delicious.

9

Last but definitely not least, ice cream! There are plenty of ice cream places in Seville where they serve normal scoops of ice cream, but if you like something extraordinary, just like me, these are some places I went to. First, Holy Rolls, here you can have ice cream as a roll instead of ordering a scoop. I don't recall what my order was exactly but it did have caramel sauce on it and some nut crumble, so just look at the descriptions and you'll find the one you need.

Second, Palique, here they sell ice cream popsicles. It doesn't only look good but it tastes excellent as well, it is not just water with a flavour as you would expect, it's still ice cream but then on a stick. I chose for the cheesecake flavour with white chocolate dip and oreo crumble and my dad picked a strawberry one with white chocolate dip as well. To end off the holiday, I went to Amorino for the famous "flower ice cream", you can just walk in and order one and then choose your own flavours later on. If you would like a macaron on it as well, you can have one for around €2. I chose my 3 favourite flavours; Stracciatella, Chocolate and Salted caramel, the flavours were delicious but to be honest it is not that convenient to eat such an ice cream in such hot weather, it feels like a marathon between you and the ice cream :p

I had a blast in Seville and would definitely go back to try out all the other little restaurants that I passed but didn't have the time to eat at. I loved the atmosphere, culture, architecture and also all the amazing monuments.

A bientôt!

Bisous