Short answer: The five Spanish dishes not to miss are paella in Valencia, jamón ibérico, tortilla española, gazpacho or salmorejo in Andalusia, and pintxos in San Sebastián, with churros and chocolate to finish. Eat your big meal at lunch, graze on tapas in the evening, and follow each region’s specialties.
Spain does not really have one cuisine; it has a dozen regional ones that share a love of olive oil, good bread, ham and long meals with friends. The Atlantic north, from Galicia to the Basque Country, is about seafood, beef and rich stews; Valencia and the Mediterranean coast grow the rice and vegetables for paella; the hot south of Andalusia cools down with cold soups and fried fish; and the high plains of the center roast lamb and suckling pig and make Manchego cheese. Spain is also one of the seven countries whose Mediterranean diet UNESCO lists as intangible cultural heritage. This guide covers 15 dishes and drinks worth traveling for, where to eat them and how Spanish meal times work. For everything else, start with our Spain travel guide.
Rice, ham and the classics
1. Paella valenciana
The real thing comes from the countryside around Valencia: rice cooked in a wide, shallow pan with chicken, rabbit, flat green beans, butter beans (garrofó), saffron and olive oil, ideally over a wood fire, until a crisp crust (socarrat) forms on the bottom. In 2021 the regional government of Valencia declared paella valenciana an item of intangible cultural heritage, under the title “the art of uniting and sharing”. It is a lunch dish, often for Sundays, and usually made for at least two people; seafood versions are called paella de marisco, and arroz negro is black with squid ink.
2. Jamón ibérico
Cured ham from Iberian pigs, sliced paper-thin by hand and eaten at room temperature, ideally with bread and a glass of wine or sherry. The best is from pigs that roam the oak pastures (dehesas) of the southwest and fatten on acorns. Spain’s tourism board lists four protected designations of origin for Iberian ham: Guijuelo, Jabugo, Los Pedroches and Dehesa de Extremadura. A black label marks ham from purebred, acorn-fed Iberian pigs. Order a ración to share; jamón serrano, from white pigs, is cheaper and very good too.
3. Tortilla española
The Spanish omelet: potatoes and usually onion slow-cooked in olive oil, then set with eggs into a thick, golden cake. Every bar has one on the counter, eaten in wedges (pincho de tortilla) at breakfast, as a tapa or in a sandwich, warm or at room temperature. It is vegetarian, and Spaniards argue happily about whether it should include onion and how runny the middle should be.
4. Gazpacho and salmorejo
The cold soups of Andalusia, made in summer from raw tomatoes blended with olive oil, garlic and bread. Gazpacho is thinner and often drunk from a glass, with cucumber and pepper; salmorejo, from Córdoba, is thick and creamy, topped with chopped egg and ham. Both are best from May to September, when the tomatoes are ripe, and both are vegetarian if you skip the ham.
5. Patatas bravas
Chunks of fried potato with a spicy paprika-based “brava” sauce, often also with garlic mayonnaise (alioli). Every tapas bar has its own version, and in Madrid people debate who makes the best. It is one of the few mildly spicy dishes in Spain and an easy vegetarian tapa.
6. Croquetas
Small, crisp, breadcrumbed fingers of very creamy béchamel, flavored with ham, chicken, salt cod, mushroom or spinach. They are a favorite tapa everywhere and a good test of a bar’s kitchen: the best are almost liquid inside. Order a few of different flavors to share.
Regional specialties
7. Pulpo a la gallega (pulpo á feira)
Galicia’s octopus: boiled in copper pots, cut into rounds with scissors, served on a wooden plate with olive oil, coarse salt and smoked paprika, often with boiled potatoes. It is the dish of Galicia’s fairs and festivals and best in Santiago de Compostela and on the coast of the Rías Baixas, where it pairs well with a crisp white Albariño.
8. Pintxos
The Basque version of tapas: small bites, often on a slice of bread and held together with a stick (pintxo means “skewer”), lined up on bar counters or cooked to order. In San Sebastián the custom, as the city’s tourism office describes it, is to visit several bars and have one or two pintxos at each, with a small glass of wine or beer. The Parte Vieja (old town) is the classic place to start; Bilbao has its own pintxo bars around the Casco Viejo.
9. Fabada asturiana
A rich, slow-cooked stew of large white beans (fabes) with chorizo, black pudding (morcilla) and pork, from Asturias in the green north. It is a hearty lunch for a cool day, not a summer dinner, and one serving is a full meal. Follow it, as Asturians do, with a glass of local cider poured from high above the glass.
10. Cochinillo asado
Roast suckling pig with crackling skin and tender meat, the specialty of Segovia, an easy day trip from Madrid, and of the Castilian plains around it, where roast lamb (lechazo) is just as famous. It is a celebration lunch; in Segovia’s traditional restaurants it is sometimes cut with the edge of a plate to show how tender it is.
11. Queso Manchego
Spain’s best-known cheese, from La Mancha, the plains of Don Quixote south of Madrid. Under its protected designation of origin, Queso Manchego must be made from the milk of Manchega sheep and made and aged in the defined area. It ranges from young and mild to aged and nutty, and is served in wedges as a tapa, sometimes with quince paste (membrillo).
12. Pescaíto frito
Andalusia’s fried fish: small fish such as anchovies, plus squid, cuttlefish and dogfish marinated in vinegar (cazón en adobo), lightly floured and fried in olive oil. It is best by the sea in Málaga and Cádiz, eaten from a paper cone or a shared plate with a squeeze of lemon.
Sweets and drinks
13. Churros con chocolate
Fried dough sticks dipped in thick, hot drinking chocolate. Madrid’s chocolaterías serve them for breakfast, as an afternoon snack and, famously, at dawn after a night out; on New Year’s morning they are a tradition after Spaniards have eaten twelve grapes at midnight. Porras are the fatter version.
14. Crema catalana
Catalonia’s custard dessert, flavored with lemon zest and cinnamon and topped with a crust of sugar caramelized with a hot iron just before serving. It is on dessert menus all over Barcelona and Catalonia; elsewhere in Spain, look for flan, arroz con leche (rice pudding) and, in Andalusia, almond and egg-yolk sweets made by nuns in convents.
15. Sherry, Rioja and vermouth
Spain’s drinks are as regional as its food. Sherry (jerez), from the Jerez area of Andalusia, runs from bone-dry fino and manzanilla, perfect with ham and fried fish, to sweet Pedro Ximénez. Rioja and Ribera del Duero are the best-known red wines, Albariño the classic white with seafood, and cava the sparkling wine of Catalonia. On weekend afternoons, many Spaniards meet for a vermut (vermouth) on ice before lunch. For vineyard visits, see our wine tasting guide.
Where to eat: Madrid and beyond
- Madrid: the Mercado de San Miguel, by the Plaza Mayor, is a historic market hall turned into a gourmet tapas market, open from 10:00 to midnight Sunday to Thursday and to 1:00 on Fridays, Saturdays and holiday eves. For cheaper tapas, walk the bars of La Latina and the Cava Baja, and try a calamari sandwich (bocadillo de calamares) near the Plaza Mayor.
- Barcelona: La Boqueria on the Rambla is Spain’s most famous market, with counter bars between the produce stalls; the city lists it as open Monday to Saturday from 8:00 to 20:30, closed Sundays. Go early in the morning, before the crowds, and check the hours if renovation works are under way.
- Valencia: the modernist Mercado Central, across from the Lonja de la Seda, is open Monday to Saturday from 7:30 to 15:00 and has a section of food to eat on the spot. For paella, head out of town to the rice fields of the Albufera or to the beach restaurants of Malvarrosa.
- San Sebastián: pintxo bars in the Parte Vieja and Gros, and the La Bretxa and San Martín markets.
- Seville, Granada and Andalusia: tapas bars in every neighborhood, fried fish by the coast in Málaga and Cádiz, and in Granada the custom of a small free tapa with each drink at many bars.
Food etiquette and tipping
Spanish meal times are late, and planning around them is the most useful tip in this guide. Lunch, the main meal, runs from about 2 to 4 p.m., and dinner from about 9 to 11 p.m.; many restaurant kitchens are closed in between, when tapas bars fill the gap. On weekdays, look for the menú del día, a fixed-price lunch of two courses, dessert or coffee, bread and a drink, the classic way to eat well for little money. In tapas bars, it is normal to stand at the counter, order a few small plates to share and move on to the next bar; you usually pay at the end.
Tipping in Spain is modest and never compulsory. Leaving small change at a bar, or rounding up a restaurant bill for good service, is common. Our tip calculator helps you work out amounts, and our phrase cards have the Spanish for “the bill, please” (la cuenta, por favor) and “I’m vegetarian” (soy vegetariano/vegetariana).
In August, some family-run restaurants in the cities close for part of the month while their owners take their own holidays.
Eating on a budget
Eating out in Spain is good value for Western Europe. Numbeo’s October 2026 Madrid figures, used in our Spain trip cost guide, put a meal at an inexpensive restaurant at about €16 and a mid-range dinner for two at about €60 without drinks. The weekday menú del día, tapas bars and market counters stretch a budget furthest; Barcelona, San Sebastián and the islands cost more than inland cities such as Salamanca or Granada. Tapas walks, market tours and paella cooking classes are popular in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville and Valencia; browse them in our tour finder.
Food also shapes when to go: the grape harvest begins in La Rioja and Jerez in September, Valencia’s Las Fallas runs from 15 to 19 March, and La Tomatina, the tomato fight in Buñol, takes place on the last Wednesday of August. Our best time to visit Spain guide covers the seasons and festivals month by month.
Plan your trip: our free trip planner can build a day-by-day route with time for markets, long lunches and tapas evenings. Our Spain itinerary plans 7, 10 and 14 days, our top 10 places to visit in Spain helps you choose where to go, and if you are also tempted by Lisbon and Porto, see Portugal vs Spain.
Frequently asked questions
What is the national dish of Spain?
Spain has no official national dish. Paella is the best known abroad, though Spaniards see it as Valencian, and tortilla española is the dish you will find in every bar in the country. Jamón ibérico is the national obsession.
Is Spanish food spicy?
No. Spanish cooking uses paprika (pimentón), garlic and olive oil for flavor rather than chili heat. Patatas bravas, some chorizo and the little green Padrón peppers from Galicia, of which an occasional one is hot, are about as spicy as it gets.
What do people eat for breakfast in Spain?
Breakfast is light: a coffee with toast topped with crushed tomato and olive oil (pan con tomate), a croissant, or a wedge of tortilla at a bar. Churros con chocolate are a weekend or special-occasion breakfast. Many Spaniards have a mid-morning snack, then a big lunch.
Is Spain good for vegetarians?
Better than it used to be. Tortilla, patatas bravas, gazpacho, salmorejo without ham, Padrón peppers, cheese, vegetable paella and grilled vegetables are easy to find, and Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia have many vegetarian restaurants. Ham and fish turn up in unexpected places, such as croquetas and bean stews, so ask “¿lleva carne o pescado?” (does it contain meat or fish?).
What time do people eat dinner in Spain?
From about 9 p.m., and later in summer and on weekends. Restaurants that open at 7 p.m. are usually catering to visitors. If you are hungry earlier, do as Spaniards do and have a few tapas and a drink in the early evening.
What is the difference between tapas and pintxos?
Tapas are small plates served all over Spain, ordered from a menu or the counter and often shared. Pintxos are the Basque Country’s version, usually bite-sized and served on bread with a stick through them, picked from the counter or ordered hot from a board, and paid for by counting the sticks or telling the bartender what you had.