Also: Budget Eats in Cordoba
Eat well in Córdoba without overpaying: the locals'-budget edition.
Eat well in Córdoba for under €15 a plate: the places locals on a budget actually use.
Taberna Góngora is the family taberna on Conde de Torres Cabrera in Córdoba, adapting most of its carta for coeliacs on a separate chickpea-flour fryer.
Try: Rabo de toro and boquerones
Order: Rabo de toro, then boquerones, both at taberna prices.
Tip: It closes Tuesday and Sunday, an awkward pair that catches out anyone planning a long weekend.
Casa El Pisto has fed Plaza de San Miguel in Córdoba since 1880, a bullfighting taberna where a plate of pisto with a fried egg costs almost nothing.
Try: Pisto casero con huevo
Order: Pisto casero con huevo, then the ensaladilla rusa.
Tip: The operator publishes lunchtime hours only, so treat this as a midday stop rather than dinner.
Taberna Coto has traded in Córdoba since 1972 and now sits on Plaza de San Miguel, serving lomo en manteca colorá that tourist kitchens have dropped.
Try: Lomo en manteca colorá
Order: Lomo en manteca colorá, then berenjenas con miel de caña.
Tip: It publishes no hours anywhere and closes Tuesdays, so phone before you build a plan around it.
Taberna Rafaé has worked Calle Deanes in Córdoba's Judería since 1977, a bodega-taberna running more than eighty classic plates at taberna prices.
Try: Classic Córdoba taberna plates
Order: Whatever the bodega board recommends; the carta runs past eighty plates.
Tip: It advertises itself as open every day but publishes no clock times, so call ahead in low season.
Taberna Regina opened on its small Córdoba plaza in 1904 and still serves albóndigas de la abuela and a flamenquín stuffed with rabo de toro.
Try: Albóndigas de la abuela
Order: Albóndigas de la abuela, then the rabo de toro flamenquín.
Tip: It shuts Monday and Tuesday and serves dinner on Friday and Saturday only, so a midweek evening walk-in finds the door closed.
Taberna Casa Luis faces the rose window of San Lorenzo in Córdoba, a neighbourhood room built on pescaíto frito, callos and other home-kitchen plates.
Try: Pescaíto frito
Order: Pescaíto frito, the plate the barrio has always come here to eat.
Tip: No hours are published anywhere, so treat an evening visit as a gamble unless you phone first.
Taberna La Montillana has run beside San Miguel in Córdoba since 1948 and is one of the very few kitchens in the city still serving mazamorra.
Try: Mazamorra
Order: Mazamorra, the white almond soup that came before salmorejo.
Tip: The operator writes its closing time as until close rather than a clock hour, so late arrivals are a gamble.
Taberna El Abanico is the small flower-hung tapas room on Velázquez Bosco in Córdoba, a few metres north of the Mezquita and open seven days a week.
Try: Cordobés tapas and raciones
Order: Ask the counter what came in that morning; the carta is short and changes.
Tip: The operator runs three sites; Velázquez Bosco 7 is the original Mezquita branch, not the Ribera one.
Taberna La Viuda runs more than thirty tapas and raciones in San Basilio in Córdoba, including a flamenquín stuffed with cheese rather than ham.
Try: Flamenquín de queso
Order: The flamenquín de queso, the house rewrite of the city's fried classic.
Tip: It opens all seven days with a full split service, rare in a barrio where most rooms take a day off.
Taberna Salinas serves salmorejo, flamenquín and fried aubergine off Córdoba's Corredera, in a barrel-lined room the Salinas family took on in 1924.
Try: Salmorejo and flamenquín
Order: Salmorejo, then flamenquines de jamón serrano.
Tip: An earlier tavern stood here from 1879; the Salinas family business itself dates from 1924.
El Astronauta cooks mezze and a full plant-based section in central Córdoba, a vegan moussaka and vegan burger alongside the standard carta.
Try: Vegan moussaka and mezze
Order: The vegan moussaka, or the mezze spread if there are several of you.
Tip: The operator publishes no hours, though the Córdoba directories agree it shuts on Sunday, so phone ahead before building a plan.