The plates that define Seville: what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
Signature dishes
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Salmorejo ★ 4.8
Salmorejo is a thick cold soup of tomato, bread, olive oil and garlic that comes from Cordoba, usually garnished with diced ibérico ham and boiled egg.
Where to try it: Casa Robles, Taberna Coloniales, Casa Cuesta, La Brunilda
Price: €7.90-14
Salmorejo comes from Cordoba and took its present form after the tomato reached Europe from the New World. The word is recorded from the 17th century, and the recipe is said to derive from aliño, a dressing of water, vinegar, salt and oil used on rabbit. It is thicker and creamier than gazpacho, an emulsion rather than a soup. Seville's tourist board notes that cold tapas such as salmorejo become more popular once summer arrives. Casa Robles, Taberna Coloniales, Casa Cuesta and La Brunilda all list it.
Watch out for: Gluten, Egg
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Gazpacho Andaluz ★ 4.8
Gazpacho Andaluz is the cold Andalusian soup of tomato, cucumber, green pepper, garlic and stale bread, blended with olive oil and wine vinegar.
Where to try it: Las Teresas, Bodeguita Antonio Romero
Price: €2.60 per tapa
Gazpacho originated in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Early versions used stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt and vinegar and resembled ajoblanco; red gazpacho was created in the 19th century when tomatoes were added. Related cold dishes popular in Andalusia include salmorejo, ajoblanco and the porra antequerana. Visita Sevilla calls gazpacho one of the clearest references of Andalusian and Sevillian cooking. Las Teresas and Bodeguita Antonio Romero both list it on their menus.
Watch out for: Gluten
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Espinacas con Garbanzos ★ 4.7
Espinacas con garbanzos is Seville's spinach and chickpea tapa, spiced with cumin, paprika and vinegar and a classic of Lent and Holy Week cooking.
Where to try it: Casa Cuesta, Las Teresas
Spinach reached Spain under Arab rule. Visita Sevilla lists spinach with chickpeas among the dishes of Seville's Lenten cooking, beside potaje de vigilia, cod pavias, torrijas and pestinos, and calls it a traditional Holy Week tapa. We found no written source that dates the dish. Casa Cuesta in Triana and Las Teresas in Santa Cruz both list it on their menus.
Watch out for: Gluten
Book food experiences in Seville
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Pescaito Frito ★ 4.7
Pescaito frito is the Andalusian fried fish: boquerones, salmonetes, calamares and cazon dredged in flour only and fried in olive oil, often sold in paper.
Where to try it: Freiduria Puerta de la Carne, Casa Cuesta, Bodeguita Casablanca
Phoenicians are credited with the first frying of fish in olive oil, and the Romans fried fish without flouring it. Dredging the fish in flour came in the Middle Ages, with Sephardic cooks, and the classic method uses flour only, with no egg or breadcrumbs, in extra virgin olive oil at about 180C. Visita Sevilla notes that visitors traditionally eat pescaito frito on the night the lights go on at the Feria de Abril. Freiduria Puerta de la Carne has sold it wrapped in paper since 1928.
Watch out for: Fish, Gluten
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Tortillitas de Camarones ★ 4.7
Tortillitas de camarones are crisp fritters of small shrimp in a wheat and chickpea flour batter with parsley and onion, a staple of Andalusian fry counters.
Where to try it: Bodeguita Antonio Romero, Las Teresas, Freiduria Puerta de la Carne
Price: €2.50 per tapa
Tortillitas de camarones are shrimp fritters from Andalusia whose origin is given as Cadiz or San Fernando, or possibly both. The batter combines wheat flour, chickpea flour, water and onion, with parsley, and the fritters are fried on both sides in plenty of olive oil. In Seville, Bodeguita Antonio Romero sells them as a tapa or a ración, Las Teresas lists a tortillita de camarones, and Freiduria Puerta de la Carne lists them among its fried foods.
Watch out for: Shellfish, Gluten
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Montadito de Pringa ★ 4.6
Montadito de pringa is a hot small sandwich of meat from the stew pot, which began as a way to use leftover stew, a staple of Sevillian tapas bars.
Where to try it: Bodeguita Antonio Romero
Price: €4.20
The montadito de pringa originated as a way to make use of leftover stew, according to Visita Sevilla, which describes pringa as a stew-derived speciality usually served as a hot montadito and eaten by dipping bread into the meats. The tourist board lists Bodeguita Romero for it and calls it a star at Bodeguita Antonio Romero in Arenal, whose carta lists a Pringa montadito at 4.20 euros.
Watch out for: Gluten
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Solomillo al Whisky ★ 4.5
Solomillo al whisky is a Sevillian tapa of sirloin in a whisky sauce, served with potatoes at Taberna Coloniales and listed as a punta at Las Teresas.
Where to try it: Taberna Coloniales, Las Teresas, Bodeguita Antonio Romero
Visita Sevilla names solomillo al whisky, with the montadito de pringa, as one of the tapas that let a visitor taste the city's history. Taberna Coloniales lists it as a tapa and serves it with potatoes, Las Teresas lists a punta de solomillo al whisky, and Bodeguita Antonio Romero pairs a Rioja with its solomillo al whisky. We found no page that dates the dish or says who invented it.
Watch out for: Gluten
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Huevos a la Flamenca ★ 4.4
Huevos a la flamenca is a Sevillian dish of eggs baked on a base of tomato, peas and cured ham or chorizo, born in the city's bars and taverns.
The Universidad Pablo de Olavide calls huevos a la flamenca a typical dish of Seville, from the city's bars that combined vegetables and cured meats with an oven-baked egg. A base of tomato, eggs, peas and serrano ham or chorizo is the constant, and there is no single recipe. The tomato gives the red tone that the same source ties to the name. None of the venues Seville lists on our site shows the dish on a page we could read, so we name none.
Watch out for: Egg
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Torrijas ★ 4.6
Torrijas are slices of bread soaked in milk or wine, fried and sweetened, a classic dessert of Seville's Lent and Holy Week cooking beside pestinos.
Where to try it: Confiteria La Campana, Confiteria Rufino
Visita Sevilla lists the classic torrijas and pestinos among the excellent desserts of Seville's Lenten cooking, eaten above all during Holy Week, and Confiteria Rufino describes Lent as a time of fried sweets rooted in Arab traditions, naming torrijas, roscos and pestinos. Confiteria La Campana, founded in 1885, lists torrijas among its seasonal sweets and has published a video of how it makes them.
Watch out for: Gluten, Egg, Milk
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Menudo (Callos a la Sevillana) ★ 4.5
Menudo is Seville's tripe stew with chickpeas and chorizo, eaten as a tapa with bread; Las Teresas lists it as menudo and Casa Cuesta as beef tripe.
Where to try it: Las Teresas, Casa Cuesta
Visita Sevilla describes Sevillian tripe as a stew of tripe with chickpeas and chorizo, often served as a tapa with bread and red wine. Las Teresas lists menudo under its stews, and Casa Cuesta lists a beef tripe stew named after the house among its stews and paellas. We found no page that dates the dish or ties it to a season, so we make no claim on either.
Watch out for: Gluten
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Carrillada ibérica ★ 4.7
Carrillada ibérica is Iberian pork cheek braised until tender, a Sevillian tavern dish served in red wine or sweet wine sauce, as a tapa or a main plate.
Where to try it: Bodeguita Antonio Romero, Casa Cuesta, Bodeguita Casablanca, Las Teresas
Price: €3.20 per tapa, €16 main
Carrillada, the pork cheek, is braised slowly in wine until it falls apart. Bodeguita Antonio Romero lists a carrillada tapa and a carrillada al vino as a main plate, Bodeguita Casablanca a carrillada de cerdo al vino tinto, Casa Cuesta a stew of pork cheeks with PX wine and Las Teresas a carrilera ibérica. We found no page that dates the dish or says it became canon in the late 20th century, so we make no such claim.
Watch out for: Sulphites
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Yemas de San Leandro ★ 4.4
Yemas de San Leandro are egg-yolk sweets cooked in syrup by the Augustinian nuns of Seville's Monasterio de San Leandro, a convent speciality of the city.
Where to try it: Confiteria La Campana
The Monasterio de Agustinas de San Leandro is dated to 1295, though the date is disputed, and its nuns make the convent's sweets in the workshop known as the obrador, cooking the yemas and bitter oranges in the same syrup. King Alfonso XIII went to the convent to fetch them in 1929, the year of the Exposicion Iberoamericana. Confiteria La Campana lists yemas sevillanas among its traditional sweets.
Watch out for: Egg
Signature Dishes in Seville, FAQ
What food is Seville known for?
Seville's signature dishes include Salmorejo, Gazpacho Andaluz, Espinacas con Garbanzos, Pescaito Frito, Tortillitas de Camarones. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.