Tragatá

Tragatá is Benito Gómez's casual restaurant a few hundred metres from Bardal — a small tapas bar that the same kitchen team supplies, runs on the same supplier list, and prices at roughly a third of what the two-starred dining room charges. Gómez opened Tragatá in 2014 because he wanted somewhere in Ronda to eat on his nights off, and the bar has since become arguably the most exciting tapas room in Andalusia.

The format is tapas plates of around eight to twelve euros each, ordered family-style across the table. The roster runs from technically ambitious — the famous beef-tartare presented in a hollowed-out marrow bone, oxtail croquetas that have become one of Spain's most copied tapas — to the deceptively simple: Iberico ham slow-cured by a single producer, anchovies in olive oil from Cazorla, fried artichokes with garlic and lemon. The kitchen is run by Bardal's veterans, and the technique on the plates is two-starred in everything except the price.

The room is small — twenty-five seats, a marble bar, a wall of natural-wine bottles — and the energy is intentionally upbeat. The natural-wine list is one of the most interesting in southern Spain, with deep Andalusian and Sherry sections, and the by-the-glass programme rotates daily. Service is led by Bardal's runners on their off-shift evenings, which means the floor is unusually well-trained for a casual room.

Tragatá has built the kind of cult following that better-known tapas bars in Madrid and Barcelona spend years trying to construct. Locals book it for weeknights; visitors book it for the night they aren't doing Bardal; and the room turns over four times an evening with the kind of disciplined casual hospitality that few Spanish kitchens get right. It is the best-value tapas dinner in Andalusia.

Tragatá is the most disarming first-date room in Ronda — small, lively, food-forward, and inexpensive enough to take the pressure off the booking. Tapas pacing means the conversation never stalls; the natural-wine list is interesting enough to talk through; and the staff handle a long lingering evening with the patience of a casual room that knows how to turn a date into a long one. For dating in southern Spain, this is the most quietly perfect choice.