RFK Cuisine · Spanish · Seville
Best Spanish Restaurants in Seville 2026
Spanish · Seville · 6 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Compiled by the Restaurants for Kings editorial team · Published June 26, 2026 · Updated June 26, 2026
Seville is a tapas town before it is a fine-dining one, and it wears the distinction proudly. The city holds just two Michelin stars — Abantal since 2010, Cañabota since 2022 — where a place like San Sebastián or Madrid counts them in double figures. But that misses the point of how Seville eats: at the bar, in small rounds, standing up, with the running tab chalked onto the counter at a tavern that has been open since 1670. The best meal here is rarely a tasting menu and almost never sitting still. These six rooms map the whole range, from Julio Fernández's starred kitchen to the oldest bodega in the city, ranked on the cooking, the room and what the bill buys, with the dish to order at each.
1.Abantal
Seville's longest-held Michelin star and its only true tasting-menu room; book it for the city's one destination dinner.
Julio Fernández Quintero has held a Michelin star at Abantal, on Calle Alcalde José de la Bandera 7, since 2010 — the longest-running star in the city — and it remains Seville's only serious tasting-menu restaurant. The cooking takes the Andalusian larder and the region's Arab-influenced flavours and rebuilds them with contemporary technique: there are two menus, nine courses around €100 or a longer twelve, both with a wine pairing built largely on sherries and Andalusian bottles. The renovated dining room is calm and grown-up, a deliberate step away from the noise of the tapas circuit. This is where you go in Seville when you want a meal that sits down and unfolds. Book a week or more ahead and take the wine pairing for the sherry flight alone.
Reserve a week or more out; the nine-course menu, the Andalusian sherry pairing.
2.Cañabota
A one-star fishmonger's counter cooking the day's Atlantic catch; go for the best seafood in Seville, plain and perfect.
Cañabota, on the corner of Calle José Gestoso near the Capilla de San Andrés, earned its Michelin star in 2022 and is the city's temple to fish. A fishmonger's counter greets you at the door and the open kitchen lets you watch the grill; the menu changes daily on whatever arrives from Andalucía's Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, cooked with restraint — red prawns, turbot on the bone, line-caught fish over coals. Chef Marcos Nieto's à la carte and tasting menu both run from that counter, and the sister bar next door, La Barra de Cañabota, does a more casual version of the same fish. The seats at the pass are the best in the house and the first to go. Book a week ahead and ask for the counter to watch the grill.
Reserve a week out, request the counter; the red prawns, the turbot, the catch of the day.
3.Sobretablas
A Bib Gourmand garden room from a Cocinero Revelación winner; book it for Seville's smartest modern cooking at honest prices.
Camila Ferraro — named Spain's Cocinero Revelación at Madrid Fusión in 2019 — runs Sobretablas with Robert Tetas in a restored villa in the quiet El Porvenir neighbourhood, with a garden terrace that is one of the loveliest places to eat in the city. The Michelin Bib Gourmand kitchen cooks contemporary Sevillian dishes built on classic roots: market vegetables, slow-cooked meats, a famous tortillita and seasonal seafood, plated with fine-dining care but priced for a normal evening. It is the room locals send you to when you want something more ambitious than tapas but lighter than Abantal's full tasting. Book ahead for the garden, especially in spring and autumn, and let the kitchen guide the order. This is the value-for-cooking pick of the group.
Reserve ahead for the garden; the seasonal vegetables, the slow-cooked meat, the daily fish.
4.Espacio Eslava
The San Lorenzo bar that wins the city's tapas prizes; queue for the slow egg on boletus that made its name.
Espacio Eslava, on Calle Eslava in the San Lorenzo quarter, is the modern tapas bar against which the others are measured, with a shelf of trophies from Seville's and Spain's tapas competitions to prove it. The signature is the much-copied huevo sobre bizcocho, a slow-cooked egg set on a savoury boletus mushroom sponge with caramelised wine, alongside honey-glazed pork ribs and a rotating board of inventive small plates. The narrow bar and the handful of tables fill from opening, and Eslava does not take reservations, so the game is to arrive early or eat late and stand. It is busier and slicker than the old taverns, and the cooking justifies it. Come at the start of service, grab a spot at the bar, and order the egg first.
No reservations — arrive early, stand at the bar; the slow egg on boletus, the honey ribs.
5.El Rinconcillo
The oldest tavern in Seville, open since 1670, tab chalked on the bar; go for tapas history that still tastes good.
El Rinconcillo has poured wine on Calle Gerona since 1670, which makes it the oldest tavern in Seville and one of the oldest in Spain, and it is the antidote to every modern bar on this list. Hams hang above a dark wooden counter, old bottles line the shelves, and the waiters still chalk your running tab directly onto the bar in front of you. The food is the Sevillian canon done straight: espinacas con garbanzos (spinach with chickpeas), pavías de bacalao (battered cod), croquetas, jamón and a glass of cold fino from the barrel. It is a working bar packed with locals and visitors rather than a museum piece, and the prices stay honest. There are no reservations and no ceremony; stand at the bar, order a few classics, and soak up three and a half centuries of the city.
No reservations — stand at the bar; the spinach and chickpeas, the battered cod, a fino from the barrel.
6.La Azotea
A modern tapas favourite across several rooms; book it for inventive small plates on local produce, sit-down comfortable.
La Azotea grew from a single small bar into a handful of rooms across the centre and the Alameda, and it is the easy modern recommendation in Seville — more comfortable and more seated than the old taverns, with a kitchen that takes tapas seriously. The plates change with the market: razor clams, braised beef cheek, fresh tuna tartare and crisp tuna tacos, all built on local Andalusian ingredients and a little more refined than the standard bar fare. Because it has several locations and takes bookings, it is the reliable choice when a queue at Eslava or El Rinconcillo will not work — for a group, for an earlier dinner, or for a sit-down table rather than a stretch at the bar. Book the central room for dinner and order the clams and the beef cheek.
Book the central room for dinner; the razor clams, the braised beef cheek, the tuna.
How Seville eats
Seville runs on tapas, and understanding the rhythm matters more than any single address. You eat in small rounds and you move: two or three plates and a drink at one bar, then on to the next, building a meal across an evening rather than committing to one table. The classics repeat across the city — espinacas con garbanzos, pavías de bacalao, salmorejo, jamón ibérico, pringá — and the drink is a cold fino or manzanilla sherry from the surrounding province, served straight from the barrel. The starred rooms, Abantal and Cañabota, are the exception that sits down; everything else is built for standing, sharing and the long sobremesa that follows.
A few mechanics. The tapas bars mostly do not take reservations and they run late by northern-European standards, with dinner rarely starting before nine. Tipping is light — round up or leave small change rather than a percentage. Summers are brutally hot, so the city eats outdoors and after dark from June to September; spring, around the Feria, is the loveliest and the busiest time to visit. The two starred kitchens need booking ahead, but the soul of the city is in the queue. For everything beyond these six — the riverside terraces, the Triana bars across the water, the sherry-and-seafood spots — the Seville dining guide maps it by neighborhood and occasion.
Where not to look for it
Skip these for real Sevillian cooking
The Santa Cruz and Cathedral tourist terraces. The lanes around the Cathedral and the Alcázar are lined with rooms charging double for microwaved paella and sangría by the jug. Paella is Valencian, not Sevillian, and the version on those terraces is neither. Walk ten minutes to San Lorenzo, the Alameda or Santa Catalina and eat where the locals queue.
Abantal or Cañabota for a casual, walk-in lunch. These are booked-ahead, sit-down rooms. When you want excellent food without the reservation, point yourself at Espacio Eslava when it opens or stand at the bar at El Rinconcillo, both a fraction of the price and pure Seville.
Frequently asked
What is the best restaurant in Seville?
By the Michelin Guide, Abantal is the top room in Seville — Julio Fernández Quintero's one-star kitchen on Calle Alcalde José de la Bandera, where contemporary technique is applied to Andalusian flavours across a nine- or twelve-course tasting menu. For seafood, Cañabota holds the city's other star with a fishmonger's counter and Atlantic catch. Choose Abantal for the destination tasting menu, Cañabota for the best fish in the city.
How many Michelin stars does Seville have?
Seville has two Michelin-starred restaurants in the 2026 guide: Abantal, which has held a star since 2010, and Cañabota, the seafood specialist awarded in 2022. Beyond the stars the city's strength is its tapas bars, several of them recognised in the Michelin Guide and the Bib Gourmand listing — Sobretablas among them. Seville is a tapas city first and a fine-dining city second, which is exactly its appeal.
What is the oldest tapas bar in Seville?
El Rinconcillo, on Calle Gerona in the Santa Catalina quarter, has been open since 1670 and is the oldest tavern in Seville. Hams hang above a dark wooden counter, the waiters still chalk your running tab onto the bar, and the house dish is espinacas con garbanzos, spinach with chickpeas. It is a working bar rather than a museum piece, busy with locals and visitors alike, and a required stop on any Seville tapas crawl.
What should you eat in Seville?
Seville's tapas canon runs to espinacas con garbanzos (spinach and chickpeas), pavías de bacalao (battered cod), jamón ibérico de bellota, salmorejo and pringá. At the modern bars look for the slow-cooked egg on boletus sponge at Espacio Eslava and the daily seafood at Cañabota. Wash it down with a cold fino or manzanilla sherry from the surrounding province. Order in small rounds, move between bars, and linger over the sobremesa.
Do you need to book restaurants in Seville?
For the starred rooms, yes: Abantal and Cañabota both need booking a week or more ahead, and Cañabota's counter seats fill fastest. The tapas bars are a different game — Espacio Eslava and El Rinconcillo do not take reservations and run on the queue, so arrive early or eat late, and stand at the bar rather than waiting for a table. Sobretablas and La Azotea take bookings and are worth making for dinner.
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