Drinking and eating in Cádiz

Fresh fish prepared in almost any way, pintxos, churros, beer and of course sherry – drinking and eating in Cádiz can be a wonderful pleasure, especially in the smaller restaurants away from the tourist crowds.

Restaurante Nëbula Cádiz

At lunchtime, many restaurants offer a lunch menu. You usually get a starter, a main course and a drink for a very good price. The portions are usually a little smaller than in the evening. For us, it soon became clear that we wouldn’t be hungry until the next morning after eating one dish from the lunch menu at around 2.30 pm. For us, this was the ideal time to eat in Cádiz.

The Nëbula Cádiz restaurant tempted us with a good selection at lunchtime and we chose a table in the outdoor area. The food was good and very varied. I opted for honey-baked aubergine fries and a potato salad with tuna. After his starter, Patrick got a good and quite large pizza.

The restaurant really surprised us when we visited the dining room. The owner must be a fan of Marvel. Not only large movie posters, but also countless characters and walls covered with comic book pages took us into another world.

Address:

C. Plocia, 15,
11006 Cádiz, Spanien

Mini Bar – Eating like the locals in Cádiz

Following a tip, we went to the Mini Bar at lunchtime. Here you can get fish dishes at a very fair price.

You can’t sit down comfortably here. There are a few small tables with bar stools on the street and that’s it. If you want to eat something here, you should be there right at the start of opening hours if possible. We were clearly too late and our only chance of not having to balance our plates in our hands was to stand on a beer barrel with a board.

Certainly not ideal conditions for lunch for many people. But here everyone really didn’t care. The mini bar is almost exclusively frequented by locals and there was even someone standing right next to the chef enjoying their meal. It really is a treat! We ate freshly fried and grilled fish. Super tasty, great value for money and only nice people around us. For us, a real tip for good food in Cádiz.

Address:

Calle Dr. Dacarrete,
11001 Cádiz, Spanien

Restaurante DIEGO LETRAN NUÑEZ S.L. – never again!

Phew, what a touristy and unattractive affair. Restaurant accidents happen to us too. This is usually because we are completely unprepared, hungry or don’t feel like looking. That’s exactly how we ended up in this restaurant, which is located in the central square of the city, where all tourists pass by at some point.

The location itself is actually nice. You can sit under umbrellas in the square and watch the people. But perhaps we should have stood up again at the latest when the waiter came to our table. His work clothes were dirty and had holes in them, but he was friendly.

To be honest, I was also tempted by the thought of being able to eat paella. I love this dish and eat it far too rarely. We ate a “normal” and a black paella. Both very tasteless, unseasoned and lukewarm. It was okay but nothing more. For us, a restaurant that we cannot recommend.

Address:

Plaza de San Juan de Dios, 5, 11005 Cádiz, Spanien

Mercado Central Cádiz

One of the places that offers a wide and very varied range of drinks and food in Cádiz is the city’s central market.

In 1837, the city council decided to build a market on a centrally located plot of land to cater for the population. The architect Juan Daura was commissioned to construct the building based on the plans of Torcuato Benjumeda, who was unable to complete the work due to his death.

The construction cost 371,447 pesetas at the time. To cover the costs, the city council had the idea of raffling off the stands among interested parties once they were completed. The result was a classicist arcaded square with a rectangular floor plan. There was a gate on each side of the façade leading to the stalls inside. In the middle was a large room for street sales, while 72 stalls were arranged on the outside.

Around 1929, the market was extensively renovated. The market then had a covered central pavilion, which was divided into two large halls, one for the fish stalls and the other for fruit and meat products. Outside, the permanent churro stalls were erected and the kiosks on the public road were removed. The mayor introduced strict hygiene controls, a vet was hired to monitor the health of the goods and white clothing was introduced for the vendors of the Mercado de Abastos. Anyone not wearing this had to pay a fine and could even lose their stall.

In the first decade of the 21st century, the Plaza de Abastos had to be extensively renovated again. During the new redesign, the number of stalls was reduced from 250 to 173. The old fish halls were demolished and a large central area was built in their place, housing the fishmongers and a few fruit and vegetable stalls at the ends.

Eating in Cádiz – variety at the central market

Today, the central market is a lively place that offers more than just fresh food. Numerous small stalls sell food and there is also freshly tapped beer and sherry.

We discovered mini mini prawns at one of the fish stalls in the market hall. They were ready to eat and we couldn’t resist buying a bag. The little sea creatures tasted like nothing. There was only a slight crunch when you bit into them, but otherwise I wouldn’t need this taste experience again.

Patrick then bought a bag of curro from a stall. This is deep-fried meat with a thick rim of fat. After just 2 pieces, it was already too much fatty meat for me, which was also very firm and hard. Patrick was delighted, he ate the meat with enthusiasm.

I liked the small sandwiches, which are called pintxos here, much better. At one stand there was a choice of different pintxos, which were sold at different prices depending on the topping.

So if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, there’s something for everyone at the Central Market.

Address:

Pl. de la Libertad,
11005 Cádiz, Spanien

Bar Manolo – Eating in Cádiz an insider tip

A real insider tip for tourists, not for locals, is the Bar Manolo. It is located outside the city center and can be reached on foot along the city wall or by car through the harbor area. We came across the restaurant during an evening stroll and were keen to try it out because the pictures on Google looked so promising.

We were there shortly before the restaurant opened in the evening and were lucky to get one of the few unreserved tables. Just over 30 minutes later, there were no more free seats.

We quickly realized that holidaymakers very rarely come here. In Cádiz, you can actually get on very well everywhere with English, and many restaurants also offer English menus. In Bar Manolo, there was a Spanish menu and the two waiters tried unsuccessfully to assign each other our table. Later, they took it in turns to explain the menu to us (which we had already translated). The problem was that many dishes were not offered at all and others were not on the menu. This can happen when the fish aren’t caught the way you want them to be.

But in the end it was no problem. Manolo simply has the best fish ever! In addition to the usual breaded and fried fish that you always get in Cádiz, we got the best grilled octopus I’ve ever eaten. The fish was unseasoned and the flavour was wonderfully natural. The meat was tender and cooked to perfection. It’s a shame that we only ate here on the penultimate evening. I would definitely have gone there again, the prices were right, the food was excellent and the people were simply warm and friendly. What more could you wish for?

Address:

Paseo Almte. Pascual Pery,
11004 Cádiz, Spanien

Heladería Verde Pistacchio

Fancy an ice cream?

While strolling through the town’s pedestrianised zone, we discovered an ice cream shop. We were attracted by the look.

The owners want to reinterpret the world of ice cream in Cádiz. Using recipes from their native Italy, they produce their own ice cream using fresh ingredients from the region wherever possible. However, some of the ingredients cannot and do not want to be sourced locally – where better to find pistachios than in Sicily, for example, or almonds from Puglia. They experiment in their own workshop, combining different flavours and as soon as they are satisfied with the result, customers can look forward to new ice cream flavours.

We also tried an ice cream here. The prices for ice cream were extremely high in the region, so we weren’t surprised that the ice cream here wasn’t exactly cheap either. The quality of the ice cream was very good – perhaps a little too soft. The flavour was completely convincing. We really tasted the flavours we ordered intensely, but not too dominantly.

Address:

C. Ancha, 13,
11001 Cádiz, Spanien

Eating churros in Cádiz

When I asked where I could get the best churros in Cádiz, a big discussion broke out in our neighbourhood. Several cafés and stalls were discussed and eventually two favourites emerged.

For those who like to sit down in a cosy atmosphere and dip their churros in chocolate, Cafe Y Chorros is just the place for you.

We wanted to enjoy our churros in their pure form and take a leisurely stroll through the city. In this case, the Churrería La Guapa right by the central market is the best choice. Here you can watch your order being made and receive the warm churros in a small paper bag. I love the fresh, warm flavour. As soon as they cool down, they are no longer quite my flavour.

The churros stalls right by the central market sell their wares every morning until 11am. Many shoppers eat the pastries for breakfast. They open again in the late afternoon. Then shoppers enjoy the churros with a cup of coffee.

Address Churrería La Guapa

Pl. Libertad, 1,
11005 Cádiz, Spanien

The Cabin

Anyone who knows us knows that we are always on the lookout for local beer. Cádiz is no exception, even though it has excellent sherry.

We finally found what we were looking for in the pub “The Cabin”. You can sit in the pub or enjoy your beer on the benches outside. Some beers are freshly tapped, others are available from the bottle. We opted for the Caletera Rubia and the 15&30 IPA.

Caletera Rubia from the Cerveza Artesana Caletera brewery is a balanced, fresh and elegant beer. It is light in colour and has a wonderfully fine and long-lasting head. The beer tastes fruity and the hops hardly dominate. The Cerveza Artesana Caletera factory is located in the town of El Puerto de Santa Maria in the heart of the Bay of Cádiz. It is a young company that is enthusiastically launching new beers onto the market.

The beer is then bottled and continues to ferment there. The IPA has a refreshing floral flavour with a light fruity note. This attractive IPA was created with two different hops and five malts.

If you don’t just want to enjoy a beer, you can also get something to eat in the pub.

Address:

C. Plocia, 29,
11006 Cádiz, Spanien

Taberna La Manzanilla

Taberna La Manzanilla is no longer really an “insider tip”. Especially in the evening, it is very difficult to get a seat and many guests stand at the bar.

You don’t really get anything to eat, but something to nibble on. We ate some bread with ham and enjoyed a sherry with it. After all, sherry is the main reason why visitors go there.

The Taberna has a good selection of good and not too expensive sherry, ideal for the start of a nice evening in the city.

Address:

C. Feduchy, 19,
11005 Cádiz, Spanien