The Best Region for Tapas in Spain is…?

There is an ever growing “healthy” battle between which regions of Spain offer the best Spanish tapas. If you are from Madrid you would say the best Spanish tapas are in “Madrid” because of the melting-pot diversity of its people, if you are from the south of Spain you would say that the best Spanish tapas are from the southern region of Andalucia because they are bigger and free… In the North of Spain they would be the best because they are more elaborated or gourmet-oriented…

In Madrid, a tapa is generally a small free portion served with any drink to kill the midday pre-lunch hunger, or hefty portions served with a group of friends or a family for lunch or dinner, kind of like going out for appetizers and never having an individual first plate at all; a social ritual because all the food is shared, nobody gets one plate for his or herself.

In Andulusia, tapas are completely free and the bars are usually jam-packed, but nothing in this world is absolutely free, they compensaste the free tapa by doubling the price of what a drink would cost in the rest of Spain. The nice thing about Andulisian tapas is you never know what “free tapa” you will get, maybe paella all the way down to a hamburger or a slice of pizza, not very traditional but it’s free right?

In the north of Spain they are not even called “tapas”, but “pinchos”; a slice of crunchy bread with “tapa-style” ingredients on top and tend to be pricey, depending on how elaborate they are, some ingredients may include, lobster-tail, veal or even caviar. The bars are usually quite fancy-looking, it’s worth checking out.

In a nut shell, the region with the best Spanish Tapas depends on what you are looking for and the budget in mind, Madrid offers a good price-quality casual home cooking evening, Andalusian tapa bars offer the best free variety, the North is a fine-dining night out where you really pay for what you get.