Your Guide to a Great Gastronomic Escape in Tarifa

If you’re going on an adventure, sustain your body with some adventurous food. In Tarifa you will find more than 180 café’s, bars and restaurants.Cuisine in Tarifa centers on fresh, local ingredients, with fish and meat dishes available in most of restaurants. A huge variety of fruit and veggies is to be found throughout. The gastronomy of Tarifa and Andalusia in general owes much to the Moorish cuisine of Al-Andalus. Its refinement came to transform many customs.

“Tarifeños” start the day very helthy. Quality products bring the energy to face the morning and to survive the day ful of adventures. Bread, tomato, jamón serrano (cured ham) and olive oil are the top ingredients of typical Andalucian breakfasts. Coffee and fresh orange juice cannot miss either. There is also a lot of bars offering more “central European breakfasts” –> fresh fruits with yoghurt and muesli, eggs (fried, scrambled, with bacon,…), croissants… with big offer of different fruit juices and smoothies.

Typical breakfast time is 9-12 (but in most of the bars you can order it even until 13h – of course, who does not like to sleep longer after great night in Tarifa – the adventure capital of Europe). You get a breakfast deals already for 2 euros and you find bars offering it at almost every corner of Tarifa.

Café Azul, the café specialized for breakfasts (open all year round and you can get breakfasts and brunch until 15.00). Stoked surf bar, Surla, Freestyle (next to DIA supermarket), Café 10, Bossa bar, WET café – these are one of the best options if you want big variety of breakfasts. The best (economical price as well) typical Spanish breakfast bars: Tony y Jesus, El Tapeo, Café Bianco, Churreria La Palmera (best churros – The churro is made with wheat flour dough cooked in oil and is known locally as “a fruit of the frying pan” ).

Lunch is almost always a hot meal and many bars offer a menu of the day (menú del día) that consists of an appetizer, main dish, beverage, and dessert. A typical bar will boast an interesting array of “pinchitos or tapas” (small snack size portions of food) that vary by bars and are often discounted or even sometimes included in your drink price. For example you can get Tapa and Beer already for 2 eur (Bar Polideportivo for example, behind Guardia civil – tapa y caña for 2 eur)…

Best tapas bar is absolutely El Meson Picoteo (it’s easy to find – you can ask any local, we all know it!!). “Montadito de atun ahumado” – bread with smoked tuna and tomato is their famous snack. And it’s a MUST try. All the other dishes served in this restaurant are just incredibly delicious. More tapas places: Los Melli, El Frances, Tony y Jesus, La Bodega, El Burgato,…

For best lunch (menu del día) we recommend El Pozuelo, El Nene (in Facinas). One of the best places with meat are bars Anca Curro (Home breeded and made Iberian meat), Asador el Caseron (best beef stakes in town). Best choices for fish are bars: El Frances, Lola mora, Pescaderia, El Ancla, El Mirlo (really nice views as well) … Best hamburgers: La Fabrica, Stoked Surf Bar, Freestyle. Pasta? La Tribu, Pizzeria Italia no.1. , La Trattoria. Moroccan: Mandragora (different dishes but a lot of Moroccan touch), Souk (delicious!). Best pizzas in town: La Tribu, La Tribu playa, Eco Center, Stoked surf bar, Pachamama. Nice place for families: Oca de Sergio. Vegeterian? No problem. Best choices: Chilimosa (best falafel in town) and Eco Center (delicious hummus).

In the summer, best choice for drinks and relax during day time – chiringuitos ( Chiringuito are the bar restaurants on the beaches). Usually they serve juices, beers, cocktails (mojitos) and snacks. And they offer fantastic views and ambient. If you are hungry, some of them offer a delicious food as well (sandwiches, hamburgers, salads,…) There is few of them: Chiringuito Agua, Waves, The Chiringuito, El Tumbao (Valdevaqueros), Arte Vida, Tangana, Hotel Hurricane, Le Club 7…

Like most of the places in Southern Spain, the town fires up after 23h or even later, after dinner or sunset sessions with drinks. The night starts in bars de copas, This is what we like to call pre-drinks, everyone meets up for a nice drink or cocktail and a chat. The most famous bars: Surf Bar Tomatito, La Onda, Taco Way, Venice coctail bar are located on “The Street” in the old city centre. It’s a famous small street in the center where everybody meets. Besides that there is a some other bars for warming up: Aloha, Bossa, La Teteria,… After drinks everybody moves to the clubs – the famous ones are Mosquito and Pepepotamus (small clubs). Bigger ones: La Ruina (usually first point of the real night out), Mombassa (the only one in the centre, opened unti morning), Cafe del Mar (in El Poligono – taxi from city centre for around 6 eur). All of them usually organize different events, thematic nights, concerts, parties with DJs etc etc.