Let me come clean with you. It wasn’t easy to find a great restaurant in Granada that ticked all the boxes for us. Because it was so hard, we’d like to share what we thought were the best restaurants in Granada.
So here’s what we were looking out for. A restaurant that serves tasty food, has a nice ambience and charges a fair price. Because of Alhambra, Granada is really touristy, catering to mostly international tourists. These are less demanding when it comes to food than the local tourists we met in Seville. We entered quite a few restaurants that turned out to be expensive and crap before we found these ones.
La Tabernilla del Darro
Let’s start with La Tabernilla del Darro. We actually didn’t eat at this place, but it’s going on the list of best restaurants in Granada because it’s literally right by the river Darro. We were there for a late afternoon drink, and found a place in the lower level of the restaurant, at a window leaning out into the river.
The through-fare along the river Darro is the nicest part of the Granda old town, and we wanted to spend most of our time in the city here. La Tabernilla Del Darro was perfect for this. It is a great place to spend happy hour – inside the shade of the cool, cellar like interior, looking over the sparking river flowing below.
The menu here is traditional, strongly featuring local produce. We really wanted to try a few dishes from its selection of Iberian sausages on the grill. Unfortunately, like most Spanish restaurants, they did not serve food in the afternoon and we were not able to order anything. We were quite disappointed, especially since its kitchen got great reviews online.
The next time we are in Granada, we would definitely come here for the whole experience.
Negro Carbón
After failing to get a meal at La Tabernilla del Darro, we went in search for another place that would do a nice grill of local meats. We found Negro Carbón, and it is on top of our best restaurants in Granada list.
The food here was absolutely delicious, and the portions generous. It’s a grill place so its menu is meat heavy. However, for someone like me who is usually vegetarian, it has some great options too. Like, options that are not an afterthought, you know?
After chatting to the friendly waiter, we took his recommendations and made our order.
We went for the slow roasted pork belly with mussels for starters. For the main we went for the beef terderloin, the Iberian “Lagarto” (a type of spicy sausage), grilled vegetables and a baked potato. Everything was absolutely delicious and grilled to perfection. We were even served a couple of small hors d’oeuvres before the meal.
After we’d filled our boots, the bill came up to around €60, with drinks. For the location, the service and the food we got, it was definitely worth it.
La Hermosa Craft Beer
Our last evening in Granada, we decided to go for a place we’d walked past a couple of times along the banks of the river Darro. This craft beer and gastro pub gets on our best restaurants in Granada list because it has really great character and tasty bar food.
La Hermosa Craft Beer is run by the owner and his wife, and when we were there, he made the food himself. We ordered a few typical Spanish starters (pan con tomate, olives etc.) a provolone sandwich and a cod and orange salad. He prepared everything with a great deal of care and attention, and the dishes came out perfect.
It was a pity that the place was empty when we were there, but it was 7pm and that’s three hours too early for a gastropub in Spain. Nevertheless, we had a great time chatting to the owner and getting to know a little bit about the bar and his home brewed beers.
Surprisingly, we didn’t find too many comfortable places to chill out along the river Darro. Like I’ve mentioned, most of the bars are too touristy, filled with people drinking cheap beer, maximising their free tapas. La Hermosa Craft Beer is definitely a find. And in case you were wondering, it also does a free portion of tapas with a drink. Only its home-made here and not something straight of the freezer and into the fryer like the others.
Conclusion: Best Restaurants in Granada
Although it was not easy to find authentic places to dine out in Granada, we thought we did quite well. It’s not a small city, and the core itself is quite big. Had we been willing to walk a little farther, we would have expanded our options. But let’s face it, after tramping around Alhambra all day, we didn’t have the energy to go too far afield. These restaurants we’ve recommended are right in the heart of Granada, hidden among the tourist traps. We hope you go for them!
