Before DonQui continues his tale of car woes, he would like to talk about something more pleasant, namely food.

Spanish meals and meal times are quite different from what DonQui is used to. As he already observed in The Importance of Breakfast, in Spain this is barely more than caffeine and a snack. The big meal of the day is lunch, usually from 2-4pm. This is a little later than DonQui is used to but as he rarely has much lunch at home anyway, waiting an extra hour for a substantial multi-course meal is no great hardship.

The evening meal is even later with restaurants rarely serving food before 9pm. Usually this is lighter fare such as a few tapas with drinks. Once he got into the rhythm of it, and made the long leisurely lunch his main food focus of the day, DonQui found the Spanish meal times quite satisfying.

The food on offer in Seville was universally good and excellent value for money. Even in the fairly obvious tourist haunts the prices were reasonable, atmosphere excellent and the quality high. Some were better than others but DonQui never had a bad meal there.

Without a doubt DonQui’s most outstanding dining experience in Seville was at the Puerta Osario Restrobar. It was evening, it was raining and the Puerta Osario was just around the corner from the apartment he was staying at. He had not looked it up on TripAdvisor nor checked out their reputation anywhere else in advance. His choice was based on the simple practicality of not wanting to go very far on a rainy evening. And what a fabulous choice it was too.
Food service began at 9:00 pm. DonQui had arrived a bit earlier and was content to sip a fine glass of red wine while he waited and have a look at the blackboards which displayed the food and drink on offer.

He and Duchess ordered 3 tapas which arrived one after the other, each one for sharing:

mushroom risotto which was exquisite…

chicken skewers with oriental vegetables which was equally good — as you can see they were mostly eaten before DonQui got around to taking a photo…

and wild boar filet on a bed of sliced potatoes which was to die for!
The boar meat was succulent, tender and juicy. Deep red in colour it had a rich taste without being gamey. Most of the ‘wild’ boar one gets in the UK is farmed and as a result is relatively pale and more like pork. Proper wild boar which has been roaming the forests of Spain like this one, is closer to beef and venison. The dish was mane-curlingly good and after three such excellent small dishes DonQui was feeling satisfied but not bloated. He had just enough room to finish things off with a shared chocolate mouse with a gorgeous raspberry concoction underneath.

The atmosphere was understatedly cool, with a friendly unobtrusive vibe. All of this for a very modest price.
Worth going to Seville for!

DonQui Recommends:

Puerta Osario Restrobar for exquisite haut cuisine tapas in the evening. During the day it is a great café where one can come to have a drink, read, write or chat with friends. It is also open for coffee in the morning.

Carmen’s lovely apartment just around the corner available on Airbnb