Tapas Crawl in Granada

So, you're in Granada, Spain with your fiancé, (GrubGirl) and two great friends. The main attraction, The Alhambra, wasn't open until the morning and GrubGirl and I had a stressful time getting into our apartment. What to do?  Oh, good call, eat and drink on a tapas bar crawl. 

The first place we went to was La Cueva. It was right on the main strip, so it may have been a little touristy, but whateves, we needed some eats and drinks. The bread and "marinara" sauce came with the drinks (it's a theme in Granada) and the jamon was amazing as it was freshly cut off the animal. While it wasn't amazing, we also knew that we were off to a good start with the crawl. 

The beer was an Alhambra brew, but just the regular kind. It's OK, but the Spaniards aren't known for their choice brewing so we moved along to the next place. Overall spend between the 4 of us, €15. 

The next place was in a main strip of restaurants, but slightly off the beaten path. We walked by a chalkboard and it said "6 tapas, pitcher of sangria, €12."  SOLD!  Here, the waiter says "instead of sangria, their speciality is "rebujito" which is white wine and 7up. When in Granada, right?  

The food was better, but still not what we were looking for, as the 6 tapas ended up being 2 pieces of smoked salmon with cheese, 2 pieces of ham and mayo and 2 pieces of tuna and a roasted red pepper, all over bread. GrubGirl also purchased a tortilla de patata, which kind of looks like an egg sandwich. These were pretty good too. Off to find our next spot, spend for the meal was €15. 

The final place we went to was called La Tana, and this, my friends, is what we wanted all along. Inside, the bar tender was very helpful, though his English was limited. Many different high-end Spanish wines available for €3-4, while pouring a healthy glass of wine, just to try it out. 

This is also where I found my beer, the Alhambra 1925, that comes in a cool green bottle. 

This is the beer in the movie Beerfest which they brew the long lost beer and, well, just watch the scene. youtube.com/watch?v=70Ak4nW1Rg8. Anyway, the beer is delicious, the perfect combination of taste, flavor and drinkability. Lets just say I had quite a few of them. 

So with every drink order, free tapas came out as well. First was some green olives, which GrubGirl devoured. (She loves green olives). Next drink order, we got this bread with a healthy dose of guacamole, some sausage and more olives. 

The next tapas was this smoked white fish and some spicy mayo and more green olives. (GrubGirl was having a field day with the olives) While not as good as the guacamole, still pretty good. This place was so good and had such a great atmosphere that we went back the following night. Overall spend at this place was €25. 

We ended our tapas crawl getting some ice cream at Los Italianos, and if you have the chance to do that, take advantage and go. Amazing ice cream. Spain is known for their gelato, but this was amazing. 2 scoops for €2 and worth every penny. I got banana and strawberry and GrubGirl got double chocolate. With all the salt we had from the olives, we went back for a round two, which was ice cream cake inside a large wafer cone, called a cassatta. The flavor of the cake was orange/coffee/vanilla. Unbelievable!  

The total price, for four people, was €65, which is around €16 a person, for good eats and great sweets. If you're ever in Granada, you need to go to La Tana and Los Italianos, and this night started a great 3 days in Granada.