Em Eats: Málaga
Here's what I ate in Málaga, Spain
My friends and I took a 4-day trip to Málaga and ate some goooood food. Here’s my list of the highlights!
Bar La Tranca
This was our first meal in Málaga. we arrived on a Thursday afternoon, checked into our hostel, and immediately headed out for a meal. We wanted something laid back but yummy, and not too expensive. La Tranca hit all the marks.
It´s bustling at 3pm on a Thursday. People stand around barrels and the bar, sipping their cervezas and picking at some tapas. Loud flamenco music and traditional Spanish guitar is playing and the walls are covered in old photos — an old advertisement for vermouth, a famous totero, and so on. The waiters are writing with chalk on the wooden bar to calculate your tab — two Euros for your beer, five for the empanadas, and so on. It’s fast paced and bustling. They call your name out form the bar when your tapas is ready, but it’s so packed that strangers need to pass your croquetas back to you.
We enjoyed some croquetas, patatas bravas, empanadas, tortilla de espinaca, and house made Tinto de Verano.
La Tranca was one of my favorite experiences in Málaga, you have to go!
Tetería Palacio Nazari
We stopped here after visiting the Picasso museum. It’s right down an alleyway from the museum in a touristy area, so I had my reservations about how good it would be. Don’t have any reservations about it: go and enjoy!
We were all varying levels of hungry, so this was a perfect spot. They have everything from a la carte kebabs and pitas to chicken pastilla, to full sampling dishes with rice, vegetables, shawarma, dolmas, and all the fixings. I’m not exactly sure what the specific cuisine was here, because they had a mixture of Turkish, Moroccan, and Lebanese from what I could tell. It doesn’t matter — it was all delicious!
I ordered a pita filled with some kind of shawarma, lettuce, tomato, hummus, and a yogurt sauce. It was perfectly refreshing yet flavorful and filling.
Afterwards I got a Turkish coffee and what they called Turkish baklava. I love baklava, but I prefer Turkish baklava since it’s made with a sugar syrup as opposed to honey. The baklava here was exactly how I like it — sweet, nutty (pistachios!), and a little bit buttery. Paired with the strong and acidic Turkish coffee — perfection.
I wanted to go back to this place the rest of the trip and suggested it to the group a few different times.
(Note that this place is quite authentic — you can only pay in cash!)
Marisquería Cerveceria La Peregrina
This marisquería was out of the touristy section, in a neighborhood north of the central historic district. If we had had more time in the city, this is the area I would’ve liked to explore more.
We ate delicious, fresh seafood here including calamari and langostinos. We also enjoyed their pimientos de padrón (one of my all time favorite dishes) and brochetas de pollo.
Casa Lola
Casa Lola is listed as a must-try restaurant in Málaga. It was super packed with people and has a kind of charming old-school Spanish tapas bar vibe to it. But, it also felt a bit touristy — like the old-school neighborhood spot that has been overtaken by British tourists. Anyway, the food was decent, but nothing you couldn’t have elsewhere.
At Casa Lola we did get to try a Málaga classic: the famous montadito piripi. This is a montadito made with bacon, pork, cheese, tomato, and garlic aioli. It was yummy!
La Terraza de Larios
La Terraza de Larios is a chic rooftop bar atop a posh-looking hotel in Plaza de la Constitución. We enjoyed some sangrías with a strong brandy punch to them while we overlooked the cathedral. They have every specialty cocktail you are craving. It’s a little pricey, but you’re paying for the view.
