Tapas customs in Spain: free tapas, pintxos and how official sources describe them

The short answer

A tapa is a small portion of food served with a drink, and going for tapas means moving from bar to bar. That is how Turespaña, Spain's national tourism board, defines both on spain.info, where it calls the outing "ir de tapas". Its pages present tapas as an aperitivo meant to whet the appetite before lunch or in the late afternoon, which can turn into a meal if you eat enough of them.[2]

In Turespaña's account, two things vary by place: what the snack is called, and whether it comes free. In the Basque Country the word is pintxo, and San Sebastián's tourism office describes its own way of going out for them.[7][2] On price, the tourism board does not generalise. Its guide to tapas districts says that in most places tapas are given free with a drink, but not always: sometimes there is a small supplement, and occasionally the fanciest are listed on a menu.[1]

XTOUR does not know whether a given bar serves a free tapa, what anything costs, or what time of day bars serve food. Everything below is attributed to the page that says it.

Free tapas: where the tourism board says they are usual

Turespaña's district guide is specific about cities rather than Spain as a whole.[1]

• Granada. The guide says it is "very common" for tapas to be served free with drinks, and names the area around the cathedral, Calle Navas, Calle San Mateo, Calle Elvira, Plaza Nueva and Plaza Campillo.[1]
• Madrid. In La Latina, around Cava Baja, Cava Alta and Humilladeros, the guide says "it's usual" to find the local specialities offered free with your drink.[1]
• León. In the Barrio Húmedo, it says, many places serve them free with your drink.[1]

For other cities the same guide describes what to eat but says nothing about price. In Valencia it names the Ruzafa district, with Calle Burriana, Calle Ciscar and Calle Cádiz, and mentions small portions of rice dishes such as paella among the local tapas. Its Seville entry points instead to the Seville Tourist Office's own guide to the bars specialising in each tapa.[1] Another Turespaña page puts it more cautiously still: "there are even places where tapas come free with your drink".[3] XTOUR's reading of the two pages together is that a free tapa is a local custom in some cities, not a national rule. For Granada, XTOUR relies on the national board's description; it has not verified the city tourism office's own pages.

Pintxos in San Sebastián and Bilbao

San Sebastián's city tourism office describes the pintxo outing directly: the usual thing, it says, is to visit several bars, try one or two pintxos at each stop, and let yourself be surprised by what is on the bar or on the blackboard.[7] Turespaña adds three "lessons" for the city: they are called pintxos here; head for the old-town streets such as Calle Pescadería, Calle 31 de Agosto and Calle Fermín Calbetón; and try as many as you can, from the classic gilda (olive, hot pepper and anchovy) onwards.[1]

Turespaña's guide treats Bilbao the same way, naming its old town, Calle del Perro and Plaza Nueva for pintxos of squid, mussels, mushrooms, cod and omelette.[1] Neither page says pintxos come free, and XTOUR does not say so either.

Tapas, pinchos and full plates

Turespaña's pages show the words shifting with the dish and the place. Turespaña's list of popular tapas notes that tortilla is often ordered as a "pincho de tortilla", a piece of it, and distinguishes tapas served with a drink from those ordered "when eating a meal of tapas or full plates".[6] In the Canary Islands, it says, a tapa is an enyesque.[3]

XTOUR has no verified definition of a ración, from the Real Academia Española's dictionary or from an official tourism page, so this article does not say how large one is or how it is priced.

Where the word "tapa" comes from: Turespaña's pages disagree

Turespaña does not claim to know, and its own pages tell the story differently.

• One page says that some historians place the origin of tapas in 19th-century Andalusia and others trace it to the time of King Alfonso X in the 13th century.[3]
• Another lists among the "myths" that "in the seventeenth century King Alfonso X" asked for small portions of food with wine.[2] The Alcázar of Segovia's history records Alfonso X convening Cortes there in 1256, which places him in the 13th century, not the 17th.[8]
• A third gives the best-known explanation of the word: a drink covered, tapado, with a slice of ham or cheese to keep out insects or dust.[2][4]

XTOUR's reading is that the origin is undecided and that the 17th-century dating on one page is an error in that page.

Two dates for World Tapas Day

Turespaña's World Tapas Day page says the day is 16 June.[5] Its page of curious facts about Spanish cuisine says the custom is celebrated "every third Thursday in June".[4] XTOUR does not know which is current and states both.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR holds no prices and nothing on when bars serve food, on tipping, or on queuing and table service in tapas bars. It does not say that tapas are free anywhere as a rule: the pages above say "very common", "usual" or "many places", and XTOUR keeps their words. For regional dishes and protected food names, see the Spanish food guide. For the cities, see Granada, Madrid, Seville, San Sebastián, Bilbao and Valencia.