Kristen H.
Yelp
After a morning tour of the stunning La Alhambra, my family was hungry at around 11:30am, when most restaurants in Spain are still only open for breakfast. However, the ever-popular Bodegas Castaneda opens for lunch at just that time, so it was perfect for us!
The restaurant lies on one of the side streets off a street that runs perpendicular to paths up the Albaicín. We enjoyed how it seemed tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the city! At 11:30am, there were already people waiting for a table, but we were immediately seated outside.
One thing to note here is that the servers are neither friendly nor efficient, but many native Granadans have cited that this is normal for a real tapas bar. Our server got us a table, and then did not come to check on us for a good twenty minutes.
A cool aspect about this place is that you get a free tapas dish for every drink that you order, so we each got a small plate of tuna, potatoes, and roasted vegetables on bread, as we ordered a sangria (average), a beer, a Coke, and water. The tuna was definitely canned, and the bread was stale, but it was a free tapas dish, so we really can't complain.
We started off with a whole portion of the Ensalada de la Casa (House Salad, €8,60 for a whole portion). The salad itself tasted fresh, with a good variety of vegetables ranging from asparagus to beets, though we thought that it could have used a bit more flavor, and we weren't fans of the mayo-based dressing that it came with.
We also ordered the Verbena de Canapés (€17,65 for Mediana Portion of 12 pieces), which came with a variety of toppings (Loin, Bacon, Green Peppers, Trevélez Ham, Salmon Paté, Dry-Cured Anchovies, and Frigate Tuna) on pieces of what seemed to be a baguette. Honestly, none of the canapés really stood out to us...the loin was fairly lean, but lacked flavor, the bacon was kind of standard, the ham tasted just like any other deli meat, and the salmon and tuna weren't the freshest. We enjoyed the green peppers, which were flavorful and nicely textured, and the anchovies, which were perfectly salted and not too oily. Again, the bread tasted on the stale side as well.
Our final dish was the Tabla Castañeda Caliente (Warm Assortment, €18,80 for Mediana Portion). And wow, even the so-called "Medium" portion was huge! This is basically supposed to be all of their most popular warm tapas, and it comes with homemade croquettes, Spanish omelette, grilled pork loin, bacon, broad beans with ham, and fondue salmon with cheese. Overall, this platter seemed to be a mixed bag for us. The croquettes were some of the best we had in Spain - perfectly crispy and well-seasoned with a gooey interior with ham, cheese, and potatoes, and the Spanish omelette was delicious as well, with a rich, eggy, custard-like consistency and tender potatoes. But our favorite dish in here were surprisingly the broad beans - they had the perfect bite to them, and were paired with small pieces of ham/bacon...we couldn't stop eating them!
Again, the pork loin and bacon were just okay, and the peppers were good - there were a lot of repeat dishes from what we'd already tried in the Verbena platter. However, we were not fans at all of the Fondue Salmon with Cheese - there was so little salmon in the dish that you could barely call it that, and the cheese was congealed and greasy by the time we were served.
We had also ordered the Gazpacho (€3,80), but they had forgotten about it, and we were so full that we just told them to cancel the order.
Overall, this seems to be a popular restaurant in Granada, but we didn't really understand the hype. There were a few standout dishes, and the portion sizes are fairly generous for the price, but everything else felt lackluster, and service was standoffish. In our opinion, there are much better places for Spanish food in Granada (which some say is the birthplace of tapas)!