A two-room tapas bar in San Lorenzo that won so many Sevilla Tapas Fair prizes the prizes started losing their meaning. The boletus-and-egg dish is the one to order first.
Quick Facts
| ADDRESS | Calle Eslava 3, 41002 Sevilla |
| NEIGHBOURHOOD | San Lorenzo (Casco Antiguo) |
| HOURS | Tue–Sat 12:30–24:00 (kitchen continuous); closed Mon and Sun evenings |
| PRICE | €30–50 per person with wine |
| RESERVATIONS | +34 954 90 65 68 — bar is walk-in / queue, sit-down restaurant takes bookings |
| CUISINE | Modern Sevillian tapas |
| GOOD FOR | Creative tapas, dinner with friends |
| NOTABLE | Multiple Best Tapa awards at Sevilla Tapas Fair — most famously for the huevo sobre bizcocho de boletus (egg over boletus sponge cake) |
The dish that changed the city’s tapa map
In 2010 Eslava entered Sevilla’s annual tapas fair with a small dish — a savoury boletus mushroom sponge cake, a soft-fried egg balanced on top, a glaze of caramelised wine — and won Best Tapa. The dish has since been copied, badly, by half the bars in the city, and the original has stayed on the Eslava menu, unchanged, for over a decade. It is the dish you order before you have read the rest of the chalkboard.
How the bar works
Two adjoining spaces. The bar at front — narrow, no reservations, queue out the door from 20:30 onwards — and a sit-down restaurant behind, which takes bookings and serves a longer menu. They share the same kitchen. The bar is the right room for a two-person tapa run; the restaurant is for groups of four or more, or anyone who needs to sit. Either way, the food is the same.
What to order
Beyond the boletus-egg dish, three more: the costillas con miel de romero (slow-cooked ribs glazed with rosemary honey, also a tapa-fair winner), the cigarro de calamar (a fried squid ‘cigar’ with squid-ink mayonnaise), and the solomillo al Cabrales (beef with the strong Asturian blue cheese). Drink Manzanilla cold, or the house red — list runs heavily on Andalusian and Riojan producers.
Honest verdict
San Lorenzo is one of the prettier neighbourhoods in central Sevilla, and Eslava is the reason out-of-town diners walk to it. The food is genuinely excellent at the price; the bar is loud and good-tempered; the restaurant behind is a proper sit-down meal. Either room is a strong choice.
Practical
How to book: Bar is walk-in (queue from 20:30). Restaurant: phone +34 954 90 65 68 a few days ahead.
How to get there: 10-minute walk from the cathedral; San Lorenzo is uphill from Plaza de la Encarnación.
If you only have one visit: Bar at 20:00, four tapas including the boletus-egg, glass of Manzanilla.
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