Our mission

Why this publication exists

Spain Food Guide exists to document the people, places, and traditions that make Spanish food one of the world’s most loved cuisines — without the guidebook clichés, without the pay-to-play features, and without losing the regional honesty that gives Spanish cooking its character.

We believe a publication’s job is to send readers somewhere worth their time. That is the only test we apply to our coverage. If we would not send our closest friend, we do not write the piece.

How we choose what we cover

The criteria, in order

• Independent ownership. No chains. No private-equity rollups dressed up as local concepts. We write about places where the people who run them care about them.
• A clear point of view. A specific cuisine, a regional tradition, a chef’s vision, a sourcing philosophy. Generic places do not get features.
• Regional honesty. A taberna in Triana should taste like Triana, not like a Madrid version of Andalusia. We notice when places dilute their roots for tourists, and we write about it.
• Food worth the trip. Not necessarily expensive food. Often the opposite. Food worth showing up for, on its own terms.

How we visit

Anonymous, paid for, and never alone

Every restaurant we feature is visited anonymously. The kitchen does not know we are coming. We do not call ahead. We do not say who we are. We sit, we order, we eat, we pay, we leave.

We pay our own bill, in full, every time. We do not accept comps, complimentary courses, or off-menu specials sent from the kitchen. If we receive any, we leave the equivalent value as cash on the table.

We try to visit a place at least twice before publishing — once to read the room, once to confirm. Single-visit features get a clearer time-and-date stamp so readers can calibrate.

If a venue is featured because we attended a hosted experience (a press trip, an opening, a tasting we did not pay for), we declare it clearly at the top of the article.

What disqualifies a place

Reasons we will not publish

• Paid placements elsewhere. If a restaurant has paid for coverage in another publication and presented it as editorial, we will not feature them. The dishonesty is the disqualifier.
• Hostility to staff. Patterns of complaints from current or former staff, public reports of unpaid wages, or a hostile work culture. Food is made by people. We will not celebrate places that mistreat them.
• False claims of locality. Restaurants that brand themselves as “Andalusian” or “Basque” while sourcing from industrial chains and serving generic food. Authenticity is the editorial bar; faking it is the fastest way past it.
• Persistent food-safety issues. If a venue has had repeated public health complaints we will not feature them, regardless of how good the food is.

Conflicts of interest

Where the lines are drawn

We accept invitations to press trips, restaurant openings, and tasting menus on a case-by-case basis. Where any of our coverage results from a hosted experience, we disclose it clearly inside the article.

We do not accept payment for editorial features, sponsored placements within editorial articles, or paid “best of” lists. We never have. We never will.

Some of our recipe and travel guides include affiliate links to ingredients, cookbooks, or booking platforms. When you buy through these links we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate relationships never influence what we recommend.

Sponsored content (where it exists at all) is clearly labelled and only published in formats audiences expect to be sponsored — never inside editorial features. See Partner With Us for the full picture.

Corrections policy

When we get it wrong

Restaurants close. Menus change. Chefs leave. Regional traditions evolve. When information in one of our articles becomes outdated, we update the article and add a date stamp at the top. Major updates are noted in the article itself, with an explanation.

If you spot an error — a closed venue, an inaccurate price, a misattributed dish — please tell us at hello@spainfoodguide.com. We will respond within 7 days, and we will fix it within 14.

If a venue believes we have misrepresented them, we welcome the conversation. Same email. We do not always agree, but we always read carefully and we never refuse a substantive correction.

Reader trust

If we got it wrong, tell us

Editorial trust is built one article at a time and lost in a sentence. Every story we publish is held to the standards on this page. If we ever fall short of them, we want to know.

Email hello@spainfoodguide.com with feedback, corrections, or tips. We read every message that comes in.

Last updated: April 2026.