We decided to visit the San Miguel de Salinas Ruta de la Tapa, which was being held on Sunday, 21st September 2025. Although this is a good 25 minute drive for us to get here, we wanted to explore the town a little more and visit a few places we have never been to previously.
This event it seems, was slightly different to the ones we usually attend, as there were no booklets and stamps to collect, to nominate a winner or anything like that. The train was running and it was busy, there were the local bands walking round from bar to bar too.
The Highlander Bar
This was our first port of call, we were one of the first here. Plenty of tables and chairs outside, the side street was closed off so seating was not going to be an issue.
Food: A choice of two here, a sweet or a savoury. The sweet was a scone with jam and cream. The savoury option was Irish stew with a piece of bread.
The stew was not too bad at all, it had taste, wasn’t water and the piece of meat I had was big.
Sophie had the scone, it was ok at best she said. It was dry, although it was advertised as being served warm, it wasn’t.
Drink:
I had a bottle of Mahou, the small 20ml size. Soph was offered this too or wine. She asked if there was a soft drink option or water and was told, there wasn’t. Being the good wife she took a beer, which I had.
While we were there, another couple turned up, the woman had a white wine the guy asked for a soft drink or water and explained he was driving ( the same as Soph ) and was told there wasn’t anything available. He actually went without a drink, and still paid the 3.50€ .
I think I heard one of the staff mention it was their first San Miguel de Salinas Ruta de la Tapa participation, so hopefully next year they’ll accommodate people who are driving.
Sadly as we left, none of the three staff took it upon themselves to thank us or comment.
San Miguel Pizzeria Kebab
A short walk brought us to the next one on our list. This is near to the park and the train went past as we were just sitting down to eat.
Super polite and friendly service here, staff were on the ball.
Food: The choice here was a mini kebab or slice of pizza. We both went for the kebab option, which was tasty and a nice, filled wrap that came with a few fries.
Drink: The lad serving told us to help ourselves to a drink from the fridge, we both had a Coke Zero.
The kebab was tasty, it had plenty of filling and was just as expected.
As we were leaving we were thanked for visiting and wished a good day.
With the size of the portion and the choice of drink, means this was possibly the best value for money from all the establishments we visited today.
Cafetería Órbita
This was a few feet away and was quite busy as we arrived. This was a similar set up to Bar Sanchez in Catral on the local tapas trail there, in that you had plenty of different tapas to choose from, although it seems you only got one per drink here.
Food: The tapas dishes were both very tasty, the boquerones on the tortilla were very nice.
Drink: I had a 20ml bottle of Mahou here, Soph had a bottle of water.
This is a bar we said we’d return to if we were in the area, the kitchen was busy, there were many Spaniards here too, which says plenty.
Meeting Point
There was nobody there when we walked past, we were not sure if they were open or not, so we kept walking down the street. While we were at Amigos, people started arriving here, but we didn’t return.
Amigos Bar And Kitchen
This place was busy, and we were lucky enough to get a table for 2 out in the street. Again, they had a selection of tapas and you could choose one with your drink.
Food: Both tapas we had were fresh and tasty.
Drink: I had a bottle of Mahou, Soph had a Coke Zero, which was the smaller sized bottle.
The tapas was tasty and as it’s on the same street as Cafetería Órbita, we would call here too, and possibly give the Meeting Point a try.
El Capricho
So, this place was closed and locked, so obviously we didn’t have anything to eat or drink, so can’t report back on here.
Food:
Drink:
Rincón de Paco
We walked down to this bar and as we did, we commented we’d been here before one day as we were driving through, but had chosen the day when it was closed, so never got here before.
This isn’t a huge bar, they had tables and chairs on their outside seating area, plus 4 tables in the road, which had been closed off to traffic. Only one of these tables had seats and we timed it just right, so we managed to get this.
What I liked here was they had a chalkboard with the tapas on offer written on, both in Spanish and English.
Food: We had the Pork Secreto here and also the pork cheek in sauce.
Both these were very tasty, they had good flavour and were very enjoyable. The pork cheek pieces came with lovely potatoes.
Drink: Soph didn’t want a drink, so I had to have two beers, these were 20ml bottles of Estrella Galicia.
This was probably our winner of the bars on the San Miguel de Salinas Ruta de la Tapa, we managed to visit.
While Soph went to get the car to collect me, I was talking to a lovely woman who was from England originally and has lived in the town for the past 10 years. She was saying, if you book a day in advance, they do really good paella here, so this is one to add to our list.
The XV San Miguel de Salinas Ruta de la Tapa Final Thoughts
Our visit was not that extensive, it must be said. I had only found out about this by chance a couple days before, so it was a last minute type decision to go. The town hall were rather late promoting this on social media, I think. This being the case, I’m glad we did. My understanding is there is more than one San Miguel de Salinas Ruta de la Tapa per year, so we’ll have a look at the earlier one for next year.
There were no winners and losers today, as such, but we have found 3 places we’d happily return to in the future.
It’s fair to say that some of these events are losing their appeal to me, and I’ll explain why. When we lived down in the Granada region, every bar down there if you order a beer or soft drink, provides you with a tapas dish. These are often a good sized dish of stew, meatballs, etc, with a basket of bread and these are not an additional cost. Up here in the Alicante region, these tapas routes / trains / trails you are paying between 3€ and 4€ per person, per drink and sometimes you look at the small beer and a skewer with 2 pieces of chicken on and ask, is this actually worth 3.50€ .
Yes, maybe it’s the Yorkshireman in me, but quite often I fail to see the value. When a small bottle of water costs 20c, you’d expect a half decent tapas to go with it.
I know of a bar in Catral that does a cana and a tapa for 2€ and the Music Bar there does a cana and tapa for 3€ and have done so for the past 12 months.
It was nice to get out and explore part of this September San Miguel de Salinas Ruta de la Tapa.
If you are a foodie, though and happy to drive, check out this event here, the Sabores del Camino, which is held in Caravaca de la Cruz.
