You might have guessed, but we attended the The El Raso Ruta De La Tapa, once again this year. With new places to try as well as some of the usual establishments, it would have been rude not to attend.
We enjoyed the trail last year and our favourite then was Stan & Ollies, but which did we visit and what did we think of the trail this year?
Read on to find out.
Rest Los Rosales ( 35.5 out of 40 )
This was our first stop today and they set the bench mark high. Super friendly and welcoming. My bottle of beer was served in the traditional Spanish way, with a serviette in the top of the bottle. Sophs Coke Zero was a standard sized can, with a glass with ice and lemon.
The food was excellent! Roughly translated as earthy flavours, the tapas here was tierra y sabor which was a very lean and tender piece of pork, on bread with a Padron pepper and drizzled in a tasty mustard dressing.
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 9/10
Tapas: 9.5/10
Rest Manolo ( 33 out of 40 )
Our second stop of the day. The service here was prompt and welcoming. Beer was a bottle, Soph had a Coke Zero, which was in a plastic glass, but sadly this was from a bottle and was quite flat when it arrived.
The tapas dish was very good, a mushroom and chicken cannellone where you could taste the mushrooms!
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 7/10
Tapas: 9/10
Costillas Locas ( 35 out of 40 )
Our third stop, and this was quite busy already. Service was polite and friendly. The beer here arrived in a plastic glass, but it was a proper measure, not a tiny plastic cup. Soph went for water here and this was bottled water.
The burger was delightful, really tasty and just how a burger should taste like. The melted soft cheese just added that extra something special
We ate here very recently for a menu del dia, there were others eating in the restaurant and some had ordered burgers. We both commented to each other how good their burgers looked.
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 9/10
Tapas: 9/10
Patagonia Steak House ( 33 out of 40 )
Excellent and attentive service, with plenty of staff on hand. Sadly here due to circumstances outside their control, they were unable to serve the advertised Empanada Argentina, but instead we had chorizo on bread, which was good. The quality of the meat was evident in the taste. Bottled beer and here Soph had water, which was a bottle.
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 9/10
Tapas: 7/10
Legends Bar ( 33.5 out of 40 )
Pulled pork tostada, did what it said on the tin, nice and fresh and hot, though on the small side. Service was very quick and there were quite a few people already here. Bottled beer for me and Soph had water, which was bottled water but came with a plastic glass with ice.
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 9/10
Tapas: 7.5/10
Chillies Indian El Raso ( 31 out of 40 )
Friendly service here. The tapas dish of Chicken Tikka Biryani, mild sauce & piece of naan was fine, though a little too bland for my taste. The big let down here was the drinks. My beer was bottled, no issues there, but Sophs drink was a half measure.
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 7/10
Tapas: 7/10
Med Bar ( 35 out of 40 )
Here there were two guys serving and they worked well as a team, very organised and professional. Bottled beer as expected, Soph had a Diet Pepsi, which was a bottled but came with a real, good quality glass.
The Med Burger was really tasty, lovely tender meat, the hash brown just added that extra something. The sauce on the side was the hot chilli sauce, which is great for me, but Soph found it too hot, as I heard someone else on the next table say the same.
Maybe a slightly spiced tomato chutney next time for those who don’t like the heat?
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 9/10
Tapas: 9/10
El Bar ( 31.5 out of 40 )
Hard to know where to start here, there were a few people already here when we arrived, but they seemed to be waiting for their orders to be served. There were a couple of tables with plates, glasses on, but we managed to get a table. Staff seemed as though they were going to struggle and this was early on, the service seemed a little ‘ploddy’.
We ordered at the table, the server brought us out the bill, which I tried to pay there and then, but she didn’t take the money. The drinks were brought out, but the 20 euro note left on the dish with the receipt was once again, ignored. We saw another couple go inside to pay, so Soph said she’d go pay our bill, even before the tapas was brought out.
The tapas was a fruit and brownie skewer, which personally is a bit of a cop out in my eyes. The fruit was fresh, the brownie was soft.
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Tapas: 7.5/10
Shack 54 ( 26 out of 40 )
After El Bar, we walked next door and I jokingly said to Soph, things can only get better. How wrong I was.
There was one other table in use as we got there, we seated ourselves at a table and a guy wearing glasses pointed out that we needed to order at the bar.
Not a biggie, if you are busy and staff are busy, but here there were 4 staff members standing talking at the counter. So they could have been more proactive here and taken orders at the table, while they were quiet, to enhance the service.
Soph went to the counter, ordered and paid. I sat outside and watched her walk out with a large tray with our drinks on and the tapas. Yes, you read this right, she even had to carry out our order, while the 4 staff stood chatting. I did suggest to her, shall we offer to wash up too!
The salad was not that good, it was a little like a Russian Salad with a bit more flavour, but didn’t look anything like the image on the printed program. There was no bread served, so Soph went in to ask, to be told they had decided not to serve it, to make the dish Gluten Free… WTF!
So basically, it wasn’t the full advertised offering. When Soph came back to the table to tell me their excuse, friends of ours had just turned up as I was saying, they might as well take out the miniscule chicken too, to make it veggie friendly.
Our friends asked what we thought, I said, save yourself the struggle here and explained why. By now another guy was working, but the other 4 were still standing in a huddle around the counter.
Based on this experience today, we won’t be coming back here.
Service: 4/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Tapas: 6/10
Stan and Ollies Restaurant ( 33.5 out of 40 )
Super efficient service, very friendly and welcoming. This is another location that gives you a proper glass for your drink, as well as proper cutlery.
The dish advertised was Fillet of Mackerel & potato Thai style, which looked wonderful and was nicely presented. Sadly we both had a bone in the fish, and we both felt the flavours were just a little too tame for a Thai style inspired dish. It just needed that little bit more ummph, so maybe a little more spice such as galangal, cilantro or kaffir lime leaves, or red or green chillies.
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Drinks: 9/10
Tapas: 7.5/10
The El Raso Ruta De La Tapa 2025 Final Thoughts
We never made it to O’Briens Bar & Restaurant as I hate cold, hard boiled egg so this was a dish I would never order or eat. Another place we didn’t get to was The Lounge Cocktail Bar, sadly.
The standard this year we thought was generally better than previous years. The first three restaurants we visited we were really impressed with. At Los Rosales, sat out in the sun, cold beer and great tapas, I jokingly said to Soph, I could stay here all afternoon.
There were a couple of establishments that were okayish and sadly one that was unbelievably bad. Being asked to carry your own food and drink to your table, I could understand in a busy bar, but not in a place with a total at the time of 4 customers, including the 2 of us, and 4 staff present.
People could say, it’s only 3.50€ and not sure what the issue is. As there was a couple of us together, this was 7.00€ at each establishment, multiplied by the 10 places we visited means we spent 70€ in just over 3 hours supporting this event. There were other establishments with fewer staff and more customers, yet they all managed to offer table service.
Our Winners
Top spot today on The El Raso Ruta De La Tapa for us was Rest Los Rosales, where we will get to visit for a lunch at some point.
Runners up were Costillas Locas ( 35 out of 40 ), where we had lunch last week, and Med Bar ( 35 out of 40 ). Soph and I have said we will return to both of these to try their burgers.
Honourable mention to Stan and Ollies Restaurant ( 33.5 out of 40 ), where we will try to get across for a Sunday lunch or a meal in the bear future too.
To The Organisers
The organisers of this The El Raso Ruta De La Tapa event deserve a huge thanks, the day ran smoothly and the mini bus was really well managed and regular, despite us not using it.
Hopefully see you all back for the El Raso Ruta De La Tapa 2026!
