Seville – Bar Oliva

Whilst searching for food earlier in the week, we found that the well reviewed restaurants in the Triana district were rather busy. So, we settled for Bar Oliva, a simple restaurant a little further away from the river. There was no air conditioning inside the restaurant, so we decided to sit in the street. I mean that we sat on chairs on the pavement, just for clarity…

The service was warm and friendly, although we struggled just a little with the ordering process. The staff member seemed to think we were ordering just a couple of items between us, rather than ordering pretty much the entire menu between us.

I’ve never had cuttlefish, so I felt that now was the time to try. Apparently it’s a relatively popular catch for British fishermen (and fisherwomen no doubt) although it’s not a popular dish in the UK, so it’s heavily exported. It has a taste similar to squid, and I rather enjoyed it, with the batter adding a little extra flavour to the dish. The cuttlefish was quite tender and it has a pleasant and interesting flavour.

The cod in a garlic sauce was tender, although I felt that there was simply too much sauce and it drowned the fish both literally and in terms of the taste. I would have perhaps been better to have this as a tapa choice, rather than as a racion (or full plate).

A photo of our happy group.

Here’s the menu, with an English one also available. Overall, this was a really pleasant meal and the staff member made an effort to help us order and checked that we were enjoying the food.

The bill came to around €12 each, which meant that everyone got around three tapas items each, plus a drink. Andrew golloped down four tapas items, although he did pick some interesting food options. I wouldn’t say that the quality was exceptional, but it was a perfectly pleasant location and the food met our expectations.