We had lunch here. 4 tapas plates, a small beer, and a water -- all for under 16 Euros…read more The octopus salad was pretty good The pork cheek was very tender and cooked well The stuffed mushrooms were delightfully cheesy and had some seafood in the stuffing The pollo relleno was pretty good as well, very flavorful

Friendly people, good service, locally sourced produce, fresh fish, good desserts. We had an…read moreafternoon snack and liked it so much we went back for dinner.

Travel around enough in Spain, and you will eat at plenty of forgettable tapas bars. Either the…read moretidbits are the same, or a rehash of the same ingredients in different forms, or the ingredients just are not stunning. Then you come across La Cárcel, it was not outstanding tapas, but it was memorable b/c they made theirs different, perhaps even a more gourmet element. 1. Many Spanish locals and tourists eating away, good sign. 2. The tapas were more inventive or just had a unique twist which is what stuck in my head. We knew a few we wanted to try from TripAdvisor reviews, but honestly it's better just to order 1-2 to start with, then order whatever catches the eye as it's being served around you. Tapas is suppose to be just relaxing and nibbling, not full on dinner meals ordered all at once.. so try this method and you will eat a greater and better variety than blindly ordering everything all at once.

Great tapas bar close to the top of arcos de la frontera's Santa Maria church. Very friendly and…read morehelpful service. I enjoyed the octopus served in olive oil, paprika, and spices; Iberian ham toasts with the omnipresent salmorejo (tomato, olive oil, and herbs) sauce and poached quail egg; and lightly fried shrimp spring rolls. I was disappointed with the mushrooms which had almost no mushrooms and instead ended up like a potato frittata with a few mushrooms sprinkled in it. The oxtail croquettes tasted fine but I couldn't taste any oxtail at all. Very affordable at around 2 to 3 euros per tapa. Some outdoor tables (albeit about a third of the block up from the restaurant). Very happening bar on the weekends. It's busiest between 9:30 and midnight.

Saturday afternoon and we were looking for lunch. This place was right around the corner from our…read morehotel and had some fixed price menus so we grabbed a table outside since it was warm. One gentleman handled all of the tables that eventually were all filled with patrons. Drinks came with the menu so I finally had a sangria after almost three weeks in Spain - it was good and came with a spoon to scoop out the fruit. As a starter I tried the local cold soup that is like gazpacho but is not gazpacho - it was very good. My wife got the mixed salad which had a big heaping of tuna (good thing she likes tuna). I had the chicken with fries - it was OK. My wife was daring and tried the cuttlefish - tough, rubbery and not much flavor. For desserts I had the flan and she had the rice pudding. Both were pre-packed and decent. Not sure these daily meal specials were worth it in the end...

Charming place. Good service. Typical food, but delicious flan. We had a hilarious taxi ride home,…read moreliterally barely making it in-between the narrow streets.

We were having a hard time with the wifi all over Spain so we were just trusting our gut (haha) to…read morefind restaurants. We walked by and saw this little restaurant up the hill, a bit tucked away and decided to check it out one night. Holy moly people!!! Easily one of our best meals in Spain! Our server was so nice and the owner was amazing and attentive. We ate early (old American habits die hard) and we were some of the only people in this little cave restaurant. You can just tell that the chef takes immense pride in their food. It showed, both in presentation and taste. We ordered a cheese plate, a jamon plate, the eggplant croquettes (with salmorejo and jamon), and the stuffed mushrooms. I go on TripAdvisor when I got home and see it's rated #3 in Arcos restaurants! Yay! Don't be like us- read restaurant reviews before you get there ;-) This is truly a gem that you don't want to miss. This restaurant is what prompted me to review both on Yelp AND Tripadvisor. It was THAT good. Oh gosh! I just remembered that we ordered paté as well. I guess I forgot to take a pic. It was HUGE for the price and absolutely delicious. I thought we were overly stuffed when leaving and didn't think we got that way from those 3 things- haha. Forgot the paté!! If you're in Arcos you really should check this place out.

What's different about Alcarvan is that it's a former dungeon of a castle - I don't think they do…read morequite enough to capitalize on the distinctiveness of that (instead, it can feel a bit like a sports bar as there are a bunch of folks watching soccer on television). The food is the standard Spanish tapas menu - heavy on fish, ham, and the mixed salad (which, of course, comes with tuna). To put it another way, Alcaravan is not a place to take your vegetarian friends. What we had here wasn't quite as exciting or inventive as other tapas places (probably the best of what we sampled was the salad) and some of what we sampled was simply unpleasant. The "meatballs" of squid had the consistency of wet bread, and the tuna was among the fishiest I have encountered in terms of both taste and smell. The folks at Alcaravan seem perfectly nice, but slightly confused. At first, they sat us as a table that was entirely too small for four people. Then, they tried to squish all of our food (three dishes) onto the too-small table, and then they moved another table between us so that two of us were sitting a good ten feet apart from the other two.

Great little stop in one of the regions white towns. The service was good and they liked to joke…read morearound. The food was good and the location, in a little plaza, was pleasant. One of the dishes I had was kidney but not sure I'd recommend it. A very sleepy and hot day.

Nice place for a quick bite and cold beer. The pizza was good and service was nice. Located in the…read morenot so steep area by the city center.

A nice little place in Arcos de la Frontera,…read more I recommend it if you want to have some tapas and rest for a while as the place as music and is nicely decorated. One more thing, I can't remember the name, but they had one of the best white wine I have ever tasted

We've had nothing but great experiences with the restaurants in Spain - until this one. We opted…read morenot to follow the recommendations in our guide book and stopped here instead because they had a nice patio. It was a mistake. It ended up being the most expensive meal we've had in Spain, and the food was mediocre at best. Service was just ok. When we asked for the check the waiter told us we had to pay in cash because the credit card machine was broken. I'm not sure if this was true or not. If it was, we should have been told at the outset.

Bad experience. Food is totally overpriced . Their "croquetas de jamón " didn't have jamón at all …read more This place is a tourist trap.