We loved the atmosphere and the tapas in El Tubo Zaragoza, a place with a lot of charisma that attracts both visitors and locals.
The atmosphere in “El Tubo Zaragoza” was great for tapas and it instantly won us over! One of the many reasons the city surprised us! “El Tubo” is formed mainly by two streets (Calle Estébanes and Calle Libertad), although little by little people have opened new bars in adjacent streets. When we entered in some of these streets, a feeling of happiness quickly spread over us and we wanted to share the experience with our friends.
Despite not having the opportunity to visit all the restaurants in “El Tubo Zaragoza”, we were able to take in the atmosphere, because we went both at lunchtime, and also at night. These are the references of the restaurants that we chose, after asking the advice of people from Zaragoza.
Our Tapas route in the Tubo Zaragoza
Bar Fenicia
We can summarize Bar Fenicia in “El Tubo Zaragoza” as an unforgettable experience. From the moment of entering they treated us, and everyone else in the bar like family. The owner is from Lebanon, which you can see on the walls, where there are multiple photographs of this beautiful country. Their mark is not only for service, but also for the originality of the food that is offered.
There you will be able to eat principally “empanadillas” (meats wrapped in a bread dough) which are their specialty. We could ask for some of these “empanadillas”, although we liked the ground beef ones best. For dessert they invited us two strawberry liquors and two chocolate “empanadillas”, which was a great end to our meal. Thanks to all these things we ruskommend Bar Fenicia with 5 boquerones.
Calle de Ossau, 2, Zaragoza, Spain
La Ballena Colorá
We started our route along”El Tubo Zaragoza” with this bar. It is a small bar that we noticed right away thanks to a big whale painted in the entry. They have only a few decorations with a simple bar and since it is small, there is just enough room to eat. The thing that makes this bar special are the “ballenitas” (small whales). They are sandwiches of bread with salty anchovies and anchovies with vinegar (also known as boquerones), and a green pepper on top. Also, they have another tapa with artichokes. We also ordered a house wine, although you can ask for home made beer too. We ruskommend this restaurant with 4 boquerones.
Calle Libertad, 16, 50003 Zaragoza, Spain
Taberna Doña Casta
Our second stop was to this restaurant which has a dining room below. In the glass case at the bar we could choose between all the different croquettes, which was their specialty. There were a lot kinds of croquettes (salmon, blood sausage, four cheeses,…) although the ones we liked best were the blood sausage (morcilla). Another typical dish at this restaurant was “broken eggs” (a kind of scramble) with ham, baby eels or “ajetes”, among others. We thought that the price was a little bit high for the size of the croquettes, although they really were quite tasty. We ruskommmend this restaurant with 4 boquerones.
Calle Estebanes, 6, 50003 Zaragoza, Spain
Bodegas Almau
We finished our lunch at this winery with very traditional decoration. They had a lot of wines from different origins, including some from their own wineries. They had an outdoor terrace in the corner of the street that did not seem very comfortable, although it was nice. For our tapa, we chose the anchovies without any hesitation. There were a lot of kinds although we loved one called “Vinegar explosion”. We ruskommend this restaurant with 4 boquerones.
Calle de los Estebanes, 10, Zaragoza, España
La Cueva de Aragón
The main reason that we noticed this bar was because of the different kinds of beers that they offer which are all homemade. It is a restaurant with a good size, with bar stools and tables, and with a eye-catching griddle full of their famous “champis”. They are toasted bread with mushrooms and garlic. We ordered one of their typical beers too. This is the only thing offered at this restaurant although it was more than enough in order to have fun. We ruskommend this bar with 4 boquerones.
Calle Libertad, 16, 50003 Zaragoza, Spain
To put the cherry on to of El Tubo Zaragoza
El Plata Cabaret Ibérico
This was was, without any doubt, one of surprises of that day! A person from Twitter recommended that we go to this bar and when we walked in the door we had no idea what awaited us. After we went inside we saw a stage and below a lot of tables together where the audience was sitting, and most of them were older people. We arrived just in time for the show that they had at 4pm. It was like a cabaret, a little bit erotic but very fun. The best thing was to see the face and the comments from the old people around us (from the men as well as the women). It was like a Las Vegas show in the middle of “El Tubo Zaragoza”- who would have thought!? On the other hand you must be ready for paying a high price (a coffee and a drink cost 15 euros), although you don’t have to pay for the show. We ruskommend this club with 3 boquerones.
