Non-Touristy Tapas Tour in Madrid: Honest Review & What to Expect

Are you thinking about booking a tapas tour in Madrid, but worried it will just be a tourist trap?

Let me say it straight away: I had exactly the same worry, and I actually live here!

I have been skeptical about tapas tours for years. Probably because of my fair share of amateur tapas evenings that we used to throw at the hostel where I worked in Granada back in 2012.

But I actually think I have found a tapas tour in Madrid that satisfies both my skeptical and slightly tourist-trap-allergic mind and my eagerness to discover lesser-known places and hidden gems in any city.

At the end of July, I went on this non-touristy tapas tour by Food Lover Tour here in Madrid together with my husband, and this tapas tour showed me what a good tapas tour actually looks like!

So, I decided I should share this newfound treasure with the rest of you and write down a proper review.

In this review, I will take you through the whole experience: where the tour goes, what you eat and drink at each of the four stops, what it costs, and the one thing I really wish I had known before we booked.

Let’s dive into it!

Disclosure: I received a voucher from Winedering towards this tour. The voucher did not cover the full cost for the two of us, and nobody has read or approved this review before publishing. Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that at no additional cost to you, Becci Abroad will earn a commission if you purchase through one of those links. This helps to pay the bills and the maintenance of the site.

Review of a Non-Touristy Tapas Tour in Madrid

The Short Version: Is a Tapas Tour in Madrid Worth It?

Yes, I definitely think it is worth doing a tapas tour in Madrid!

And if you’re looking for a less-touristy and more local experience of Madrid’s tapas culture, I can strongly recommend the non-touristy tapas tour by Food Lover Tour that I did here in Madrid!

The tapas tour I went on takes place in the Chamberí neighborhood in Madrid on and around Calle Ponzano, which is an area that few tourists in Madrid get to visit.

During the tour, we visited four bars over just under three hours, tried around ten different tapas, and got four drinks along the way.

The price is around €69 per person on Winedering and GetYourGuide.

In my opinion, the three things that made this tapas tour work were:

• The neighborhood
• Our guide
• The early start time.

Tapas in Spain is a light dinner rather than a big one, which is the one thing I think you really should know before you book! If you have not had a proper lunch, you might want to grab something else after the tapas tour.

Madrid Non-Touristy Tapas Tour at a Glance

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Tapas Tour in Madrid: My Honest Review

Now let’s break the review down a bit more and look at what makes this non-touristy tapas tour in Madrid worth it and what’s included in the tapas tour!

But first: why actually do a tapas tour in the city where you live?

Why Do a Tapas Tour in the City Where You Live?

That is a very fair question, and one I asked myself too!

The voucher from Winedering to test out their platform and tours was definitely the push, but I’m also curious about testing different experiences and activities that might offer a different side of Madrid.

I am always up for trying something new, and I think my husband took a bit of pity on me for going on a tapas tour on my own, even though I reassured him several times that I genuinely do not mind.

So, off we went on a Saturday evening in the heat of summer in Madrid to do a tapas tour in our own city.

What Makes the Food Lover Non-Touristy Tapas Tour Worth It?

Personally, four things really made this tapas tour worth it, and why I do think it’s a great option if you’re looking for a tapas tour in Madrid.

1. The Tapas Tour Takes Place Away from the City Center

The tapas tour took place in the Chamberí neighborhood away from the city center of Madrid, which was a brilliant choice of location!

Chamberí is located a bit north of Madrid’s city center, and it is really not an area where most visitors to Madrid end up. That was a big part of the appeal for me.

Madrid’s city center is crowded enough as it is, and I am always a sucker for promoting and visiting the local, non-touristy parts of a city.

The tour focuses on the tapas bars in and around Calle Ponzano, which our guide told us is one of the streets with the most tapas bars in all of Spain.

The locals have even turned it into a verb, ponzaning, which tells you most of what you need to know.

You can easily think of Calle Ponzano as the tapas heaven of Madrid!

2. Our Guide, Ioanna

Our guide, Ioanna, is the second reason why this tapas tour is so worth it!

Ioanna was hands down one of the best guides I have had (and I have had my fair share of travel guides over the years)!

Ioanna is a truly relatable and empathetic person, and she made every single person in the group feel welcome and included from the very beginning.

Making sure everybody is included and that the conversation is flowing is a lot harder to pull off than it sounds when you put a group of strangers together for three hours.

3. The Variety of Tapas and Drinks

Another thing that I also really liked about the Food Lover Tour’s non-touristy tapas tour was that the four bars included in the tour were very different from each other.

We went from one of the oldest bars on the street to a modern, slow-food style place, then on to a classic ham-and-wine bar, and finally to a proper neighborhood tapas bar.

The drinks followed the same logic, moving from sangría to beer, then wine, and finally vermut.

It was a pleasant surprise for me that there was such a variety of tapas throughout the tour. The tapas tour is a great way to get an introduction to Spanish tapas culture if you’re visiting Madrid or Spain for the first time.

Even if you do already have an idea about the local tapas culture (like I do after several years of living in Spain), the tapas tour gives you some different and less-common tapas to try – rather than four versions of the same plate!

4. The Timing of the Tour

The timing of this tapas tour was quite perfect. The tour starts at 6 pm, and we had chosen to go on a Saturday, which is normally one of the busiest days for eating out in Madrid.

However, starting at 6 pm is brilliant timing, because Madrileños definitely do not go for tapas that early!

The bars we visited were almost empty, and Calle Ponzano was not crowded at all. So, you get to visit a couple of good bars without any of the queuing or overcrowded pushing around by the bar.

What to Expect From the Tapas Tour: A Stop-by-Stop Breakdown

We have talked a bit about why I liked this non-touristy tapas tour in Madrid; now let’s look at what to expect from the tapas tour and what each stop included.

The Meeting Point: Alonso Cano Metro Station

The tour starts in front of the Alonso Cano metro station (Line 7) in the Chamberí neighborhood.

When we arrived, there was already a small group of people standing outside and waiting.

After I had taken a couple of photos of the beautiful old bar in the corner opposite the entrance to the metro station (look for the bar), we approached the group and asked if they were also waiting for the tour. They were.

The group was a British family visiting Madrid for a couple of days, and we quickly fell into conversation with them as some of them had travelled in Argentina, and they were very curious to ask my husband all about his country.

More and more people kept arriving, and around 6 pm sharp, a guy and a girl came over and told us they were going to be our guides.

The group was split in two, and since we were already chatting away with the British family, we ended up on the same tour together.

Then our guide Ioanna kicked things off with a bit of historical background on the area and on how Calle Ponzano became what it is today, and the tapas tour started.

The First Stop: Tortilla Española and Sangría

The first stop was at one of the oldest bars on the street, where you can still see the original decoration and historical photos on the walls.

From the outside, the bar looks really small, but it is actually quite large once you get inside.

Here we were served tortilla española, the traditional Spanish omelet made with potatoes.

One of the big discussion topics in Spain is always whether it should be made con cebolla or sin cebolla, meaning with onion or without.

The ones we got at this stop were without onion, and they came with probably one of the best sangrías I have ever tried.

Sangrías is a sweet lemonade-kind-of drink made from wine and fresh fruits, and sangría has very much become a touristy drink. Most Spanish people don’t drink sangría; instead, they will usually order tinto de verano.

Tinto de verano is red wine mixed with lemon soda, and while it is similar to sangría, it is considered less of a tourist drink in Spain.

However, the sangría served at the first tapas bar on the tour was actually one of the best sangrías I have had in a very long time!

The Second Stop: Modern Tapas with Ham and Cheese

After some time chatting at the first bar, we moved on to the second stop, which was just down the street from the first one and across from where the tour had started.

This tapas bar was completely different from the first tapas bar we had visited. The second one was much more modern and fancy, and the tapas came with a modern twist.

We got some ham and some cheese, and for those who wanted an alcoholic drink, there was beer, or non-alcoholic beer as an alternative.

In my opinion, this was one of the best tapas we got on the whole tour, and definitely a place I would consider going back for a tapas night with my friends.

The air conditioning inside the bar was also a big plus on a warm summer day in Madrid!

The Third Stop: Jamón, Croquetas and Wine

For the third stop on the tapas tour, we headed around two blocks down Calle Ponzano.

The third tapas bar on the tour was a very local, classic Spanish tapas bar with big pieces of meat hanging in the windows and stools at the bar.

Here we got a glass of wine, some Spanish jamón serrano ham, and probably the best croquetas I have ever tried!

Croquetas are a classic Spanish tapas made of béchamel sauce filling mixed with fine pieces of cured ham (jamón), chicken, fish, or cheese, coated with breadcrumbs and deep-fried.

I have had my fair share of croquetas while living in Spain, and in my opinion the best ones are super crunchy on the outside and very mushy on the inside.

Most tapas bars and restaurants just reheat the croquetas they made earlier in the day, which means they lose a lot of the crunchiness.

However, this third tapas bar on the tour makes the croquetas fresh when you order, and they were amazing.

We also got to try some locally produced olive oil. My husband is really snobby when it comes to olive oil, and even he liked it, so I am just saying that it was good!

The bread, on the other hand, not so much. I am not a big fan of Spanish bread in general, and this one was a little bit too dry for my taste.

Together with the tapas, you could choose between red or white wine, or a non-alcoholic drink.

The Fourth Stop: Pintxo, Calamares and Vermut

At our fourth and last stop, on the tapas tour in Madrid, we visited a tapas bar that we had actually walked past on our way to the third stop.

From the outside, the tapas bar looked like a small, traditional bar place. But I was amazed when I went to the bathroom and realized how massive it was inside. There was a table prepared for us.

We tried some traditional Spanish pintxos, which are pieces of bread with a topping on them and are especially popular in the Northern parts of Spain.

In this case, the pintxo was Spanish chorizo sausage with a little pimiento de padrón, a classic Spanish tapa to try.

After that came Madrid’s famous calamares, or fried squid.

One of the most popular tapas in Madrid is fried squid, or the fried squid sandwich, boadilla de calamares, which is kind of interesting for a city located in the very heart of inland Spain, the furthest you can get from the sea.

Together with our tapas, we got my favorite Spanish appetizer drink: vermut.

After moving to Spain, I have grown really fond of vermouth, and it’s a Spanish classic, so I would definitely recommend you give it a try!

Vermouth is a sweet wine with a herbal taste. Some places make it really strong, but this last tapas bar made it really, really good.

After a bit more chatting with the rest of the group, it was almost 9:00 pm, and the tour was over.

We said goodbye to everyone, took some photos, and then we all went our own way.

What to Keep in Mind Before Booking a Tapas Tour

Tapas is not a full meal!

In Spain, the main meal of the day is lunch, and tapas is meant as a lighter meal for the evening.

I had only had a very light lunch at home before we left, and the tapas included in the tapas tour was not enough to count as a proper dinner for me. So, I would recommend that you get a proper meal for lunch on the day you do the tapas tour.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the tapas tour is a walking tour, where you cover four bars across a few blocks, and you stand up at most of them, so I recommend you put on a pair of shoes that you can walk and stand in for a few hours.

Final Thoughts: Is a Non-Touristy Tapas Tour in Madrid Worth It?

Yes, definitely!

If you are looking for a way to experience Spanish tapas without it feeling too touristy, and you want to avoid the crowds in the center of Madrid, then this non-touristy tapas tour is a really good way to do it.

I thought the selection of tapas was excellent and the quality was high at all four stops.

The only downside I can point to is the portion size, and only if you have not had a heavy Spanish lunch at midday. That was my case, because I ate very lightly before we left home.

My husband and I ended up going to an Argentine pizza place in the same area afterwards, which he had wanted to try anyway, and we had a nice little second dinner there together.

Other than that, I would definitely recommend the tapas tour. It was super cool even for someone like us who actually lives in Madrid, and it was absolutely worth it.