If you read my 2019 Hits and Misses post, you’ll already know how I feel about this place…

Last October, Dr HH and I left the autumn gloom of Prague for a bit of southern sunshine in Granada. We stayed there in order to see the Alhambra, and we used it as our base for a bit of travelling around Andalusia, with Seville lined up as our main target. It was a three hour bus ride, which makes for a very long day trip, but we thought it would be worth it to see the Alcazar.

We arrived around lunch time, and when booking our Alcazar tickets we’d planned just enough time to grab a quick lunch before entry. Veganitessen came up on Happy Cow as an option located perfectly between the bus station and the main attraction, so off we went. When our map guided us to a market building instead of a nice little cafe, I was a bit anxious. I needn’t have worried. Yes, the eatery is in a market, but it’s all quite stress free, with plenty of seating and minimal danger of being boshed by passing pedestrians. There were menus to peruse, we weren’t just left looking at a board, and the staff were very friendly and accommodating.

As keen fans of tapas, we decided to go for it and order four dishes to share. I think probably all British people love empanadas because they’re quite similar to pasties, so we were wholly on board with this.

The meatballs were also good, with a really flavoursome sauce. Truthfully I found the rice to be unnecessary filler though.

The tortilla had a Mexican twist, with a mountain of guacamole on top which I would never complain about! I had three slices of tortilla during our five day trip, and this was the best of the bunch. (No coincidence that it was probably also the biggest!) It was really well seasoned, and the guac was the metaphorical cherry on top.

But the best of the tapas was truly the seitan. The slices themselves had a lot of flavour and the perfect texture, and the sauce on top really elevated the whole dish even more. Unfortunately I didn’t make any notes detailing what the sauce was (I was exhausted at this time), but I can confirm that it was delicious.

We didn’t really need a dessert, but it’s not about “need” when you’re on holiday, is it? And I’m glad about that! Dr HH got a pear cake which he assured me was delicious and had a great texture – I hate pears, so I didn’t even have a nibble. I got the chocolate orange cake, which was truly one of the best cakes I’ve ever had. Chocolate orange is one of my favourite flavour combinations, so this worked like a charm, and the chocolate oozing down the side just made everything better. It was light and delicious, and I wish I’d had room for another slice!

The day trip would have been worth it just for the seitan and the cake, but the Alcazar really blew our socks off too!

Everything was so exquisitely detailed and beautiful. We’ve seen quite a lot of big European cities, but this was something completely different. The Moorish history and architecture were completely new to us, and combined with the warmer climate and plant life it wasn’t really like being in Europe at all. When I was raving about it to a Turkish friend she told me that if I liked Seville I’ll love Istanbul…so that’s our next stop!