Savor Scout › Food guides › Tapas
How to find good tapas
Tapas are small Spanish dishes eaten with drinks, ordered a few at a time. A good tapas bar has a lively counter, Spanish classics done well, and prices that let you order widely.
What separates a good one from a bad one
- Spanish classics — Patatas bravas, tortilla, croquetas, gambas al ajillo, jamón. A good bar does these well.
- Tortilla española made in-house — Thick, creamy in the middle. A great test.
- Croquetas with a molten centre — Béchamel and ham, crisp shell.
- Good jamón and cheese — Sliced to order.
- Sherry and Spanish wine — A list that matches the food.
What to order
- Patatas bravas — Crisp potatoes with spicy sauce and aioli.
- Tortilla española — Spanish omelette.
- Croquetas — Jamón or bacalao.
- Gambas al ajillo — Garlic shrimp in sizzling oil.
- Pan con tomate — Bread with tomato and olive oil.
Where to find Tapas
Open listings put 1,578 tapas bars across the US. These are the cities and campuses with the most of them.
Cities with the most
New York, NY 93 Atlanta, GA 24 Washington, DC 22 San Francisco, CA 22 Miami, FL 22 Chicago, IL 22 Dallas, TX 17 Seattle, WA 13
Campuses with the most within a mile
NYU 43 New School University 35 Baruch 17 BMCC 16 Pace University 15 FIT 15
A few to start with
- Beast & Butterflies — New York, NY
55 Church St, New York - Vanity Restaurant — Atlanta, GA
138 Peachtree St NW, Atlanta - Mar de Plata — Washington, DC
1827 Jefferson Pl NW, Washington - The Pawn Shop — San Francisco, CA
993 Mission St, San Francisco - Tabú Bistro — Miami, FL
1062 Brickell Ave, Miami - Mercat a la Planxa — Chicago, IL
Located in The Blackstone Hotel, 638 S Michigan Ave, Chicago
Counts are listings in Overture Maps open data (September 2026), counted by the town in each address. Independent places only in the examples above, and they are a starting point rather than a ranking.
How Savor Scout looks for it
The search reads for tapas, Spanish, jamón and sherry, and favours genuine tapas bars over 'small plates' restaurants that use the word loosely.
Looking in a particular city?
Each of these opens Savor Scout with the location already set, so you can say what you want and it searches from there. It covers 1,000 US cities in total — these are simply the largest.
- New York, NY
- Los Angeles, CA
- Chicago, IL
- Houston, TX
- Philadelphia, PA
- Phoenix, AZ
- San Antonio, TX
- San Diego, CA
- Dallas, TX
- San Jose, CA
- Austin, TX
- Indianapolis, IN
- Jacksonville, FL
- San Francisco, CA
- Columbus, OH
- Charlotte, NC
- Fort Worth, TX
- Detroit, MI
- El Paso, TX
- Memphis, TN
- Seattle, WA
- Denver, CO
- Washington, DC
- Boston, MA
- Nashville, TN
- Baltimore, MD
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Louisville, KY
- Portland, OR
- Las Vegas, NV
- Milwaukee, WI
- Albuquerque, NM
- Tucson, AZ
- Fresno, CA
- Sacramento, CA
- Long Beach, CA
- Kansas City, MO
- Mesa, AZ
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Atlanta, GA
- Colorado Springs, CO
- Omaha, NE
- Raleigh, NC
- Miami, FL
- Oakland, CA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Tulsa, OK
- Cleveland, OH
- Wichita, KS
- Arlington, TX
- New Orleans, LA
- Bakersfield, CA
- Tampa, FL
- Honolulu, HI
- Aurora, CO
- Anaheim, CA
- Santa Ana, CA
- St. Louis, MO
- Riverside, CA
- Corpus Christi, TX
Related food guides
Spanish food, Mezze, Portuguese food