The Best Spanish Restaurants in Toronto

The best Spanish restaurants in Toronto celebrate big flavours in small packages. From small plates or “pinchos” to larger platters, there's lots to soak up at the restaurants on this list accompanied by some cocktails, wine or a glass of sangria or two.

Here are the best Spanish restaurants in Toronto.

8 - Barsa Taberna

Presentation is everything at this St. Lawrence Market area restaurant that hosts lots of events and has drink specials every night of the week. Start with a platter of meats, cheeses, or both, then move on to tapas like manchego churros, and paellas, burgers and fish sandwiches are available for mains if you’ve still got room.
3 - Bar Raval

This Grant van Gameren all-day spot in Little Italy is often packed during peak hours, so try to visit at an off time if you want to avoid a wait. Once you secure your spot, fill your belly with a dizzying menu of small but memorable items like croquetas, octopus, smoked mussels, tuna and pickles and simple meats and cheeses on bread.
5 - Patria

Small plates of the fanciest cheeses and cured meats reign at this King West Spanish spot along with more reasonable bar snacks like olives, almonds, and dates with manchego and ham precede larger plates of paella, rib eye, cornish hen and flank steak.
7 - Carmen

This charming restaurant near Trinity Bellwoods mostly specializes in tapas, but they do paellas with octopus and sea bass or confit rabbit and sous vide snails as well. House specialty tapas include seared sardines, white fish ceviche, pork tenderloin with jam and manchego, breaded tomatoes and grilled shrimp.
6 - Cava

This muted Yonge and St. Clair area restaurant serves Spanish food that’s anything but. They also do a foie gras pincho, but theirs is gamay poached, and the “supergilda”: a mighty little tower of fish, olives and veggies stacked atop a crostini.
10 - Tapagria

Hot and cold tapas like kale and peach salad, potato cod fritters, spicy octopus, tuna tartare and lotus chips, Spanish meatballs and spicy octopus borrow from a range of influences at this Markham restaurant. Hand carved Iberico and Serrano ham and entrees of paella, seafood and huge cuts of meats are also on offer.
11 - El Tenedor

Items on the most recent seasonal menu at this Rosedale restaurant included interesting choices like cold lasagna, duck and pear, sweet potato gnocchi, venison and turnip puree, a cured tuna taco, and a chicken and beer cazuela. This place is also a wine bar, and their list is the pride and joy of this place.
4 - Bar Isabel

Reservations are a must at this popular Spanish spot near College and Ossington from the same owners as Bar Raval. Snap up little plates of croquetas, patatas bravas, ceviche, sweetbreads with tuna, and their coveted sobresada and fois gras, not to mention a dazzling list of cheeses, meats and seafood.
9 - LaVinia Restaurant

This place in Etobicoke does a long list of tapas, slow cooked paellas and fresh pastas along with meat and seafood dishes such as seafood stew, veal and lamb.

by Amy Carlberg via blogTO