✦ Eating out
Where to eat near Alicante’s old town: five places and what to order
Rice, cigalas a la diabla, zarangollo, seafood and montaditos. The five places we recommend and what to order at each.
✦ Eating out
Rice, cigalas a la diabla, zarangollo, seafood and montaditos. The five places we recommend and what to order at each.
There’s no restaurant, no bar and no breakfast at L’Alcor Old Town. That’s on purpose: fourteen studios with kitchens and the centre of Alicante on the doorstep go further than any buffet. But it does mean the question of where to eat matters more here than it would in a hotel, so it’s worth having it sorted before you arrive.
When a guest asks us, we don’t hand them a list of twenty places pulled off the internet. We give them these five. They’re the ones we recommend ourselves, and at each one we know exactly what to order.
They come with the street and number, grouped by area. Three are in the centre, a short walk from Cienfuegos. The other two are in the Ensanche: a bit more of a walk, and worth it.
People here have lunch and dinner later than many visitors expect. To give you a concrete idea: at La Taverna del Racó del Pla the kitchen is open until 15:45 at lunchtime and until 22:45 in the evening. Turn up at 13:00 on the dot and you’ll be one of the first.
And book if you can. Two of the five take online bookings, which take a minute on your phone. For the other three, a phone call does it. The centre of Alicante fills up at weekends, and none of these places is big.
Restaurante Gravina – C/ Gravina, 4
Seafood and Mediterranean cooking. It’s the one we suggest when someone wants good produce without any fuss: you go in, ask what they’ve got that day and order that. It’s on the same street as the Museo de Bellas Artes, inside the historic centre, so you can combine the two.
Alma de Barra – C/ Antonio Galdó Chápuli, 15
Order the cigalas a la diabla, langoustines in a spicy sauce. That dish is the reason we recommend it, and there isn’t much more to say. It’s also the only one of the five where you can book your table online before you leave the studio.
La Taverna del Racó del Pla – C/ de las Navas, 40
You come here for the rice. The one we recommend is the rice with saquitos manzanares: one of those things you won’t find on any other menu. It’s open for lunch Monday to Saturday and for dinner Tuesday to Saturday; it’s closed on Sundays and on Monday evenings, so check the day before you go. Phone: 965 20 21 82.
Zagálico – C/ Alemania, 1
Order the zarangollo, scrambled courgette and onion. They don’t make it the way everyone else does: they add grilled secreto, a cut of pork, and that’s why it’s on our list. Closed on Sundays and Mondays. Takes online bookings.
El Cantó – C/ Alemania, 26
Tapas and montaditos, small open sandwiches, at a little wooden bar with an enormous menu: more than a hundred numbered dishes between tapas, cazuelitas (small hot dishes) and scrambled-egg dishes. It’s the place for grazing without a plan, when nobody can agree on what to eat and what you need is to sit down and start ordering.
The studio kitchen isn’t just for show. It has a ceramic hob, microwave, fridge and dishwasher, plus a coffee maker, toaster and kettle, with pots, pans, plates, glasses, wine glasses and mugs so you can cook properly. The only things missing are an oven and a griddle, so a roast is off the menu.
The Mercado Central is a five-minute walk from the door. Shopping there in the morning and having dinner in the studio is, on plenty of evenings, a better plan than going out: especially on the first day, when you’ve been travelling and the last thing you want is to hunt for a table. And if you book directly with us, breakfast on your first day is taken care of, because we provide the pastries.
Everything else around us, the castle, the beaches, the market and the day trips, is on our Area guide page.
Information checked in September 2026. Restaurant opening hours change and kitchens close earlier than the sign on the door says: if you want to be sure, call ahead.