There is a wide range of restaurants in Malaga for you to enjoy, both of local cuisine and national and international cuisine. Thanks to the growth of tourism in the region, the city’s gastronomic offer is increasingly diversifying.
If you would like to visit Malaga, try its fantastic restaurants and all of its gastronomic offer, the best option is to hire a car at Malaga airport, giving you total freedom to move around as you please and enjoy all of the hidden gems of the city and the province.
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Best restaurants in Malaga
As we already mentioned, Malaga boasts a wide variety of restaurants, where you can find anything from local restaurants and taverns that we fall in love with because of their traditional atmosphere, to Michelin star restaurants with renowned national chefs.
Below, we have taken a selection of various restaurants that might be of interest, to both tourists and locals, representing the variety that the city has to offer. They have been divided up according to location, so they are as easy as possible to find.
Restaurants in Malaga’s Soho
Considered the most alternative and hipster part of the city, Malaga’s Soho district has experienced a spectacular urban reform, with the proliferation of a multitude of different businesses, giving life and a new air to the area.
This has caused many hospitality venues to move to this new area, hence you can see Malaga’s Soho restaurants, from the most classic that existed before the remodelling to the new ones that have set up there with a more alternative style.
Óleo | Art-turned-food fusion
Óleo restaurant brings its customers a combined menu of Mediterranean cuisine and a sushi bar, with certain hints of fusion cooking of local produce in international dishes.
It is the restaurant situated within Malaga’s Contemporary Art Centre (CAC, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo) and features an enviable terrace where you can enjoy a drink in the sun, sat at its white tables, with wonderful views of the rivers that run through the city of Malaga.
La Deriva | Service, tradition and cutting edge
This renowned restaurant is situated in an old building which has been refurbished, fusing together different eras: tradition and the cutting edge, just as it does with its cuisine. This is the concept approached by La Deriva in Malaga, with a menu which is steered towards creative cuisine, but based on market cuisine and raw materials of the highest quality.
Mesón Ibérico | Pork products
In its welcoming establishment, Mesón Ibérico is home to endless national dishes, where the use of quality pork-based products predominate, including Iberian ham, and vegetables such as asparagus or mushrooms.
This restaurant contrasts avant-garde cuisine from the area, offering delicious deeply rooted dishes with typical Spanish cuisine, offered in a traditional establishment.
La Fábrica de Málaga | Beer pilgrims
This fascinating bar and restaurant in Malaga’s Soho is run by the Cruzcampo beer brand, and the venue tries to resemble an ancient brewery. The interior space stretches 1200 metres squared, spread between different areas, including a small concert room.
They also use this space to organise tasting sessions, courses and guided tours organised around the world of beer, supported by its 2 master brewers and its 7 varieties of craft beers made in the place itself. It also has a customer car park and outdoor terrace.
In terms of the culinary offer, they offer a condensed menu with dishes designed to be shared among the guests, a specific tapas menu to accompany the beer and an exclusive section of select meats.
Restaurants in the centre of Malaga
Here you can find the restaurants from the centre of Malaga, in other words, those located in the city’s historic quarter, together with most of the monuments that are representative of the city and the tourist places of interest.
El Pimpi | Historic next to the Alcazaba
One of Malaga’s most representative restaurants is El Pimpi, an old and typical bar-restaurant which is located next to Malaga’s Alcazaba. It also features in this other post about tapas in Málaga, since its menu contains many dishes that can be ordered in portions (raciones), so you can share and try different foods that are typical of the south of Spain.
Terra Mía | Stove, firewood, Neapolitan dough
Terra Mía is an Italian restaurant which oozes Naples everywhere you look. As soon as you walk in, its large working oven in the heart of the restaurant stands out, leaving a fantastic aroma of pizza throughout the dining area.
Although it specialises in pizzas, it also has a menu with a variety of pasta dishes. A must-try is the pizza with Mortadella sausage from Bologna with its spectacular pistachio sauce and flakes of Parmesan cheese.
La Recova | Original or traditional breakfast?
La Recova is a small and charming venue in the heart of Malaga, famous among locals for its particular way of serving breakfasts. With a rural Andalusian décor, it offers slices of toast for breakfast with a cardboard egg box containing different toppings to put on the toast. It also has tapas and portions (raciones) of typical Spanish cuisine, and drinks include the classic vermouth and wine from Málaga.
Casa Lola | Vermouth and portions (raciones) in an authentic venue
Casa Lola boasts 3 venues in the heart of Malaga thanks to the large customer base it has experienced in recent years. Underpinned by the retro style of taverns from the 1980’s, it defines itself as a “vermuteria”, a bar that offers vermouth, the classic drink of that era which consists of a wine flavoured with herbs.
Cambara | Tropical fusion in the port
Located at the end of Malaga’s Muelle Uno shopping centre, Cambara restaurant is a modern and original establishment with a tropical air which offers a varied menu with international dishes, some with highly appealing hints of fusion.
It is an excellent choice if you want to visit the Bull Ring (Plaza de Toros), since it is located very near to this and also Malaga’s Lighthouse (Faro). Also worth a visit is the cruise ship pier, which is situated between the restaurant and La Malagueta beach.
Restaurants in the west of Malaga
The western area is the most highly populated and is formed by several traditionally working-class neighbourhoods. However, culinary diversity is not exclusive to Malaga’s central area, the city has many other neighbourhoods where you can find fantastic restaurants of all types.
This area is home to a plethora of bars and restaurants, specifically around the area of the Parque del Oeste park and Parque de Huelin park, including some of the cheapest restaurants in Malaga.
Tita Ché | Tapas, portions (‘raciones’) and variety
Situated opposite Parque del Oeste park, Tita Ché is a restaurant characterised by the portions (raciones) and tapas which include combinations of original and disruptive flavours, that the public are not as accustomed to, but always using traditional cooking recipes as a base.
It has a terrace within an urbanisation which is perfect if you are visiting with children, to enjoy a meal with the comfort of knowing it is semi-enclosed so children can play and run around at their leisure.Mamma Franca | Calabrian trattoria
It defines itself as a “trattoria” or, put another way, an authentic Italian restaurant in Malaga which serves typical Calabrian home-cooked food. Indeed, Mamma Franca fulfils all of these expectations. Just as the El Mundo newspaper states, they pinpoint it as one of the 10 best-rated urban restaurants in Spain.
It is certainly true that the thin crust pizzas are spectacular, but it is also essential to emphasise the perfection of the pasta dishes. Cooked to perfection, succulent sauces and the winning combination of ingredients, they win over their customers who fancy trying a taste of Italy.
El Pórtico | Quality produce from Castile and Leon
Highlighted by its customers as a restaurant with an excellent service, El Pórtico channels its offer towards typical dishes from Castile and Leon, or made using produce from this region in the north of Spain. Although all of the dishes are delicious, you simply must try the black pudding pate (crema de morcilla) from Leon and the lamb sweetbreads (mollejas de cordero): authentic delicacies.
It boasts several establishments in the province, one being situated in the western part of Malaga, next to the entrance to the Parque del Oeste. This one features an outdoor terrace with sun in the mornings and the afternoons.
Map of restaurants in Malaga
Here you will find a map created by CarGest so you can quickly find all of the restaurants mentioned in this post.
