More Modern Tapas?
We sampled two more contemporary tapas bars, both equally recommended. Infanta (c/Arfe 32) was packed with groups of Spanish out on Monday night at 1030pm – surely a good sign? And the pork loin with rosemary was tender, marinated salt cod with salmorejo (cold soup) packed with flavour, and boneless bull’s tail with potato purée a deeply meaty main.
Best of all? Eslava (Plaza de San Lorenzo) – our finest eating experience. Solomillo with salsa cabrales (a cheese sauce), a tender spinach pastry, scallops with seaweed purée noodles, a green pepper stuffed with hake – and, best of all (pictured) a slow cooked egg on boletus cake with caramelised wine sauce reduction (just €2.50). Next time we promised we would try the cigar shaped pastry stuffed with cuttlefish. We spent £21 for six tapas and two glasses of wine. It’s rammed like Soho’s Barrafina so get there off peak or just hang out and wait with a drink.
Our favourite
Besides Eslava, La Trastienda was our clear winner, a basic unadorned and quite unflashy bar on Alfalfa, very near the hotel, on our visit it was populated by mostly solo middle-aged men. There are louder, more colourful places along the stretch and compared to them it could seem intimidatingly local, but our advice is to go in anyway. Swinging by after enjoying tapas at a couple of nearby joints, we ordered a plate of manchego cheese, and ended up staying for the most beautiful fleshy gambas, perfectly seasoned.. “Suck the head – it has the best flavour”, advised the barman. Equally finger-lickin was a creamy, salty, oily anchovy on toast (€3).
Accommodation
Accommodation was provided by Casa Numero 7, a nineteenth century merchant’s house tucked away at the northern tip of Barrio Santa Cruz, the ancient heart of Seville – all winding narrow streets and pastel villas.
An elegant house with central courtyard, it has a colonial feel, with its pale walls and patterned drapes, white marble floors, red runners, impressionist art, framed etchings and architectural drawings. 
Breakfast is beautifully cooked scrambled eggs served on Churchill crockery in a series of small, Regency-style dining rooms. A two-floored roof terrace is scorching suntrap and offers an urban outlook over the satellite dishes and rooftops. A double room is £168 a night. For more info on the hotel please head here.
