La Paella Sevilla

We miraculously made it to Seville on a bus that went "go-go-go-stop... go-go-go-stop", and with each stop, it had a harder time going again. As we entered Sevilla, the bus load of passengers prayed for green lights and cheered each time a red light turned green without the bus having to stop, but our luck ran out about a kilometre from the Sevilla bus station. The bus stopped at a red light and would go no more.

Fortunately for us, that put us closer to our AirBnB accommodations so we checked in at 13:00 as scheduled with our hosts before heading out for lunch.

Having arrived on a Sunday, we were fully expecting everything to be closed so it was a pleasant surprise to see so many people out and about and eating at all the tapa bars and restaurants that were open and chock a block full of diners. The city was incredibly "alive"!

We decided to try out "La Paella Sevilla" because many online reviews raved how it was the best paella joint in town. There was definitely a wow factor as we walked in and saw the huge paella pans, each ready and waiting to be dished up into "ración" or tapa size servings according to your order, 5.95€ per ración or 2.95€ per tapa.

We decided to go with a full size serving of the seafood paella and two tapa size servings, one of the traditional Valencia paella and one of the "paella a banda". We had no idea what the "paella a banda" was but it was literally flying out the door with locals ordering double portions of it to take away. So many locals couldn't be wrong...

... and they weren't. The "paella a banda" is a Mediterranean paella made with squid and peeled shrimps. Yummy! In fact, all 3 paellas we tasted were delicious.

As we sat and savoured our paellas, there was a constant stream of locals coming in to do take away orders, including one patron who walked out with 2 of the huge paella pans that we reckoned must serve at least 10 people per pan. Party on!!!Read more