Vigo

Check out the usual booking sites such as www.booking.com or www.hotels.com bear in mind when booking the hilly layout of the city, my recommendation would be places close to the Praza de Compostela which is handy for the waterfront and the old town. The other main concentration of hotels is around the foot of the Avenida de Gran Via and near the main station and the shopping area but not as good for a variety of bars and restaurants.

Restaurants

Vigo is packed with bars and restaurants and two things to note are that at lunchtime most restaurants offer a Menu de Dia, three courses and a drink, which is great value we sampled some priced between €7 and €13 all of which were top quality, the second thing is that most bars give you a free tapas with drinks. This may vary from tortilla, cheese or meats to mini hamburgers or freshly fried small fish. There were one or two places which did not do this mainly around Rua de Rosalio de Castro, although many in that area did, my motto is no tapas no tip and don’t go back.

Around Praza de Compostela

Meson Compostela, Praza de Compostela 6, large old fashioned restaurant and bar with a street terrace which is very popular with a local crowd who visit regularly for lunch, late dinners or just drinks. It has excellent staff, good service and generous free tapas.

Vitruvia, Praza de Compostela 5, a very cool café and bar, with a young clientele, we really liked the atmosphere and service.

The Othilio Bar, Rua de Luis Taboada 9, high up in the ratings for where to eat in Vigo this is a great place for breakfast, lunch or dinner. A coffee at breakfast includes free small pastries, the set lunch is top notch cooking at very reasonable prices but booking is essential and the evening menu looked excellent and gets great reports.

Maruja Limon, Rua Montero Rios 4, this is Vigo Michelin star dining and is superb. We chose the middle of the tasting menus and also chose to sit at the high table overlooking the kitchen both good choices. The cooking is fabulous, the dishes just kept coming but the feeling is relaxed and the prices for cooking of this standard are very reasonable, needless to say booking is recommended particularly at weekends.

Casco Vella (Old Town)

Gamboa Vinte, Rua Gamboa 20, is at the foot of one of the main routes up to the old town and we loved it from the minute we stopped for a glass of wine, good choice, lovely staff and excellent tapas. The food is also excellent, we had a fantastic menu del dia, the fish mains were both excellent, it is incredible value and the whole team are great.

La Depensa de Castilla, Rua Carral 12, is close to Gamboa Vinte above and is a wine bar and grocers, very popular with a local crowd the couple who run this are charming and they have an excellent selection of wines by the glass and bottle as well as platters of meats, cheese and pate.

Taberna Baiuca, Rua Mendez Nunez 11, one of our favourites, they have a lovely selection of wines and a variety of dishes to try, some Spanish some from other parts of the world. The service is friendly but can be slow as it does get very busy, we only found it open in the evenings although other information suggested it opened in the day as well. This was a real favourite and the sparkling pink from Portugal was a great start to an evening wander around the old town.

A Lareira, Rua Cesteiros 4, is described as a gourmet grocers shop, but I think it is more of a wine bar with some lovely meats, cheeses and other grocery items. It is run by a lovely couple who offer a small but good selection of wines by the glass as well as a large selection by the bottle, mainly local. There was always a small free tapas with our wines and a warm welcome.

La Central, Praza Constitucion 8, one of many bars surrounding this lovely square but this is by far the best. Always popular but the service is always excellent, good beers and wines with free tapas and the food looked very good, wish we had had a chance to try the menu del dia.

A Curuxa, Rua Cesteiros 7, we found this place on our first day and had a very good menu del dia, what was outstanding was the service from the owner. It was always busy when we passed by on other occasions and gets great reports of the dishes on offer.

El Amante, Rua Joaquin Yanez 17, is on the way up to the old town from the port, I wish we had stopped by earlier on our visit as when we sat outside on our way to a lunch reservation we received a tapas of fish stew which was outstanding. The menu del dia looked really interesting and while service can be a bit slow it is recommended.

Enoteca Buque, Rua de Palma 9, a very popular local wine bar, the wines were good but there is a lack of information on wines available by the glass and the service is not the best.

East of Rua Colon – Rua Rosalio de Castro

This is a wealthy local area and there are a number of good restaurants and bars that make it worth exploring.

Follas Novas, Rua Serafin Avendano 10, I had heard great reports and our hotel also recommended it, we arrived early one lunchtime to find it was full but the charming owner suggested we book for another day which we did. The food and service was excellent, a very generous shared scallop starter followed by two fish dishes and a very reasonable priced bottle of local white made for a great lunch. The restaurant was full with locals, many obviously regulars and they were turning people away so booking is a must.

La Excama, Rua Rosalio de Castro 32, we visited here twice once just for a glass of wine but were impressed with the look of the food so returned for lunch, there were a number of interesting  menu del dia options but we shared two small dishes both of them very good. There is a lovely garden area at the rear of the restaurant.

Lafayette Lounge Bar, Rua Canceleiro 9, a smart modern bar and restaurant with a large terrace area, only stopped for drinks but worth checking out.

Porto Santo, Avenida Garcia Barbon 45, we stopped for a drink and were impressed by the choice of free tapas, we headed for lunch at somewhere else, sadly it was full therefore we returned to Port Santo to find a queue for lunch. It wasn’t surprising the menu del dia is incredible value, friendly service, good food made this a great choice.

Bouzas

The suburb of Bouzas has some good small bars and restaurants worth visiting, Patouro was recommended by the owner of Maruja Limon, also worth trying are O Croque, La Bodega del Aquila, and Bodega Mondariz, all are very close together.

Cagnas

Take the short ferry crossing to Cagnas which is a delightful seaside town and has some lovely bars and restaurants amongst those to try are Artemar, Lacon do Plantacions, Sol Poniente, O Pelao and Un Punto de Sal.

Drink

Galicia produces some great wines most are white and the best known is Albarino but you will also find two other local whites Godello and Ribeiro. The local reds are mainly Mencia which in the past was associated with easy drinking reds but winemakers in this area are now producing some very good reds. Nearly all bars will offer three whites and three reds by the glass, the whites being the local three of Albarino, Godello and Ribeiro (don’t forget that it ends in an “O”) as the reds will be a Rioja, a Ribera (del Duero) and the local Mencia. Do try and taste all the local wines, the whites go so well with the local fish and seafood.

Spain has a number of draft lagers but one stands out for the quality and taste and that is Estrella Galicia and the good news is Vigo is the home of this beer and therefore about 60% of bars have this as their draught beer and it is excellent.

There are a couple of good museums in the city and parks where you can get great views. It is also good to visit the small attractive town of Cagnas opposite, a twenty minute ferry ride away, especially on Friday when there is a great street market.

The Islas de Cies, a National Park, are a popular day trip from the ferry port with some good walking and a wonderful beach.

Bouzas is a suburb of Vigo but was a separate fishing port in the past, it is a pleasant place to walk round and has some lovely places to eat and drink.