Tapas on Tenerife, the Many Flavours of the Humble Croquette

Just about every time we go out for tapas on Tenerife, you can bet croquetas (croquettes) are going to figure. They’re one of the crowdpleasers of the tapas scene. Just about everyone likes them, they’re tasty without being adventurous.

Mixed croquettes, tapas, Tenerife

Croquetas usually consist of onion, garlic (maybe), olive oil, seasoning and the main ingredient mixed in a roux, rolled into oval shapes, brushed with beaten egg, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.

That main ingredient is usually ham, fish or chicken.

When we order croquetas mixta it can become a bit of a game to try to spot the difference between which is chicken, which is ham and which is fish. This is because often too much flour is used and the thick bechamel sauce tends to overpower the star ingredient.

Standard croquettes, tapas, Tenerife

When menus have croquetas caseras (homemade), the croquettes are likely to be better quality, but it’s not always a given. Lots of restaurants claim their food is just like their granny’s. But how do we know for sure granny was a good cook? Mine wasn’t. Croquetas de jamón ibérico are usually a safe bet though.

Spinach croquettes, tapas, Tenerife

In recent years the world of croquetas on Tenerife has been given a bit of a shake up. The first I noticed was when spinach croquettes started appearing more and more. They stood out because, apart from their stronger flavours, you could instantly spot the difference in colour.

Then it was the most delicious blue cheese croquettes at El Porrón in the Noria district of Santa Cruz. Yowza, suddenly the humble croqueta wasn’t the boring but nice tapa I picked at when all the interesting ones had been scoffed.

Blue cheese and Iberico croquettes, tapas, Tenerife

Since then I’ve seen more and more unusual fillings turning up on tapas menus.

At El Maná in Puerto de la Cruz the trio of croquetas we shared were completely different from the norm. It’s a vegetarian restaurant so maybe you’d expect mushroom croquettes to replace the ham, leek to replace chicken. But beetroot ones were quite a shock… and shocking pink inside once you ‘cracked’ them open.

Vegetarian croquettes, tapas, Tenerife

The latest additions to the diverse range of croquettes we’ve now tried on Tenerife were at Tito’s Bodeguita between Puerto de la Cruz and La Orotava. Chicken curry croquettes were always going to be a winner but banana flavoured ? Surely they belonged on the postre menu? But no, they were savoury and very, very tasty.

Chicken curry and banana croquettes, Tenerife

All of these alternative flavours haven’t helped my relationship with the old school croquettes. Now that I know there are some really adventurous croquetas out there, straightforward pollo, jamón and pescado seem even more mundane.

If anyone knows of other interesting croquettes, we’d love to hear about them.



About Jack 488 Articles


    • Oooo Sue I loved those morcilla ones, and all the others for that matter! That restaurant in Granada changed my mind about croquettas, before that they were food that the kids loved but I wouldn’t touch with a barge pole.

  1. I hadn’t realized how popular croquetas were in Tenerife! I’d love to try the chicken curry and even the beetroot varieties for a change from ham.

    Great line: “But how do we know for sure granny was a good cook?” Ha! You make a very good point here. Just this week a friend and I were out for tapas, and the only croquetas on the menu were “del abuelo.” We never did get a clear answer as to what the secret ingredient was…

    • Ah, that elusive secret ingredient 🙂

      The chicken curry croquette worked really, really well. Outside of the south Tenerife resort areas just about every Canarian restaurant has croquetas… as well as ensaladilla rusa. I think there must be some sort of law in Spain that says if you open a restaurant you must include ensaladilla on the menu.

    • Hi Steve, with Costa Adeje being purpose built for tourism, it’s not the best area for tapas. There are places that serve tapas, but they’re not quite the same, or as good as the ones in the traditional towns. Saying that, whenever we meet friends or stay in Costa Adeje to review a hotel, we’ll head to La Caleta which is joined on to the western end of the resort and is good for fish and seafood as well. Alternatively, Adeje town itself has good traditional restaurants. Garlic chicken is a tasty local speciality. We particularly like Otelo there, other people also like Oasis.

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Dining On the Water, Review of Restaurant Pantalan in Las Galletas | therealtenerife.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.