The most delicious guide article. I’ll tell you what a tourist should try in the Canaries, what dishes make up the traditional Canarian cuisine. There will be a section about eateries on the islands, where to eat well, whether to leave tips, menu tips, and how to find places with traditional cuisine, not just pizza, pasta, and burgers.

Canarian Cuisine: General Information

Summarizing the main points regarding Canarian cuisine:

  • Traditional cuisine is very simple and hearty.
  • Key ingredients: meat, potatoes, beans, and bananas. Interestingly, bananas here are more often used in making alcoholic beverages rather than in cooking. In the Canaries, bananas are used to make rum, liqueurs, wines, and so on. This article focuses on food, but you can read about alcohol in the Canaries, local rum, wineries, in the linked article.
canarian drinks
These are banana alcoholic drinks made in the Canaries from Canarian bananas, and you can buy them in stores.

Interesting fact:

All the Canary Islands are of volcanic origin; there are no pastures or meadows, only rocks or desert. When Europeans arrived on the islands in the 14th century, the indigenous people were involved in animal husbandry, raising goats. And for the next 300 years, goats were the main “suppliers” of meat and milk.
  • Today, there are no problems with meat in the Canaries. There are many dishes made from pork, beef, chicken, and so on. But all traditional dishes are prepared specifically from kid goat meat.
  • Cheese production is also a whole culture. And, of course, there is a huge variety of goat cheeses.
  • Despite being islands in the ocean where all kinds of seafood are available, the culture of fish consumption hasn’t historically developed. There are very few fish dishes in traditional cuisine, but they exist. For seafood lovers, rest assured, there are no problems with fish and seafood dishes in the Canaries today. The variety of seafood is huge, and prices are lower than in mainland Europe.

Tip:

Don’t hesitate to visit the local markets. All major markets have a fish market. Today, cafes in the market are gaining popularity, where they will immediately cook the purchased seafood for you and serve it with local wine
canarian cuisine
A typical counter at large fish markets. There are tables nearby. Everything you buy will be cooked and beautifully served right away. Modern cuisine in the Canary Islands also includes the freshest seafood in a huge variety.

The entire cuisine of the Canary Islands is not spicy, salty, or peppery, without any strange ingredients. The only thing they love to use is cilantro in some dishes, but I’ll write about that separately.

What a Tourist Should Try in the Canaries: List of Dishes

And now the list of traditional dishes of the Canary Islands that I recommend to all travelers to try. Gastronomic tourism is always my favorite part of a journey. Many people love to eat delicious food.

  • I won’t list the best goat cheeses, Canarian sausages, ham – the choice is huge, everything is very tasty. Look for Made in Canary sections in any hypermarket. And then choose whatever you like. Read about Made in Canary products in the article: souvenirs of the Canary Islands, there you will also learn what else you can bring home as a gift from local products and more.
  • Two national Canarian appetizers – Mojo and Almogrote:
    • Mojo is a sauce. There are several types: Mojo Rojo (with pepper), Mojo Cilantro (with cilantro), Mojo Verde (classic green, but also with cilantro).
    • Almogrote is a thick pate made from aged goat cheese with garlic, tomatoes, sweet peppers, and olive oil, a delight.

Tip:

Tip: For those who don’t like cilantro, I recommend checking the ingredients.
canarian dishes
Traditional Canarian sauces. You can confidently take them as gifts. Personally, I love Mojo Rojo (left) and Almogrote (right). There are many manufacturers on the islands, and there are jars of any size. These are 100 ml; you can even carry them in hand luggage if you’re flying without checked baggage. You can buy them in any store.
  • Papas Arrugadas (wrinkled potatoes) – this is the main Canarian dish. Only small Canarian potatoes of a special variety are used to prepare it. The original recipe: potatoes are boiled in their skins in seawater until all the water evaporates. Then salt crystallizes on the potatoes. Potatoes are eaten with the skin. They are usually served with Mojo sauces. Papas Arrugadas can be ordered as a side dish with meat or as tapas.
traditional canarian food
The main dish of Canarian cuisine. It’s eaten with the skin on. The potatoes are usually topped with Mojo Rojo sauce.
  • Potaje – a thick vegetable soup made from whatever is in the fridge. There are many variations, but usually, they use: potatoes, carrots, cabbage, zucchini, corn, tomatoes, peppers, beans, chickpeas, and so on. Potaje is cooked for a long time, resulting in a thick consistency. There are versions with meat and without.
  • Rancho Canario – another soup, also a thick broth, sometimes even similar to Potaje. It’s prepared from almost the same ingredients, but the main difference is that Rancho Canario includes noodles, and there are always legumes, usually chickpeas. But since there are millions of variations of both soups, and each housewife cooks them according to her own recipe, it’s not always easy to tell which soup is which right away.
food to try in canaries
Specifically in the photo, it’s Rancho Canario, but if you remove the noodles, it would be Potaje. Many dishes of Canarian cuisine are very similar to each other; you’ll understand this later.
  • Carne de Cabra – another symbol of Canarian cuisine, stewed kid goat meat. Simply put: the meat is stewed with wine for a very long time until it becomes soft and tender and starts to fall apart on its own.

A very good combination: Papas Arrugadas and Carne de Cabra. In modern execution, they may serve it with a side dish, but originally, it’s just a plate of stewed meat, and such presentation is still common.

what to try in the canary
Carne de Cabra – the meat itself is under the potatoes. The potatoes on top are an additional garnish. The meat is very tender because it’s stewed for about 5 hours. It’s always kid goat meat since “Cabra” translates from Spanish as goat.
  • Fabada – not quite a soup, not quite a main dish. Stewed beans, chickpeas, with kid goat meat and sausages, and the sausages are also originally made from kid goat meat. If you order Fabada, there will always be beans; it’s the main ingredient of the dish. It turns out very thick and hearty. But I usually order Fabada as a full-fledged main course.

It’s believed that Fabada came from Europe with Europeans, specifically from Austria. But today, it’s traditional Canarian cuisine.

goat meat canaries
The main two ingredients of Fabada are beans and sausages. The meat can be either beef or pork, not necessarily kid goat. It can vary in thickness; in the photo, it’s the most classic version.
  • Ropa Vieja – another stewed meat dish with potatoes and chickpeas or beans or both. Originally, the meat is shredded into fibers and stewed for a long time, but today, this dish is served where the meat is simply thinly sliced. Often, there’s a version prepared with both beef and kid goat meat simultaneously. It’s hearty and delicious.
fabada recipe
Ropa Vieja – personally, I can’t always distinguish this dish from Fabada. I’ll remind you that on the islands, each housewife cooks differently, so your picture may vary.
  • Pata Asada – oven-baked pork, usually pork loin, thinly sliced and served at the table. I often order Pata Asada as tapas – a snack with beer. It can be drizzled with Mojo Rojo sauce. Overall, the recipe doesn’t differ from baking pork in the oven at home.
meat in canaries
Pata Asada – served as shown in the photo. You can eat it as a sandwich with bread or dip it in Mojo Rojo sauce.
  • Estofado, literally translated as stewed. Often, you can simply see “Estofado” on the menu, which means there will be stewed meat with vegetables, most likely potatoes and beans. Any meat, any vegetables. I won’t publish a photo because ordering Estofado can get you practically any dish from above with meat and beans: Fabada or Ropa Vieja. This is very convenient; in a restaurant, you can simply say “Estofado,” and the waiter will understand everything.

Remember: any Fabada is Estofado, but not every Estofado is Fabada. I hope I’ve confused you even more :).

Above were the main dishes of Canarian cuisine. I recommend everyone to try something from this list. The list is far from complete; there are still options for stewed fish, grilled octopus, but these are already modern culinary trends.

Restaurants and Cafeterias: Where to Eat

And next, I’ll tell you where to find dishes of traditional Canarian cuisine because it’s not as simple as it may seem.

  • In large cities, catering for tourists is well developed. There are hundreds of restaurants along any promenade, but the problem is that the menus in these restaurants are European. In any restaurant, you’ll find: pizza, pasta, risotto, paella, burgers, and that’s it. Of all the traditional Canarian dishes, such restaurants may only have Papas Arrugadas, the main dish of the islands.

It’s important to know:

All catering establishments on the islands are conventionally divided into two types: restaurants, where tourists mainly go, and cafeterias.

A cafeteria is a pub, a snack bar with a bar counter, a television playing football 24/7, at least one gaming machine, cafeteria-style tables, and only locals sitting, drinking coffee or beer. You need exactly such establishments.

canarian restaurants
Here’s an example of how they look: look for the word CAFETERIA on the sign.

The peculiarity of cafeterias in the Canaries:

  • Very cheap, 2-3 times cheaper than in restaurants.
  • Waiters rarely speak English, only Spanish, sometimes there are no waiters at all in such establishments.
  • Small menu. It’s not a restaurant; literally just one page with 3-4 main dishes and snacks. Sometimes the entire menu is even just on the wall. Everything here is homemade, tasty, and filling.
  • Not all cafeterias offer full meals; be sure to check in advance what they have. Sometimes there’s only beer available, and ham may be sliced as a snack.
where to eat tenerife
Here’s an example of a menu in one of the cafeterias. However, half of the dishes are usually not available. But, as a rule, Estofado and Papas Arrugadas are always available.

About prices:

On average, one dish in restaurants costs around 15-20 euros. This is for a plate of pasta or pizza. In cafeterias, prices are lower; a portion of any dish, Fabada, Ropa Vieja, and so on, costs 6-7 euros. Papas Arrugadas in restaurants start from 5 euros, in cafeterias from 3 euros. You get the idea. Below, there will be a menu with prices.

Travel Tips

Below are a few tips that will make your life easier and make it easier to order the dish you want:

  • In the 21st century, fewer and fewer people travel without the internet. Whether it’s roaming or a local SIM card, having mobile internet on your phone will greatly simplify your life. English is poorly spoken in the Canaries, so without knowing Spanish, you often won’t be able to translate the menu or ask the waiter in a cafeteria. Online translators like Google Translate are very helpful. Learn everything about mobile communication in the Canaries: tariffs, operators, where to buy a SIM card.
  • Regarding opening hours: in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, in large cities and resorts, there are no problems; all establishments are open every day. But in small towns, cafeterias are almost always family businesses. They may close early or have two days off a week. If you’re not staying in the most densely populated area with few catering establishments, check in advance how they operate; Sunday could easily be a day off. About time in the Canaries, shop hours, time zone, clock translation.
  • If you have a choice of which language to take the menu in, Spanish or English, and you’ve come to a cafeteria for Canarian cuisine, then take it only in Spanish. Translations into English are always incorrect, and you won’t understand what the dish is from its name. And pizza, pasta, and burgers sound the same in any language.

Papas Arrugadas is simply translated as Potatoes. Carne de Cabra – they’ll just write Meat Stew. And Ropa Vieja – Meat Stew with chickpeas. In English menus, it’s never clear what’s Estofado and what’s Ropa Vieja. To be fair, it might be unclear even when you have two plates in front of you, but that’s another story 🙂

restaurants tenerife
An example menu in English (left) and Spanish (right) in one cafeteria in Tenerife; by the way, you can see the prices too. Pay attention to lines 1, 3, and the penultimate line. Read in English first to find out the dish and then in Spanish on the right to see if you guessed correctly. This is an excellent example of how menus are translated into English in the Canaries and how in English menus it’s not clear what’s what. Also, in most cafeterias, this is the entire menu, just one page. If you want a menu with 6 pages, go to a restaurant.

It’s easier to take the Spanish menu and translate unfamiliar words with Google Translate. There’s a feature where you can point your camera at the menu, and it will translate each word in real-time. But for this, you need the internet.

  • About tipping. Tipping is not obligatory in the Canaries. In restaurants, tourists often leave tips, and waiters expect them. There are restaurants where a service charge of 10% may already be included in the bill. If a service charge is included in your bill, you don’t need to leave a tip; just pay the bill as it is. In cafeterias, tips are often not left; they don’t expect them, and they always give change down to the last penny. But if you leave a couple of euros, they’ll appreciate it.

About language in the Canaries, what a tourist needs to know, whether you can get by with English, minimal vocabulary, and subtleties.

In conclusion: Canarian cuisine doesn’t shine with a variety. If you take dishes from traditional cuisine, it’s always thick soups made from potatoes, beans, and other vegetables with goat meat. In modern realities, goat meat is often replaced with pork or beef. All the food is simple but very hearty.

Enjoy your meal, and to get acquainted with the cuisine of the Canary Islands, choose cafeterias, look for them on Google Maps at your resort.

Useful links to help you plan your dream trip to Canary Islands:

  • Car Rental: LocalRent or DiscoverCars – the most popular car rental platforms.

  • Accommodation:
    • Trip.com – the largest accommodation booking platform.

    • or TripAdvisor – to compare prices among other platforms and choose the best one.

  • Budget-friendly vacation packages to Spain and Canary Islands: CheapOair.

  • Tours and activities: GetYourGuide or Viator – hundreds of offers, whales and dolphins, entrance tickets with discounts.

  • eSIM and internet: Airalo.

  • Flights: WayAway compares prices among dozens of companies.

  • Travel Insurance: EKTA.