Georgina recommends …. Divina Tapa, Marbella
This little tapas place is our new favourite place to go and have never let us down for great service, interesting and delicious food, good wine, a lovely wine bar vibe and good prices. I’d definitely recommend it for an evening with friends.
The location– Just behind the big Zara on Ricardo Soriano, one street down towards the sea c/ Ramón Gomez de la Serna 4, Marbella. If you’re looking at Zara go to the right, down the road towards the sea and take your first left by a bar called lekune. Divina Tapa is the third place you come to.
The food– Divina Tapa tackles the difficult task of innovating the traditional tapas of Spain and does it brilliantly. It has refined the dishes, taken great care with the quality and mixed up some of the classics with different twists. The menu is in English and Spanish and if you don’t know what to have, feel free to ask for recommendations, or wait until a little later when they start coming round with various dishes, this is a great way to try out a wide range of their dishes. Items we can recommend include; little filo pastry parcels with black pudding or goat’s cheese, prawn skewers with a soy dressing, beef fillet with vegetables, meatballs, sauteed vegetables, jamon with bread, croquettes…. the list goes on! I have never had something in there I don’t like, so take your pick. The deserts are good too if you can save some room.
The service – The staff in here are really friendly and welcoming, which is lovely. They are really good at recommending food and wine, so don’t be shy to ask. They will certainly try and up sell, but they do it in a very charming way and I must say, we’ve always been very happy when we’ve accepted the extra bits they’ve suggested. What I really like is how they welcome you like a local, even if you’ve only been a few times and they have a good ratio of staff to customers. Be warned though, it does get really busy later on and so of course the service slips a little. However, I’ve never been disappointed with the service, even at peak times.
The decor/atmosphere– What made us try this place for the first time was the decor. I was really missing the London wine bar vibe and Divina Tapa is a great replacement for that. It has a huge wine rack over the bar, big pictures printed on the walls, cool wooden floors with high tables with bar stools, some normal tables by the window and barrels outside and it works really well. The atmosphere is lots of fun too, although be warned it gets very noisy after 10pm Fridays and Saturdays. It always seems to be packed and buzzing, with large groups of mixed ages having a great time and you definitely get carried along with the atmosphere.
The price– Amazingly, this place is really great value despite the excellent food, service and decor. If we really go for it and enjoy lots of food and wine, it will come to around 20€ per head, but you can definitely spend much less if you’re not so hungry. I think this is one of the best value places in Marbella.
Contact – They don’t seem to have a website that I can see, but they do have a Facebook page. The address is c/ Ramón Gomez de la Serna 4 and the phone number is 952 777 827 .