Az-Zait's decor is a strange mélange of baroque and classical, with gold chairs and murals of Roman gods, but that doesn't reflect the contemporary cuisine or the informative, friendly service. Four- or eight-course tasting menus include pan-fried scallops with a tasty, wispy fennel foam. Don't miss out on the superb homemade bread (five types, including amazing tomato and basil). An extensive wine list, almost exclusively Spanish and reasonably priced, features some fine Ribera del Duero reds from the famed ten-year-old Vega Sicilia to the humbler but serviceable Emilio Moro.

Open Mondays through Saturdays noon to 4 pm and 8 pm to midnight, September through July.

There's some stiff competition among Seville's tapas bars, and Cerveceria Giralda is one of the best. Take a pavement table, order a glass of sherry and a tapa (we recommend skate with seafood sauce, and pork sirloin in whisky), and watch the Giralda take on an orange glow as the sun dips. This is a great spot to witness the parade of people on a tapas-bar crawl along Mateas Gago. If there are no tables outside, the interior—an old Arab bathhouse with a vaulted stone ceiling—is almost as atmospheric.

Open daily from 9 am to midnight.

Vying with the Alabardero for best restaurant in town is this splendiferous dining room, set inside the conservatory of a restored mansion beside the Jardines de Murillo. The cooking is an upscale fusion of Basque and Andalusian, and the restaurant is known for its sourcing of excellent raw materials (much of the game was shot or trapped within Andalusia). Dishes might include ceviche of monkfish and grouper with clams and virgin olive oil, and partridge salad with sherry vinegar and spider crab in the San Sebastián style.

Closed Sundays.

In a city where tradition rules in the kitchen as much as anywhere, Salvador Rojo comes as a surprise: a small, chic restaurant without an azulejo tile in sight. Young chef Rojo offers superb Spanish cooking with a nicely restrained touch: Cantabrian anchovies on toast with roasted peppers; fresh vegetable soup with cream of onion, ham, and fried baby garlic; roast salt cod with black olives. In summer, try to get a table on the lovely walled patio.

Closed Sundays.

The stomping ground of politicos and visiting diplomats, Alabardero is one of Seville's most upscale restaurants, furnished with European antiques and oil paintings. Other branches in Madrid and Washington, D.C., have helped to establish the reputation of this one (the outposts were founded by priest Fray Luis de Lezama as a training ground for young unemployed people). Alabardero serves classic Spanish food, such as Cordoban soup with quail eggs and Jabugo ham, and sirloin of beef with red wine and truffle sauce. If you overdo it at dinner, there's also a small, seven-room hotel on the upper floors of this 19th-century town house.