Restaurants with a View in Málaga

I’ve lived in Málaga for years, and in that time I’ve eaten at dozens of restaurants with a rooftop terrace, a sea view or a harbour view. Most of them I’ve forgotten.

So if you ask me for restaurants with a view in Málaga, you’ll get these nine, the same nine I take friends and family to when they visit.

I don’t choose a restaurant by its price, and I don’t choose it by how fashionable it is. I choose the places where the food is as good as the view, and that’s a short list in this city. Every one of the nine is a table I’ve sat at myself.

Five of them have a view: the sea at Baños del Carmen, the castle hill, the Alcazaba from a rooftop, the beach at La Malagueta and the harbour. The other four are in the old town. Further down I’ve put what a romantic dinner costs at each one and how to book.

Restaurants in Málaga with a view

1. El Balneario, Baños del Carmen

Look up from your plate and there’s water on three sides of you. El Balneario sits right on the rocks at Baños del Carmen, and it feels like eating in the middle of the sea.

The building went up in 1918 as a public sea-bathing pavilion, and it’s a restaurant now. Old, but classy.

At lunch I’d order the seafood rice, which is excellent, or the seafood paella, which is spot on, and a plate of boquerones fritos (fried anchovies) to share, fresh and crisp. You’ll pay €30 to €45 a head.

For a date, go at sunset. It’s on Calle Bolivia 26, open from noon to midnight, about 15 minutes from the centre by car or bus, or a 45-minute walk along the seafront. I cover Baños del Carmen in my Málaga beach guide as well.

2. Parador de Málaga Gibralfaro

Sunset up there with a glass of cava and a cheese platter is hard to beat.

You’re on the hill beside Gibralfaro Castle, just above the viewpoint every visitor photographs, and the terrace looks over the cathedral, the port, the bullring and out to the sea beyond the city. Best panoramic view of Málaga city, without a doubt.

We had our sixth wedding anniversary dinner here, and it was perfect.

It’s also a hotel, so you can book a room and wake up to the view. You can drive up, there are taxis, or you can walk, but on foot it’s a steep climb of about 30 minutes. We took a taxi up and walked down after dinner. Dinner is around €35 a head before drinks.

Book in advance and ask for a balcony table when you do. The first time we ate here we hadn’t asked, and we only got one by luck.

3. Batik

Sit down at Batik and the Alcazaba and the Roman Theatre are right there in front of you, at eye level. It’s one of the most unusual views in Málaga, and it gets better after 8pm, when the fortress lights come on and the whole thing glows.

The restaurant is the rooftop above the Alcazaba Premium Hotel, though you don’t need to be staying there to eat. The food is Mediterranean with a few international dishes mixed in, mostly sharing plates, and there’s a cocktail list to work through.

My habit is sundowners at the rooftop bar upstairs first, then down to the table when the reservation comes around.

It’s romantic without any of the formality of fine dining.

You’ll find it at Calle Alcazabilla 12, right beside the Roman Theatre, and dinner comes to €25 to €40 a head.

4. Chiringuito El Cachalote, La Malagueta

There’s a raised boat sitting on the sand in front of El Cachalote with a fire going inside it, and that’s where your dinner gets cooked. The fish goes on over the open flame right in front of you, and I find the whole thing a bit theatrical, in a good way.

A chiringuito is one of the open-air beach restaurants that line the coast, and honestly, the best beachfront eating in Málaga is at one of them. El Cachalote is my favourite, just east of La Malagueta beach and a 10-minute walk from the centre. There are more of them in my guide to the beaches further along the coast.

Order the espetos de sardinas (sardines on a skewer), the sea bream if it’s on, or whatever grilled fish looks good, with a cold beer or a cold sangría. Go around 7pm, before the evening rush, and expect €15 to €25 a head.

It’s about the simplest kind of restaurant with a view you’ll find, and some evenings that’s exactly right.

5. Muelle Uno and Trocadero Casa de Botes

Honestly, most of the restaurants on Muelle Uno are fine, and they all share the same harbour view, so don’t agonise over it. I walk the strip for the yachts and the Alcazaba lit up behind the port, and then I’m hungry, and it comes down to one of these three.

Trocadero Casa de Botes has the best position on the waterfront, and it’s €30 to €50 a head. It’s a restored 1940s boathouse, colonial-style inside, and the food is Mediterranean with Asian touches, with the seafood rice and the grilled meats as the ones to order. The cocktails are good, and the rooftop terrace at sunset, as the city lights come on, is where I’d drink one.

Amigos puts Mexican, Indian and Greek on one menu. It sounds strange, but it’s surprisingly good, and good value too.

100 Montaditos is the cheap chain everyone in Spain knows. Sit outside and you’ve got one of the best views of the harbour for the lowest price on the strip.

Take a table facing the water, watch the cruise ships come and go, and stay for the Alcazaba glowing at sunset. It’s all a 5-minute walk from the old town.

Romantic restaurants in Málaga’s old town

Wander the old town after dark and it does most of the work for you: narrow cobbled streets, small squares and a candlelit corner wherever you look. If you’d like to know your way around before you sit down, start with the old town itself.

6. El Pimpi

Start at the bar. The big traditional Spanish one is where the tapas and drinks are cheaper, and where I’d start you on the sweet Málaga wine.

Then there’s seating beside the wine barrels, signed by famous visitors, and an indoor courtyard, hanging plants on the walls, fairy lights after dark. The outside terrace looks at the Alcazaba, upstairs is a dining room, the more intimate way to eat here, and there’s a smaller eating area on the opposite side of the building. Six parts, one bodega on Calle Granada, open since 1971.

It’s touristy, and there’ll be a crowd, so you do have to find the romance in El Pimpi. I find it on the terrace facing the Alcazaba, or upstairs, away from the bar. With jamón and the fried aubergines with honey, you’ll pay €20 to €35 a head. It’s a tapas bar first, there’s more in my Málaga tapas guide. Antonio Banderas is a shareholder, and when he’s in town you’ll often find him having a meal with family and friends.

7. Tatanegro, Plaza del Obispo

I’ll say this first: the food at Tatanegro may not be the highlight for everyone. The setting is, and it’s why the place made this list.

Sit on the terrace and you’re looking straight at the cathedral from number 3 on Plaza del Obispo, with a cosy, elegant room and warm lighting behind you if you’d rather be inside.

It’s my pick if cathedral views are what you’re after.

The menu is Mediterranean, rice dishes and paellas, plus a good wine list. Book an outside table for just before sunset, and expect €30 to €45 a head.

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The food at Tatanegro may not be the highlight for everyone. The setting is, and it’s why the place made this list.

8. Balausta

The ajoblanco is the dish I still think about. It’s a cold almond and garlic soup, and at Balausta it comes with a crayfish tartar, and it was my favourite thing on the table the night I ate there.

That night was warm, and the courtyard I was sitting in has a glass dome over it, so as the sun went down the whole room filled with golden twilight and the soft lighting took over. The courtyard is the old Andalusian one inside the Palacio Solecio, an 18th-century palace that’s now a hotel.

You won’t get a rooftop or a sea view here, the romance is the building.

The cooking is a refined take on traditional Málaga dishes, and it’s €40 to €60 a head. Book ahead if you want one of the candlelit tables in the courtyard.

9. Perro Viejo

I sat down at Perro Viejo because of the building, to be honest. It’s a restored old townhouse with a brick front and iron balconies, and once the turquoise umbrellas are open over the terrace tables the whole thing looks rather romantic.

The food is where it gets a bit odd. The menu does a bit of everything, from tapas classics to bao buns, ceviche and gyozas, and nothing on it tickled my fancy.

You’ll find it at Calle Mártires 15, not far from Calle Larios. Lunch runs 1pm to 4pm and dinner 8pm to midnight, at roughly €20 to €40 a head, and it’s in my tapas round-up too.

How much does a romantic dinner in Málaga cost?

A romantic dinner in Málaga costs roughly €15 to €60 a head with wine, and four of the nine places above sit in the €30 to €50 middle of that. These are rough figures, per person, with a shared bottle or a couple of glasses worked in, so don’t hold anyone to them.

• €15 to €35: Chiringuito El Cachalote, El Pimpi, Perro Viejo
• €30 to €50: El Balneario, Batik, Trocadero Casa de Botes, Tatanegro
• €40 to €60: the Parador, Balausta

Don’t read the cheap end as the compromise, either. Even the cheapest tier has atmosphere, and I’d put El Cachalote on the beach at sunset, cold glass of wine in hand, up against anywhere with white tablecloths.

Before you book

Book the Parador first, well ahead, and if you’re going at a weekend do the same for El Balneario, El Cachalote and the Batik rooftop. Summer weekends are busy at all nine.

Check sunset before you pick a time, because it moves a lot: around 9.30pm in late June, 8pm in early September and 6pm in December. Tables fill from 9pm, so 7.30pm is the quieter booking.

Ask for the table while you’re at it: a balcony table at the Parador, the terrace at Tatanegro and Batik, a courtyard table at Balausta, right by the water at El Balneario. Smart casual is fine everywhere on this list.

Seven of the nine are a walk from the centre. The Parador is a taxi or a steep 30 minutes uphill on foot, and El Balneario is a bus, a taxi or a 45-minute walk along the seafront (the bus is in my transport guide).

Still deciding?

If you’re staying in the old town or near the port, most of these are a walk from your door, the ones up on the hill and out east are a taxi. If you haven’t booked somewhere to sleep yet, that’s worth knowing before you do. The way I’d plan the evening is to pick where you’re watching the sunset first, then eat after.

Dinner can be booked for later, the light can’t.

If you’d rather have a cheaper, louder night, skip all of this and go bar hopping for tapas instead. And if the budget’s tight, I’ve got a list of cheap places to eat too.

For the daylight hours, everything I’d do in Málaga is in one place.

Tonight, though, is for a good table and a long, slow dinner.