In times of need, the kitchen tried to look for effective formulas to deceive the appetite, to provide all the possible nutrients with few resources and to take advantage of repetitions throughout the week. The famous “cuisine de aprovechamiento” that so many restaurants carry today includes the “poleá” that we are going to talk about and that in Seville can still be tasted in some places.
Desserts, of course, were often a scarce commodity and in the humblest homes, the traditional gachas could serve as a main dish.
The poleá is a kind of sweet porridge made with flour, typical in western Andalusia. At the time, it functioned as a dish that provided energy.
This traditional recipe has been adopting different variants depending on the origin, although its ingredients are not exactly without calories.
In general, to elaborate this delicacy you only need flour, milk, sugar, oil and matalahúva (aniseed in grain).
Where to eat poleá in Seville
If torrijas or panettone have become more popular, perhaps poleá does not deserve this prestige.
In the meantime, however, a few places in Seville make a hole for this not so well known delicacy:
Mr. Crab
Sr. Cangrejo should be given a standing ovation for many reasons. One of them, which applies to these lines, is the ability to harmonize exquisite elaborations and a great wine cellar without neglecting the desserts.
The sweet section, which is transforming and mutating like his menu, combines very successful recipes that Jesús León recovers and sublimates. His rice pudding and poleá are, quite simply, some of the best gastronomic closings in Seville these days.
📍 c/ Harinas, 21
Enea
Enea redefines the concept of cooking through a journey to the roots. Using techniques such as pickling or fermentation, they recover ancestral recipes (and even materials) to compose their tasting menu.
The diner will enjoy small morsels that will make a home sweep extolling the ingenuity in times of scarcity. Local ingredients and dishes that are eaten with the hands or that give value to the fingers as a tool.
At the end of the tour one comes face to face with the memory, a simple but delicious dessert that evokes the nostalgic cookies with milk. The dish appeals to childhood in Seville: cookies filled with poleá and flavored goat’s milk.
📍 Avenida del Greco, 4
Zurbarán Tavern
Under the protection of one of the most established hotel groups in Seville, Taberna Zurbarán emerges as a valuable redoubt of traditional cuisine with reasonable prices and memorable surroundings. Enjoying delicious tapas just a few meters from Las Setas is a blessing.
But there is more. To give the rightful place to the potato omelette in Seville – finally juicy, with caramelized onion, which overflows without sinning of excess – and to recover one of the most forgotten desserts of our tradition: the poleá.
📍 Zurbarán Square, 2
La Esencia
At La Esencia every year they lavish Lent with special torrijas and this 2025 what a surprise it has been to promote both recipes: torrija with poleá.
In this case, they use a baked brioche dough, which gives it a lighter consistency, covered with poleá. Following Javier’s grandmother’s recipe, they make it with flour, sugar, lemon, matalahúva and cinnamon.
Along with this unique torrija covered with poleá, they also offer the traditional ones (with La Esencia sourdough: wine and honey or milk with cinnamon and burnt sugar in the purest crème brûlée style.
They will be available at the various locations of La Esencia (Mairena del Aljarafe, Castilleja de la Cuesta, Palomares del Río, Tomares and Sevilla-Porvenir).
📍 c/ Compositor Manuel Castillo, 2 (Porvenir, Seville) | Av. de las Civilizaciones, 80 (Mairena del Aljarafe) | c/ Horizonte, 8, nave 15 (Mairena del Aljarafe) | Avenida de Almajarra, 1 (Tomares) | c/ Real, 7, local 2 (Castilleja de la Cuesta) | Avenida del Aljarafe, 13 (Palomares)
Asunción
Warm, creamy and with a touch of crunch is La Poleá de la repostería Asunción. In the street of the same name in Los Remedios, it lends itself to sweets with special focus on the seasonality of them. Thus, you can find a sideboard full of huesos de santo (saint’s bones), pestiños or mantecados.
In any case, this traditional confectionery in Seville is one of the few places that still prepare this post-war dessert.
📍 c/ Sánchez Perrier, 4