Spanish Restaurant Near Me in the Mission: Destapas on 24th Street

Destapas is closed on Sundays, and on weekdays every tapa on its menu drops to $6 between 3 and 5 p.m. That pair of facts shapes almost every good visit to this Spanish restaurant at 2708 24th Street in the Mission. Two friends from Madrid, Raúl Aguilera and Luis Raga, opened it in 2020, and the cooking stays close to the bars they grew up with: bravas, croquetas, garlic shrimp, octopus, and paella cooked to order for the table.

What separates Destapas from most tapas rooms in San Francisco is what it leaves out. Aguilera told El Tecolote he wanted a Madrid neighborhood bar, not a postcard, so there are no bullfight posters or flamenco dresses on the walls. The menu follows the same logic. It is short, built around the small plates you would find in a Madrid bar, and it marks gluten-free and vegan dishes clearly, which makes ordering for a mixed table quick instead of a negotiation with the server.

Start with the patatas bravas at $10. This is the dish regulars and reviewers keep naming, and it arrives as fried potatoes under a spicy sauce, a vegan plate sized for two or three people to pick at. Add the Serrano ham croquetas at $14, which pair a crisp crust with a creamy filling flavored by cured ham. Those two plates together show the kitchen's style faster than anything else on the menu and pair well with a vermouth.

For the next round, the gambas al ajillo cost $19 and come sizzling in olive oil with sliced garlic and chili, so keep a piece of bread back for the oil. Pulpo a la plancha runs $23, grilled octopus from the plancha and one of the gluten-free anchors of the menu. The cachopo, also $23, is the Asturian fried steak that northern Spanish families order for Sunday lunch. It is heavy and generous, closer to a main course than a tapa, so share it.

Paella here is made to order, so plan for it from the start rather than adding it at the end. The squid ink paella costs $45 and serves two, black rice cooked with seafood and finished with alioli. The seafood paella is $40, and a vegan paella at $32 gives plant-based diners a full centerpiece instead of a side. Order the rice with your first tapas so it lands while the table is still hungry, and ask the server to leave the pan for scraping the crust.

An honest piece of advice for a table of two: do not order both the cachopo and a paella. Either one is enough to anchor dinner, and together they crowd out the small plates that make Destapas worth the trip. Pick the paella if you want a long, shared meal, or the cachopo if you prefer a faster dinner at the bar. Finish with churros con chocolate at $12, fried to order and served with a cup of thick chocolate for dipping.

Drinks follow the Madrid bar script. Sangria is $10 by the glass or $36 for a pitcher, and the house vermouth is $8, the aperitivo Madrid bars pour before lunch. During happy hour the vermouth drops to $7, a house red or white wine to $8, a draft Estrella to $6, and sangria to $7. A vermouth with a plate of croquetas at 4 p.m. on a Tuesday is the cheapest good Spanish snack in the neighborhood.

Timing matters more than at most Mission restaurants because the hours are short. The official schedule lists Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., with Sunday dark. The last orders therefore come earlier than diners used to Valencia Street expect. Weekday lunch is the quietest window, happy hour fills steadily with neighbors coming off work, and Friday and Saturday evenings are the busiest stretch of the week, especially once the patio heaters are on.

Destapas takes reservations on OpenTable, and its own site recommends booking ahead, which is good advice for any party larger than two on a weekend. Groups of six or more eat family style at $50 per person, a set spread chosen by the kitchen, and the whole restaurant and patio can be booked for private events. If the room is full and you are set on the food, the restaurant runs takeout through its Toast page, and the bravas and croquetas travel better than you might expect.

Inside, the room is bright and minimal, with pop-art cityscape prints, trailing plants and orange pottery against pale walls, plus bar seating for solo diners. The real draw after dark is the back patio, which Mission Local described as twinkly lit with extra-toasty heat lamps, a welcome detail on a foggy October night. On a weeknight you see Mission neighbors grabbing happy hour plates, couples splitting a paella on the patio, and work groups from Spanish companies that use the room for gatherings.

Aguilera arrived in San Francisco from Madrid in 2004 and spent years running a catering business called Tip Top Tapas before the restaurant. Destapas opened in December 2020 as a takeout operation, at the height of pandemic restrictions, then added outdoor dining in February 2021 and indoor seating after that. The About page notes that the Embassy of Spain and Spanish companies in the Bay Area book the space for events, which says a lot about how authentic the cooking reads to Spaniards.

After dinner, walk west along 24th Street toward Precita Eyes Muralists at 2981 24th Street, the nonprofit that has led mural tours of the neighborhood for decades. Its guided walks cost $25, and its shop sells prints and books about Mission murals. Just beyond it, Balmy Alley runs south off 24th Street and is lined end to end with painted garage doors and fences, free to walk at any hour. The stretch makes a good twenty-minute stroll while the sangria settles.

Practical notes: Destapas labels gluten-free and vegan dishes on its menu, and email questions go to info@destapas.com. Happy hour runs Monday through Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. according to the menu page. It suits pairs who want to share six plates, Spanish speakers homesick for a Madrid bar, and groups who would rather let the kitchen choose. It is less suited to a Sunday plan, so save Sundays for the murals and come back on Monday.