In Pamplona bars, and across Spain generally, the words rabas and calamares a la romana get used almost interchangeably for a plate of fried squid. English-language food guides that cover the difference at all usually reduce it to the cut: strips versus rings. That single detail misses the more interesting fact. Rabas did not start as squid. The dish began with octopus, in 19th-century Cantabria, decades before Madrid’s tapa bars invented calamares a la romana around a completely different animal that only reached the capital once a rail line made it possible to ship it in.
Order both by name in the same bar and the difference goes beyond the batter. Rabas, historically, could be strips of octopus, cuttlefish, or squid, floured and fried dry, a dish born on Spain’s northern coast. Calamares a la romana is specifically squid, cut into rings, dipped in an egg-and-flour batter closer to tempura than a dry dredge, and it only became a fixture of Castilian tapas culture once refrigerated rail transport made squid available far from the sea. Knowing which is which changes what actually lands on the table, and it explains why two bars a few streets apart in the same city can serve genuinely different food under names a visitor assumes are synonyms.
This account draws on documented Cantabrian food history for the origin of rabas, Spain’s national press for the specific Madrid origin and technique behind calamares a la romana, and direct verification of two current Pamplona bar menus that still list rabas as its own order, separate from calamares.
Rabas Started With Octopus, Not Squid
The word rabas comes out of a dialect specific to Cantabrian fishermen, and its exact origin is unresolved. Regional glossaries and dictionary entries list it as a term of unclear etymology, with one unconfirmed theory pointing to French influence. What is documented is the dish itself. In 18th and 19th century Santander, taverns served “patas de pulpo,” cured octopus legs that were breaded and fried. They became one of the city’s most popular tavern foods.
As octopus grew more expensive, Cantabrian cooks began substituting other cephalopods. Magano (squid), cachón (cuttlefish), and pota (a larger flying squid) all became standard ingredients for the dish that kept the same name. Today, in Cantabria, a raba is defined by the cut, not the animal: any cephalopod sliced into strips, floured, and fried in hot oil qualifies. That definition matters, because it means rabas were never squid-specific the way calamares a la romana is. Squid is simply the cephalopod that happened to be cheapest and most available once octopus stopped being either.
Cantabrian seafood producers like Compesca, based in Santander, still sell rabas as a defined regional product today, a direct line from those 19th-century tavern plates to a packaged item on a supermarket shelf.
Calamares a la Romana Is a Madrid Invention, and the Batter Is the Point
Calamares a la romana has a different, more specific story. According to Spanish newspaper elDiario.es, the dish has roots in Castilian and Madrid tapa-bar culture, where the egg-and-flour breading technique, a style popularized in Italian cooking and adapted into Spanish kitchens during the 19th century, gave the dish its name. The batter is thick enough to form a golden, crisp, almost fluffy coat around each ring once it hits hot oil, closer to a tempura than the dry flour dredge used further south.
Madrid sits nowhere near the sea, which is exactly why the dish’s timing matters. Squid did not become a regular part of the Madrid diet until rail lines connecting the capital to Galicia were completed in the 19th century, finally making it possible to ship squid inland while it was still good to eat. Calamares a la romana, in other words, is a landlocked city’s tapa, built specifically around an animal that had just become available to it.
That is also what separates it from calamares a la andaluza, the other fried-squid tradition Spain argues about. The andaluza version skips the egg entirely: squid is dusted in flour alone, shaken to remove the excess, and fried until dry and crisp. It belongs to Andalusia’s pescaíto frito tradition, a frying culture that traces back roughly 3,000 years to Phoenician trading colonies on Spain’s southern coast, with the flour-breading step itself credited to Sephardic Jewish cooking documented in 14th-century texts and popularized further in 18th-century Cádiz, a city that had 84 dedicated fried-fish shops operating by 1812.
Three Fried Squid, Three Different Names
Laid out side by side, the three traditions that Spanish bar culture keeps folding into one another are genuinely distinct. Calamares a la romana means squid rings in an egg-and-flour batter, a Madrid tapa built around 19th-century rail access to squid. Calamares a la andaluza means squid dusted in flour alone with no egg, fried dry, and belongs to Andalusia’s older pescaíto frito lineage. Rabas means strips, historically of octopus and later of any cephalopod, floured and fried, a dish that started in Cantabrian taverns and never required squid specifically at all.
Pamplona sits at a crossroads between the Cantabrian north and the Castilian center, which is part of why its bars still treat rabas and calamares a la romana as two separate menu items rather than regional synonyms for the same order. It is the same instinct that keeps visitors ordering pimientos de Padón without realizing most of what reaches the table in Navarra never grew anywhere near Padón at all. Rabas and calamares a la romana sit alongside croquetas as some of the most reliably ordered fried bar staples in Pamplona, and, like croquetas, the version you get depends entirely on which bar and which name you use to order it.
Where Pamplona Still Serves Rabas as Its Own Order
Rabas remains an active, separately priced item on Pamplona bar menus today, not a relic of a regional dialect. Bearan, a bar and restaurant on Calle San Nicolás, lists a “Ración de rabas” at €7.50 on its current menu, a separate line from its other fried items. A few streets away on Calle Aoiz, El Goloso lists “rabas de chipirón”, squid-specific rabas, at €10 to €11 under its own “Picoteo” section, distinct from the seafood dishes around it. Both bars are treating rabas as its own dish, not as shorthand for calamares a la romana.
Like most Pamplona bar food, rabas is ordered as a ración, a full plate meant for the table rather than a single-bite pintxo. A proper batch fries at around 180 to 190 degrees Celsius; any cooler and the coating soaks up oil, any hotter and the outside burns before the inside finishes cooking. That detail holds for calamares a la romana too, even though the two dishes started, quite literally, as different animals.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between rabas and calamares a la romana?
Rabas historically means strips of cephalopod, originally octopus and later squid or cuttlefish, floured and fried dry. Calamares a la romana means squid specifically, cut into rings and coated in an egg-and-flour batter. They are related fried dishes, not two names for the same one.
Are rabas made of squid or octopus?
Both, depending on era and region. Rabas originated in 19th-century Santander as fried octopus legs. As octopus became more expensive, Cantabrian cooks switched to squid, cuttlefish, and other cephalopods, and today the term refers to the strip cut rather than one specific animal.
What does “a la romana” mean in Spanish cooking?
It refers to a specific breading technique, coating food in flour and egg before frying, a method popularized in Italian cooking and adapted into Spanish tapa culture during the 19th century. In Madrid it became specifically associated with squid rings once rail transport made squid available inland.
Every article on the Encierro blog is authored or reviewed by active bull runners with direct experience in Pamplona.