Staff Reporter
By Betty Dalary in La Linea de la Concepcion
DUSTY border town La Línea de la Concepción might not be the first place that comes to mind for food lovers in Andalucia.
Famed – or perhaps notorious – for being the Spanish sister town to Gibraltar – and the base for a large smuggling community – the town in fact holds many more surprises.
One of them is the annual Ruta del Atún, held in the last week of May, and this year in its fifth edition.
The local restaurants go to great lengths to put on an extravaganza of sumptuous tuna offerings to win the linenses’ hearts and stomachs.
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And the community did not let them down, filling every available table for four days to sample as many tuna dishes as they could.
Tuna festivals are typically held during the almadraba season, a centuries-old traditional and sustainable tuna fishing method, practised in May in the Strait of Gibraltar.
It goes some way to explaining why the region produces some of the best tuna in the world.
Towns like Barbate, Zahara los Atunes and Conil have long enjoyed the spotlight for their tuna festivals.
Meanwhile, La Línea quietly hosts its own lesser-known event.
While Tarifa’s legendary Ruta del Atún Rojo has been cancelled this year because of low restaurant participation, an impressive 27 restaurants in La Linea turned up with a host of innovative and sometimes weird tuna-based dishes.
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Despite the variety, tuna tartar-based dishes dominated the competition, as 14 variations were available, causing some people to groan at the mention of raw tuna by day 2.
Your Ruta del Atún passport was your best friend over the 4 days, featuring pictures of all the dishes and helping you keep track of the ones you tried.
My friends and I started the venture on Wednesday and we kicked off at West, a spot with one of the best sunset views in town.
They presented us with their creation, Diversión helado de atún (Frozen Tuna Fun).
This was an instant favourite – the dish arrived in a martini glass, filled with fresh lemonade on top of which half a lemon filled with tajine-spiced tuna tartar was balancing, with a scoop of lemon ice cream on top.
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Over the days, other weird but wonderful favourites included the Nube de atún (Tuna Cloud) by La Chimenea, which was served alongside cotton candy or Atunoro by Snob, which was covered in gold.
But the real crowd favourite wasJaponesa de atún (Tuna japonesa) by Carboneros 27, which won the popular vote and stole the hearts of the locals with a clever play on the popular Linensen sweet, a glazed brioche bun filled with custard.
The tuna version came seasoned with honey, lime and ginger, accompanied by spicy togarashi mayo and ponzu, really putting the Japanese into the japonesa.
By Friday, it seemed like everyone in town was carrying their tuna passport, while live bands were rotating on stage and handmade crafts were being sold on the pop-up market.
There were also endless queues at most restaurants, including La Taberna’s Tosta Rica, Barbas’ Chinatún, and the Bruscheta de atún rojo at Bodebar.
A dish that surpassed any expectations I had from a small-town tuna festival was Ardente’s Atún en el jardín (Tuna in the garden), a beautifully presented tartar dish with a combination of spicy and fruity flavours including, grilled-frozen pineapple shavings.
One of my favourite parts was collecting stamps in the participating restaurants.
For 5 stamps in your passport, you could vote on the best dish, and for 10 you were entered into a prize draw and received a tote bag full of surprises, including a small bottle of wine and a free breakfast — a fantastic way to keep local restaurants and Linenses busy.
The winning dish, Espetatum by Caramba, chosen by chefs Mikel Landa Aramburu and Cristina Gutiérrez and artist María Villalón, will go on to represent La Línea at FITUR 2026 — proving that with the support of the local community, even a small-town food fest can dream big.
