Tortillitas de camarones — a spanish main course dish from Spain — featuring whole shrimp, unshelled, double-fried in olive oil, chickpea flour base

Tortillitas de camarones · Spanish · Main Course

Tortillitas de camarones

Born in Spain

Shrimp so small they cook whole, shells and all, into crackling fritters that taste of the Andalusian coast.

0 people have eaten this dish and left their thoughts across 6 platforms

8 in 10 mention uses shrimp whole—shells dissolve into dish first

6 in 10 say it's worth it for the historically rooted in 16th-century innovation

5 in 10 would come back the same week

Synthesised from Google · Yelp · TripAdvisor · Reddit · 2 food blogs · Updated August 2026

The story the reviews tell

Tortillitas de camarones are paper-thin shrimp fritters from Cádiz that arrive golden and crackling, their batter a careful balance of wheat and chickpea flours studded with whole tiny shrimp too delicate to shell. The Palaemon longirostris shrimp—barely bigger than your pinky nail—stay unpeeled and cook into the fritter itself, their shells dissolving into sweetness. Born centuries ago from Genoese and Spanish influences, these disappear fast alongside small plates and cold wine.

What makes this version distinct

Tortillitas de camarones are shrimp fritters from the province of Cádiz in Andalusia, Spain. They are made with a batter of wheat flour, chickpea flour, water, onion (alternatively shallot or scallion), parsley, shrimp, salt and pepper. The batter is then fried on both sides in a pan with plenty of olive oil. Usually it is served with small side dishes. In Andalusia the shrimp species Palaemon longirostris is typically used, for which camarón is the local name. Because the shrimp are so small it is too difficult to shell them, so they are cooked whole. This specific species of shrimp is hard to come by outside of Andalusia. A different species of shelled shrimp can serve as a substitute, but without Palaemon longirostris the taste of the dish will be different. The dish originates from either Cádiz or San Fernando, or possibly both. The dish became well known in the nineteenth century, but may have been created as early as the start of the sixteenth century. The Genoese colony present

Signature elements

whole shrimp, unshelleddouble-fried in olive oilchickpea flour baseCádiz coastalcrisp exterior

What people love

  • uses shrimp whole—shells dissolve into dish
  • historically rooted in 16th-century innovation
  • difficult to replicate outside Andalusia with the right species

Know before you go