I probably intended to post it on Chowhound. Just found in my files. May be someone will find it useful…
Sevilla:
We took a brief walk around the central part with a brief snack in Freiduria El Salvador. It was OK eggplant (very untraditionally sliced) and so-so shrimp salad. Unfortunately they did not have their famous chicharron. I suspect it is a seasonal product there.
We had dinner in Eslava, which has combined the restaurant and bar menus and served them at the all tables. We found the place to be very nice, but not spectacular. Excellent service. We liked their famous Yema, but it was a bit too sweet for me. The honey ribs were excessively sweet for my taste, although very tender. Cuttlefish cigar I liked more. Excellent Coquinas (always love hem!) and Navajos al la plancha with an olive oil! They did not have the orteguillias. Would definitely go back to Esclava to try more things.
We were the first clients Azahar took around after pandemia. As well it was Sunday with the most of her favorite plases closed. We started with Bar Las Teresas. Very often people new to Spain have a challenge of sampling the “real deal” Jamón, especially if they stick to the touristy routs. This is the place! Jamon was spot on! Remarkable simple and delicious Judias con Jamon. Azahar gave us a primer on vinos generosos.
The second location was mariscos oriented Cervezeria Salmedina. Sardines, brandade de morue and my favorite - montadito con chipirones. Loved it!
On the Azahar’s advice we took a 25 minutes walk to Triana to have a light dinner in La Atrayana. We have found ourselves in the residential neighborhood with plenty of little drinking places. La Atrayana was luckily open on Sunday. It is located on the first floor of a residential building. We would never figure it out for a place to eat, if not for Azahar’s input. Braised leeks, tortas de camaron, especially delicious arroz con boletus (porcini). We very much enjoyed the experience but had no more space for food after a food tour…
We day after we visited the spectacular Alcazar and Catedral. Right next to the latter located Hijos de Morales (AKA Casa Morales), which happens to be one of the Azahar’s favorite places. It was open on Monday for lunch and we stopped in for a snack. Morcilla de arroz, morcilla de higado, alcachofas con gulas (baby eels). Liked it all.
Would try more, but we had a lunch reserved in Azotea (the Cristo de Gran Poder location). Mixed feeling. It was priced more than the quality they have provided. I suspect the popularity is getting to them (to be honest, Azahar warned us…). The dish, I found to be interesting, was the shrimp crusted hake. My wife did not like it at all though… I always aim for arroz meloso, which they had… the carabinieri one… very salty… not much flavor. Obviously you can not make this dish in 20 minutes, which took them to deliver it to our table. Would not say the place is bad, but did not deliver to the expectations…
While wondering around Arenal area we have stumbled on a corrida memorabilia filled Baratillo. We had a drink with a sampling of two mediocre tapas( Rabo de Toro and Tortilla). Nothing special besides interesting environment.
La Brunilda is highly praised by many food related publications. I was a bit surprised that my request for a reservation on Monday evening was accepted. The food was OK, but too fusiony for my taste. Beet salmorejo was not inspiring. Chipirones con migas would be more appropriately to name Chipiron con migas. Because it was only one chipiron on the large bed of migas. Would not go back.
It took us approximately 1,5 hours to get to Cadiz on our rental car. We started with El Faro. That was the first real hit! We ate in the formal dining room, but there is a lovely tapas area. Just make sure you are there at the opening, if your are aiming for the bar. The restaurant is sizable, but you will not get a chance without the reservation. On the Tuesday lunch everyone without the reservation was turned away.
The food was truly remarkable. It was my first cabracho (red scorpion fish) pate. Delicious with amazing texture. Highly recommend to try (I bought a couple of jars of Cantabrian one in Madrid, but did not try it yet). Very light (unlike the other ones we tried) Tortas de Camaron. Interesting, but not my favorite seafood albondigas. Outstanding tuna bely a la plancha. I always have it rare. Although the menu lists it as Tarantella (Chu-toro), it was actually more like Ventresco (o-toro). We were very impressed by the quality. Very unusual ajoblanco. A bit too salty for me, but with a bunch of raw white shrimp to mellow the saltiness down.
We liked the place so much that included it in our tapeo rotation the next day.
Casa Manteca - extremely popular with the local and tourist crowd. It took us 3 attempts to get in. The line was ridiculous. Eventually we came to the opening and got the table from the get go. The famous chicharron was OK, but they squeezed way too much of the lemon on top… I liked carne al horno more than chicharron. We did not try anything else…
La tabernita - just bad. Avoid.
La Sorpresa - excellent preserved fish geared place. You need reservation these day to get in. Raw ventresco was good, but not fantastic. We have enjoyed their sardine plates and bits of a preserved fish (mojama ect.) much more. Would come back.
There was an orteguillas drought in Cadiz. Eventually we have found some Freiduria on the street to the right of the Mercado Abastos. It was not good. Not cooked through. We lost interest in looking for the better ones…
The next day we traveled down the cost. Ended up to be one of the most interesting days of the trip. First, in the morning, we got to Vejer de la Frontera. The parking was already packed by the Spanish tourists. We luckily knew about the parking at the end of the mirador, which was available. Advise - use smaller cars. Vejer is frequently overlooked, but it is one of the most attractive towns in Spain. I would stay in town as a base. The scenery is breathtaking and, I bet, when the day tourist leave at night it is even prettier. We did not eat, but there are a couple of very interesting places in town.
The reason we did not eat in Vejer was our lunch reservation in Barbate. El Campero. Wow! Should be on everyones list.
The quality of the tuna of that level I have only encountered in the past in Japan. Their ventresco (o-toro) is incredible. The plate of 12 pieces of ventresco sashimi - 36 euro. In Japan it would cost 3-4 times of that. People in Japan simply can not afford eating more than 1-2 pieces. We as well tried their ventresco tartar, signature tuna and truffle and, on the advise of the waiter, morillo (upper neck). All of that were small plates and we still had space for Antonios in Zahara de los Atunes (as instructed by Maribel and Erica). We are contemplating to be back to explore the menu farther. That is probably the place to try orteguillias…
Quick shopping in Herpac store for mojama and canned tuna and we were on the way to Antonios, which was about 15 minus drive away. The place is located on the beach. It is attached to the large hotel with the same name. The food delivery though is not what you would expect from a hotel affiliated restaurant. I suspect they do not speak English in this restaurant, but not forsee it being a challenge, since they seem to be extremely accommodating. Wednesday lunch in September was packed. You definitely will need a reservation, which can only be made by phone. They did not respond to any of my emails. I had to call in person.
We were a bit full after El Campero, neither the less we managed to try few of waiter recommended plates: white shrimp, cigalas fritter and some delicious Cantabrian anchovies. All good. Need to come back and try more.
The day after started with the visit to Bodega Lustau in Jeres de la Frontera. The tour started at 10 am and lasted for 45 minutes. We were the only people on the tour. Interesting experience. Would advise to tour one of the bodegas if you have a time. It is so early to allow the tourists to attend the notorious horse show, starting at noon. Unfortunately we did not make a reservation for the show and the tickets were sold out.
We drove to Arcos de la Frontera which is approximately 40 minutes away. The town is very interesting, but not as impressive as Vejer de la Frontera. We had lunch in Parador Arcos. It was better than expected, but worse than it could be. Perdiz salad, good croquetas, not very interesting timbale de Rabo de Toro. My advise: have a bar meal at the spectacular balcony of the Parador, rather than in the formal restaurant setting. The view from the balcony is stunning.
Malaga is about 1.5 hours by the highway and about 2 hours by the scenic road. We loved the town. Not too big, but not too small. Thriving food scene. Fantastic market. I am glad we stayed there.
Eriboca was the first meal. Now it is Ariboka for the legal reasons. As it mentioned elsewhere the service is slacking. Not in the mean way, but in the “mañana” way. I think they are understaffed… We enjoyed the food. The salchicha tartar was a bit odd, but apparently is a local specialty. We liked their enaladilla and ajoblanco. As well we tried fideos tostados con mahonesa. It was delicious. Would definitely go back.
The dinner in La Comopolita was the our Malaga highlight. Tuetano-gamba, mollete de obrador maximo, Ensladilla rusa.
Incredible Chivo Lechal (on the waiter’s insistence). Very high level of quality delivery. Not expensive. Loved everything. Happy to come back any time.
After enjoying La Cosmopolita we have reserved a lunch in Kaleja. It is an upscale restaurant recently opened by Dani Carnero, who is a proprietor of La Cosmoplita. Well… I have nothing against the tasting menus and very much enjoy them, when I have a time and stomach capacity. But I am in general a bit suspicious of the places which offer the tasting menu only. It is one of these places. The food was good but by the dish # 17 we were a bit tired. By now I do not remember what we ate, although happy to recite you the dishes we tried in other restaurants, including La Cosmopolita. I did not feel that the price was on a par with the delivery… I took the wine tasting. It was excellent. Unfortunately all of the bottles were from the small makers, which will be very difficult to encounter ealswhere.
El Reflectorium Catedral was our last meal in Malaga. May be we were too full from the lunch, but the dinner there did not leave the lasting impression. I did not like their Ensalata Rusa, which they are so proud of. Fried boquerones were OK. We hand a plate of a decent morcilla. Tuna ventresco was not even close to El Campero experience. May be we did not get the right plates.
The drive from Malaga to culturally overwhelming Granada took about 1.5 hours. Then there was an intense 4 hours tour of Alhambra and Generalife.
For the lunch with have selected Ruta de Veleta. It is a 1 Repsole restaurant located within 10 minutes taxi ride from Alhambra. For the Sunday lunch the restaurant was full of the local families. The place serves an elevated local food. We really enjoyed it. Although the staff appeared a bit overwhelmed, we were fed an excellent meal. They have very interesting plating. Figs with the queso de cabra. Morcilla, served as lasagna. Cochinillo. We did not try their famous pulpo served in the bottle with a smoke. They did not have that day their quesqullias en papillote. Highly recommend this place.
Unfortunately it was Sunday. Our reservation for dinner was made in advance for La Tana. They decided to close and informed us about it the night before. I have made reservation for 1 Repsol Farala, but upon arrival we have learned that they have only the tasting menu. Unfortunately we did not have much time, given our reservation for flamenco performance in Sacramonte. So we had to leave. We ended up in pretty touristy Carmela. It was a matter of a convenience. They were packed. The food was tasteless. Please avoid this place.
The next day we have traveled to Cordoba (about 2 hours drive from Granada).
The day was Monday. Most of the restaurants were closed. The lunch was reserved in El bar de Paco Morales. Paco Morales is a proprietor of (2 Michelin stars and 3 Repsoles) Noor. El bar is suppose to be his lower key establishment. This place was one of the biggest disappointments for us. The restaurant is located a bit away from the touristy area. The menu looks very interesting, but the delivery is subpar. They have a major seasoning problem with the dishes being over- or under-seasoned. Eating the dishes in the sequence enhances the awareness about this problem. Orange salmorejo, I would guess made with bacalao, was extraordinary salty. After that they served us the oysters with the completely tasteless mignonette. Chipiron bocadito was very chewy and tasteless. Very bizarre rice paper salad with no seasoning. Than callos cordobes, wich we could not eat because they were so salty…
Luckily Cordoba redeemed itself with the magnificent dinner El Churrasco. We were so lucky that they are open on Mondays. Located only 2 blocks from Mezquita this restaurant provided us one of the best meals of the trip. They have 1 Repsol sun. They are a la brasa place. We took their signature dishes:
Berenjenas fried in chickpeas flower with salmorejo served on the side (to be used as the souse)
Grilled lamb kidney. There are a few Spanish chefs calling this dish “they favorite in the world”.
Chuleta de Vaca (Rib eye).
I rarely order steaks in the restaurants because they rarely make me happy with the quality. This chuleta was an excellent dish. Chefs suggestion was to eat it rare. The only condiment was Maldone salt. The meat was properly aged and full of the umami. We were fighting with my wife for the last piece. She won. On top of everything the price of this plate was 26 euros. In NY would cost at lest 75 $ these days.
As for the lamb kidneys, we only had 1/2 of the plate. I wish I could have more. Amazing flavor and texture, very unexpected from kidney. Served with no condiments. Does not need it.
Please do not skip the place if you are in Cordoba. Especially if you are a meat eater. To be honest they have a very good fish selection as well…
