[Playa de las Americas, Tenerife, Spain] Jardin de la Abuela

As ever, it was Google that was our friend in finding this place for lunch. It’s family owned, with some of the family Italians from near Rome and others Catalans from Barcelona. The menu is mainly tapas from Catalonia and Basque style pintxos from San Sebastian. Bear in mind that this is not tapas as you’d get on the mainland – as a bar snack – but tapas as a “small plates” meal for tourists.

We had just intended to order some small plates but one of us was taken by a special of red tuna. That was available as a tapa or as a main course size, with Canarian potatoes and salad. That’ll be the main course then and it was an enormous piece of fish, lightly cooked and topped with a drizzle of oil, parsley and chopped pistachios. Across the table, a bowl of sweet clams in a delicious broth. The only really enjoyable way to eat them was to suck the clams from the shells and dunk the bread in the broth.

But the star of the whole show were four squid croquettes. Finely diced squid mixed into the béchamel with Parmesan. And, if that wasn’t enough, the béchamel had been coloured black with squid ink before the whole thing was coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried. Looked fabulous and tasted delicious.

It’s a quirky looking place but don’t let that put you of. It’s well worth seeking out (facing the side of the Gran Tinerfe, on the Arona side).

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Food sounded amazingly good. Chefs are young (from photos on Google).

Haha, agree.

Man, that’s eatin’. :heart_eyes:

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The couple on the restaurant Facebook page were doing front of house (to a very good reggae playlist). Chef that lunchtime was an older guy - mid 40s.

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