Western Andalusia trip (Sevilla - Zahara de los Atunes - Malaga)

[dostrovs]

We have accomplished another tour of Southwestern Andalusia. We have managed to try/ retry a good number of the restaurants in 10 days. Do not be shocked by the number of the sampled plates I report. There were 4 of us. We were sharing plates, besides the one prefixed restaurant. Unfortunately one of us does not eat meat so we were a bit skewed towards the non-meat options.

For the Friday night of the arrival to Sevilla I reserved the restaurant I always wanted to visit, but somehow never did. The opening time schedule is somewhat strange and currently does not include weekend. So despite being pretty tired we went there on the night after a long day of traveling from NYC. The place was the 1 Repsol sol/ 1 Michelin star restaurant Cañabota (not to be confused with the bar Canabota 2 doors down). We were promptly seated and were given appropriate attention from the get go. The chef (not Juanlu Fernandez) intimidated us into the “special” tasting menu, which came out to be 130 euro/piece. It was a heavily shrimp affiliated affair. Delicious croquet/ marinated tuna/ sardine toast along with “gazpacho water” as a starting set, followed by the parade of the shrimp/ prawns/ langoustines of the different colors and cooking extent. There were few small plates of fish and oyster. Not memorable deserts. The bread and olive oil were of the supreme quality. I liked almost all plates. They there vibrant in the appearance and delivered an excellent taste. We did not overeat (what frequently happens in the tasting menu situation). The whole meal was a delight, although the next time I would probably order from the menu. The tasting was slightly overpriced. Probably it is the Michelin dowry coming with the star.

After catching up on sleep and visiting the magnificent Alcazar we headed for the lunch in 1 Repsol Sr. Cangrejo. The strange name was complimented by a rather strange (in the good sense) and fusiony menu. I am not a big fun of a fusion in general, but occasionally entertain myself with a similar experience.

• Our first bite was the best: baked eggplant with anchovies and pulverised olive oil. Full of the flavor and delightful texture.
• Less impressive scallop in the shell with some kind of a bland coconuty curry.
• Very interesting marisco/garbanzo tartar. Seems to be one of their most popular plates.
• Boring (but organic) tomato salad. They were very proud that tomatoes were from the Tatiana’s Farm (???).
• Lightly grilled red mullet with capers. I could not figure if they intended to serve it undercooked or just undercooked it.
• Delicious lightly grilled tuna ventresco with red mojo de Tenerife. Very good.
  My company liked the restaurant a lot. I felt that the Repsol sol was well deserved for innovation, but the quality of the delivery was a bit uneven.

The evening meal was in La Azotea (Jesus del Gran Poder location). My feelings after the last visit were a bit ambiguous and I decided to rectify the opinion.

• Delicious Ahumado Salad (their version of ensaldilla rusa)
• Good sardine canapé
• Peculiar churro de mariscos. They deep-fried churro-shaped sticks of shrimp/ calamari paste.
• Fresh grilled squid - very good with the side of the flavorful lightly roasted vegetables.
• Another tuna chunk. Lightly grilled.
  Not sure it was my favorite meal, but can not complain on the quality. Excellent service.

Another day in Sevilla took us for a long street walking tour. We finished by Las Setas and conveniently ended up in Taverna Zurbaran. It was fantastic from all the aspects: Very decent pricing, excellent service and the most importantly delicious food! Almost all the plates came from the specials of the day menu.

• Very memorable sardine with chopped tomato on fresh bread. One of us named it the favorite dish of the trip! Indeed the delivery of the sardine was of the highest quality.
• Pistu with deep-fried artichoke and egg. Great seasonal dish of the inland Spain! Made with a lot of love.
• Chuleton de ternera with the side of fries. Just perfectly pan fried with delicious potato you can never (sadly) find in USA…
• I am a sucker for morcilla. Hence got a few nice pieces of an excellent morcilla de Leon.
• Ensalladia rusa was a bit borring (Same type as in Cerveceria Salmedina - same ownership of the place).
  If you are looking for an unpretentious meal in Casco Antiguo - this is the place. I think it is open all day long.

After the general uplifting experience with our meals in Sevilla the destiny decided to give as a bit of a reality check. Our dinner took place in Barra Baja. Well… The place came highly recommended as a new and full of potential restaurant. We were taken to the counter seats. Immediately I have noticed that the front staff was a bit redundant and confused about what to do. There were 4 people in front who were seemingly wondering between the tables with some mysterious purpose not including servicing us. I deduced that it was their first day on the job. Eventually I have managed to attract the attention and request 3 glasses of wine. My wife, who was not intending to drink initially, decided to have a glass, so I have informed the waitress that we will take the whole battle. In the end we were charged for 3 glasses AND the bottle…
The menu was rather short. We picked 6 small dishes. Firstly we were brought an amuse bouche of the Japanese style cucumber pickle. Strange for Spanish restaurant, but super cheap and super easy to make. We were not able to eat it because of extreme saltiness. Another alarm bell went off in my head.
The chef in front of us was slicing tomatoes for a dish. The amount of salt he was placing was inhumane. On top of it he shredded some mojama, which is a fairly salty product. To my horror, the dish was served to us. Obviously we had a difficult time finishing it. There was no other flavor besides salt.

While observing the chef slicing the corvina crudo with the wrong type of the Japanese knife I was concerned about the poor technique and uneven slicing. Surely it was served to us with the some type of white tasteless mush on top. Bad dish.

Next: Badly overcooked scallop in shell 8 euro/piece. Last drop - grilled in foil - puerro with sliced button mushroom. Extremely salty and unchewable (because the wrong part of the plant was cooked!!!).

We have cancelled our remaining dishes and left. I felt very disappointed with myself that among many superb restraints of Sevilla we ended up in this clearly not attentive to what they serve restaurant.

I have to mention that when I travel I snack between the meals. My snacks in Sevilla this time included:

• always open and always delicious Las Teresas. Got to try their Huevas de Bacalao. Interesting texture, but would not mind to have it again. Superb Ensalada de pulpo. Judias always delicious there. Must for the every first timer in Sevilla.
• Cerveceria Salmedina - Gilda Salmedina/ potato with ventresco (I think the potato must be confited. It is incredibly reach)
• Few attempts to get into my beloved Hijos de Morales were futile. I would come in the wrong time and place would be packed. The was no even place to stand in the middle! No problem. I did not leave Sevilla hungry. Another reason to go back!

I will post remaining of the trip info within a few days.

[erica1]

This is GREAT! I will have 5 nights in Sevilla next March before heading to the Vejer area.
I ate dinner at Canabota in 2019, a la carte. I was not wowed but I probably ordered the wrong dishes. I think I will try again, but not sure. bar vs restaurant. Unless things have changed, the actual restaurant was pretty much a bar. I sat at that bar and there were a few high-top tables, as I remember.

I am thinking about an overnight or day trip to Sanlucar, as I have not been there in about 20 years; I remember loving lunch at Casa Bigote…

Eager to read more!!

[ssinny95]

That’s too bad about Barra Baja. We had an excellent meal there last year, with great service. Goes to show a lot can change in a year, or maybe it was a bad night. Hopefully the latter.

[dostrovs]

Selected plates from Canabota.

[dostrovs]

Sr Cangrejo

[dostrovs]

Taberna Zurbaran

[erica1]

What is the first pic of Sr. Cangrejo?

[dostrovs]

Berenjena/ Anchoa/ aceite de oliva

[erica1]

But what is the white snowy-looking ingredient?

[dostrovs]

Olive oil powder

[Maribel]

@dostrovs,
Very much looking forward to reading more about your Western Andalusia trip.

Very sorry about your “reality check” at Barra Baja.
Our experience was quite different, as it was our stand out meal of our 5 days in Sevilla during Holy Week.
But…our friend Shawn of Azahar Sevilla made our reservations for 3 of the 8 coveted low seats at the bar facing the kitchen (hence the name “Barra Baja”) and it was my husband’s birthday, so she, our waitress and the two chefs, Rafa & Patricia (formerly of the Mercer) pulled out all the stops for us. Our lunch was ordered a la carte.
We started with cava, then oysters Guillardeau, one with cucumber and dill vinaigrette and the other wood smoked with sherry butter, followed by braised lettuce hearts topped with Payoyo (goat) cheese, crudo de borriquete, creamy duck rice and steak tartare (retinto beef from Cádiz) in bone marrow. For dessert we were given a torrija caramelizada (caramelized pain perdu) with orange sorbet and glasses of Palo Cortado.
Other dishes that this couple prepared that looked lovely were the tortilla vaga of white shrimp, and the abanico ibérico with a potato purée.

Because we were Shawn’s guests, we didn’t suffer any service issues and the experience for us was memorable.
Perhaps the wait staff has recently changed? Were you seated at the bar in front of the open kitchen?

Shawn also took us to Taberna Zurbarán and Salmedina for more casual meals, and we once again went to La Tienda de Azotea (Conde de Barajas) and our own beloved Hijos de Morales for evening tapas (the latter, of course, packed to the rafters). And Las Teresas for our breakfast Iberian ham bocatas. We missed Sr. Cangrejo to try the tasting menu at Balbuena y Huertas in Triana, but I see that Shawn has given Sr. Cangrejo an updated review, her highest rating of 5 oranges.

Señor Cangrejo | Azahar Sevilla Tapas

We dined at Cañabota before receiving its Michelin star but told Juanlu at the end of our meal that we predicted they would soon receive a star. And since that star has elevated the prices, we now choose to dine at the Barra de Cañabota instead, which for us is a more lively and less restricting experience.

Again, looking forward to your next reports.

[dostrovs]

Greatly appreciate everyone’s input. Maribel, I am always very attentive to your knowledge of the subject and carefully reed through your recommendations. Same goes for erica1.
Let me start with quoting Tolstoy. His wonderful “Anna Karenina” starts with the most famous book opening in the literature: “All the happy families are happy in the same way. All the unhappy family are unhappy in their unique way.”
For me same goes for the restaurants. Unlike many of you, writing about good experience and positive feelings, I always feel obliged to explain myself about my less impressive exposures. May be sometimes I am too concrete, but I would not want other people to get into my predicament. The whole formal food critic affair in periodic is pretty useless. I find much much more pleasure in reading opinion of unprofessional food tasters and lovers, like ourselves. Our traveling is an incidental opportunity and we get exposed to the things we would not encounter otherwise. I work very hard to minimize the dissatisfaction. There are places which take you for the ride after an excessive marketing. After many years I have top 3 most ridiculously bad food experiences (yes, I have a ranking!): Cracco in Milan, Tegui in Buenos Aires and Nahm in Bangkok. These place were shameless and malicious.
Barra Baja is not one of these place. They just do not have a quality standard. I am an admirer of Shawn’s work. I know her personally. She is for me a definite authority. I communicate with her during my Andalusia trips. She is responsible for many of my “discoveries “ in Sevilla. May be coming with her is a different experience… Meanwhile we were seated at the barra in Barra Baja. The people on the other side of the counter (including I suspect the chef) seemed to be a bit aloof to our presence. They were just putting dishes out. No greeting. No smile. They did not seem to be interested in our reaction to food. And the food was not good… What’s the point of sitting at the barra then?
ALL the people seated in the restaurant were foreign tourists. Not a good sign either. I do not know what happened to the place, but I was very disappointed. Very rarely I have to cancel dishes and leave.

[dostrovs]

We picked the car in Seville and drove to on of my favorite towns in Spain - Vejer de la Frontera. It is a lovely hilltop ciudad blanca with the stunning views and good food. Just outside is La Castilleria: the meat centered restaurant known for the variety of the cow breeds available. It is not a place for vegetarians, but they are trying to accommodate everyone. We had an excellent and attentive service. The menu is extensive and it is easy to get lost. I have listened to erica1’s recommendations and went along with:

• berenjena-pata salad

• chistorra
• Meat staffed artichokes (for our vegetarian friend they staffed it with mushrooms)
• cordero lechal
• lomo de frisona
• Lovely deserts of millefeuille with fig cream and natillas de huevo

I have to agree with erika1. Their cordero was incredible. I am not a big meat eater, but I know the good one from the bad one. Frisona was delicious, but not the reason to travel that far. My not-meat-eating friend had salmon/ mushrooms salad. He did not like it. The food was solid. If we would stay longer I would probably come back a few times to go through the menu more diligently. Once again: another reason to come back.

We stayed in Zahara for 3 nights. Walking distance from our hotel was Antonio’s. It was my second time there. Damn. What an incredible place! All the troubles of getting the reservation are worth it.

• Definitely tuna sashimi (toro)
• Local equivalent of chipirones (puntillitas?) con ajo
• tortellitas de camarones (a bit heavier than ones in El Faro)
• Grilled octopus with mustard
• Grilled ventresco with the side of potato
• Again Millihojas

We all were overwhelmed with the quality and the service. Would be going every day…

But:

• can I reserve a table for tomorrow?
• No. We booked solid for 2 weeks. You can call us to check if someone cancels.
• But you phone does not work.
• True. It is disconnected. Try to call hotel. They may pick up.
• But they say they are hotel and not restaurant.
• Than you are out of luck.

So please act in advance by attacking them from all the ends. This time I got lucky by emailing to hotel 1 month in advance.

In the morning we drove backwards to Jeres de la Frontera for the Royal Equestrian School show. Unfortunately it was the only day of the show during our trip. We were willing to make the sacrifice. The magnificence of this creatures cannot be overstated. Before the show I stood for about 20 minutes enchanted by the sight of dressage of a stunning dapple gray stallion just outside the theater. The performance of these well-bred and well-taken care of beauties if breathtaking. Years of the hard work by horses and humans are shown in 1.5 hour show. Please arrange in advance.

I loved El Faro in Cadiz a few years ago. Hence I insisted on visiting El Faro in El Puerto de Santa Maria. A bit tricky to find but only 20 minutes drive from Jerez. During the lovely chat with the owner I learned that the original location in Cadiz was opened by his parents about 1970 and currently is managed by his sister. El Faro del Puerto was opened by him with almost identical menu 35 years ago. It is a fairly fancy place. Once again the service is impeccable and menu is extensive. I am somewhat taken back by the Spanish novelty of not having printed menus but only on-line versions. For me ordering is difficult in this form and I have a major FOMO of the dishes I would like to try. This restaurant did not have printed menu.

• Instead of pate de cabracho in Cadiz they had pate de cangrejo, which we tried.
• Delicious eel toast (I suspect the fish comes from Valencian planes)
• Less impressive sardine with bernjena
• Tuna carpaccio - pretty good and lightly marinated
• Obligatory tortellitas de camaron - always excellent
• Small and delicious fideua. I know. It is not a regional dish, but my friends wanted to try Spanish pasta. No regret.
• We had no stamina for desert.

The both locations (Cadiz and El Puerto) are highly recommended. Would go back any time. There are more fantastic restaurants in El Puerto… Will come back… I have not been to Sanlucar yet.

The same day we went for a light dinner in Yoko in Barbate. As I mentioned, the fusion is not my thing, but the place has 1 Repsol and is located in the tuna capital of Europe. Lovely service with no English whatsoever spoken. Fine with me, but my friends had a difficult time communicating. Again no printed menu. The prices were very steep. We ended up trying:

• Tartar de tuna estrellado (excellent dish with runny egg and deep fried small shrimp). The best thing they had.
• Toro sashimi. Good, but Antonio’s and El Campero’s is better. Too expensive for what they serve.
• Scallop sushi onigiri. The quality of rice was awful. Over-seasoned and overcooked. I have a feeling it was not a Japanese rice (Sorry. I am a self-appoited sushi snob).
• Unagi onigiri. Very different from Japanese one. Once again bad rice. The eel itself is very good. More fatty. I have asked this time where it was from. As expected, Valencia.

I would not say the restaurant was bad, but not at par with the rest of the bunch we tried that week. 156 euros for all the above plus couple beers.

The best in the region we have saved for last. El Campero is a certain star (more precisely 2 Repsol stars). No fuss to get a table. Unpretentious service (We were difficult clients that night and changed the table a few times). We went full tuna menu:

• Maki amuse bouche (sorry, but the rice was not good again)
• Delicious tomato/ mojama salad (Baja Barra horror flashback)
• Another great carpaccio of tuna
• Toro sashimi - heavenly (and I just spent 2 weeks in Japan staffing my face with the best tuna I could reach)
• Tuna/truffle toast. I know they are very proud of the dish, but a bit overwhelming taste wise. The truffle takes away the taste of tuna. I suspect, sadly, they add truffle oil in tartar…
• We went for a small tuna parillada - 4 types of the different fattiness - loved it all!
• Tuna cheeks - collageny fatty delicious goodness on the slice of potato

We could not have a better coda to the regional dining experience. For everyone going to Cadiz region: Do not miss!

Initially I made a reservation to Vento El Toro as well, but my company was so exhausted from driving back and forth, that by the majority of the votes I was overruled and we lunched on jamon/ cheese/ tuna/ olives/ fruits purchased in Mercado Abastos in Brabate. I called Vento El Torro and apologetically canceled the reservation.

Will come back with my feelings about Malaga in a day or two.

[damiano]

Thanks for the extensive write ups!

[Maribel]

Wow, the fact that there were no locals is indeed noteworthy. We were the only non-locals there in March.
I’ll certainly reach out to Shawn about your own experience. She wrote an updated review in early September, but I do appreciate your feedback. Just don´t know…

I love la Castillería in tiny Santa Lucía, but I’ve never had the cordero there, only the retinto beef.

And lucky you for having 3 nights in Zahara. José Andrés was there with his family in August and dined there as usual. The city hall proclaimed him an “honorary zahareño”. I agree that it´s very hard to secure a reservation there by phone or even by email. I have to try several times for them ever to answer my emails. Persistence is indeed a virtue and attacking them at all ends!

I’m so glad that you reported on Yoko, as I’ve had it on my list for a long time. Sounds like I shouldn’t worry that I haven’t tried it. Will still stick with El Campero, which for my money can’t be beat.

About El Puerto,
in addition to Angel León’s original space that his wife now runs, La Taberna del Chef Del Mar (open only seasonally), there’s also Tohqa (1 Michelin star) and Avanico El Puerto (sister to the Abanico in Jerez, where in its El Puerto branch I had a very satisfying lunch) plus Toro Tapas for something very casual in the Bodegas Osborne.

Another lover of the horse ballet at the Real Escuela in Jerez, although the performance never changes but the horses are so gorgeous.

Looking forward to more reports and thanks so much for taking the time to give us your feedback!

[dostrovs]

La Castillería

[dostrovs]

El Faro del Puerto

[dostrovs]

el campero

[erica1]

I am enthralled by your report!!!

Those salads at La Castilleria are so unusual, and beautiful besides being delicious.

How was the grilled tuna at El Campero. Not at all dry??

[dostrovs]

It was a variety of the different degree of fattiness of the tuna. All medium rare to medium. They know what they are doing.