Hello gastronauts,
I couldn't agree more with all of the above comments, menús really are a great way of getting to know Spanish cookery. One of the most useful things about them is the chance to try a restaurant's ambience before you spend big money on the
carta - as well as the cooking of course - and in fact I prefer the somewhat smaller portions of most menús.
I travel around Spain a lot, both for business and pleasure, and Rosie's hints about spotting a good place are spot on - always look for the ubiquitous little white vans rather than big trucks or company cars as this generally means it's the restaurant where the locals eat - always the best recommendation - even though these aren' necessarily the cheapest deals. In fact I have an issue about the price as 'value' is the keyword here. In my experience if you're getting down to the 6 Euro level it's going tbe OK but nothing to write home about - there are exeptions to this of course! On that note it appears that most restaurants along national highways charge around 16 Euros, which I guess is the limit of truck drivers' expenses claims, whereas just go off the road a little and your into another market.
Dave has a good point, as always; when travelling around it's often much better to right into a city centres, especially regional 'capitals', even at the cost of time an effort. Restaurants there have a regular 'captive' clientelle to impress and this tends to drive qualiy up. I had a fantastic meal in Huesca* recently in just these circumstances - we even had to queue for nearly an hour despite arrivng in good time for the first sitting!
I think it's a myth that eating out here in Catalonia is more expensive**. Rather, the cuisine here is more, well, developed, than in the south. That's
not to say there's anything wrong wth southern cookery - far from it - but you do get what you pay for. As an example we tried a new place near Tremp the other day. It's called Gab's and is located in an amamazng building which houses the
CITA along with one of the Generalitat's lesser known
Quangoes (it's so new it dosn't even appear on the website!). Be that as it may we had a really good
fideuà followed by
pollastre de mar i muntanya and a superb, and rather OTT
pastel de la casa. All with a properly bottled and labelled wine plus coffee for just €13 each. That's pretty good by any standards and with near silver service to boot!
Good health
Simon
* and when I remember what it was a calledf I'll tell you
** but we don't usually get free tapas here - as Dave is
always pointing out - I'll have to call in on him on my tour next year to see if it's true!
