Vigo recommendations?

[wlg]

I will be in Vigo for a meeting 19 - 24 September, but unfortunately, the schedule doesn't permit much wandering out of town to all the places that vserna described so mouth-wateringly. Has anyone anything special to recommend in the city? (I noticed that the last requester in 2002 didn't come up with anything!) I'm especially interested in local preparation styles/seafood. Thanks for any tips!

[vserna]

Not the greatest place in Galicia today. The city's economic woes seem to have percolated down to the restaurant scene, which was better 10 or 15 years ago.

La Oca is a tiny, modern-Galician restaurant of some distinction (but no marvel); El Mosquito is a personal oldtime, sentimental favorite for ultratraditional Galician fare and the best, ultrahuge, ultrafresh Dover soles in Spain.

Then again, Pontevedra is 15 minutes by car from downtown Vigo...

Edited September 10, 2004 by vserna (log)

[wlg]

Not the greatest place in Galicia today. The city's economic woes seem to have percolated down to the restaurant scene, which was better 10 or 15 years ago.

La Oca is a tiny, modern-Galician restaurant of some distinction (but no marvel); El Mosquito is a personal oldtime, sentimental favorite for ultratraditional Galician fare and the best, ultrahuge, ultrafresh Dover soles in Spain.

Then again, Pontevedra is 15 minutes by car from downtown Vigo...

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Thanks for the recommendations. El Mosquito sounds like the sort of thing I'm looking for.

It also sounds as though I should plan on a road trip for at least one evening, too!

[lambretta76]

wlg -

Spent a night in Vigo after the Euros and had to stay at a nearby hotel called Hotel Avion. I don't have an exact address, but they are only about 200m from the entrance to the airport. Anyways, they have a little pub area, with a very nice formal dining room in back. It was actually a really decent restaurant, and they served the nicer food to us in the pub as we weren't dressed for the formal room. (They had no problem with us eating in there, we just felt bad as everyone else was dressed quite smart.) The crowd was made up entirely of locals speaking Galician and getting drunk on bowls of house wine. (Yes, the house wine was served in little ceramic bowls.) Local cider was also available on tap or in bottles. I was given a little jamon pata negra to go along with the manchego I ordered, which was an extremely generous offer. Cod was done well there, and the jumbo prawns they were serving next door looked fantastic. Appetizer, several drinks, a bottle of wine, and two entrees came to around €22. Definitely an interesting place - the crowds start coming in around 9, but they'll serve you food in the pub at any time.

Hope this may help a bit...

[lambretta76]

And if a road trip is in order, perhaps a sojourn to Portugal, which is about 20 minutes south, might be a nice alternative. The beautiful town of Ponte de Lima is but an hour south of Vigo and there are people on this board (Chloe?) who could recommend choices around there and north...

[vserna]

If you manage to escape Vigo, the nearest outstanding restaurant is at Poio, 15 minuted away: this is one minute from the Pontevedra Norte exit of the A-9 motorway. The place is Casa Solla, and it more than richly deserves its Michelin star. Very Galician, but very modern - be forewarned.But I see your conference (I guess this is your conference...) is already putting out vast restaurant info!

http://www.atlanticocongresos.com/ices2004/rest.html

And - sorry, Lambretta, but never drink wine in a ceramic bowl in Galicia! This is foul, acidic, cloudy (hence the use of white creamic) Ribeiro wine, exclusively an acquired (dis)taste and a reminder of how far Galician wine has traveled and improved since phylloxera produced that 'typical' horror.

[Eric_Malson]

I noticed that the last requester in 2002 didn't come up with anything!

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Funny....that's the thread that led me to eGullet in the first place! The member posted the same request on the Chowhound boards, and when I replied he e-mailed me and told me I was the only reply on two boards. "TWO?", I asked... at the time, I hadn't heard of any other message boards for people seriously into food. He directed me here, and the rest, as they say.... (I completely stopped hanging out on the Chowhound boards shortly after that)

In my response, I suggested he check out El Mosquito (which you now already know about thanks to vserna), Sibaris (Av. Garcia Barbón, 122; tel. 986 221 526--I'm assuming it's still there), which I've never been to but has a good reputation, and, if you can at least get out to a nearby beach, Cíes, on the Canido beach (tel. 986 490 101). It used to be one of the best seafood options in Vigo.... I'm assuming it still is, but vserna would know better--I haven't been to Vigo in almost 8 years. Near Cíes, Kremlin is also well-known.

Near El Mosquito are also Neptuno (Av. Montero Ríos, 40) and Carballeira (good parrillada de mariscos, or mixed seafood grill, here--Av. Montero Ríos, 36; tel. 986 222 189).

The poster in question ended up going to Carballeira (he was there for only one day), and loved it.

[vserna]

I am afraid that Síbaris, alas, is now gone. (The Vicente family still has its restaurants in Pontevedra and Santiago de Compostela - BTW, if anyone contemplates visiting anything further than the immediate vicinity of Vigo, Santiago is the one place not to miss!) Cíes is still on Canido beach, and a solid choice for seafood.

[wlg]

Yes, I am with the ICES conference. The hosts summarized quite a bit of restaurant information, but I can't tell if it was studied effort of a would-be e-Gullet type or an intern's project to compile from the local phone book, so I figured I'd try for some groundtruthing!

Can I push my luck here? One night we are supposed to be hosting a dinner for some Norwegian colleagues, a party of about 20 in all. The criteria now would include some price constraints, for example, it would be nice to try to keep costs to 50 euros per person including wine. Is this realistic? Would any of these places be especially suitable for a group?

It sounds like expeditions are in order - thanks for some great suggestions. (Now I just have to avoid getting trapped with some less gastronomically inclined colleagues at the end of the days' meetings. )