37 cities in 48 days.

[bergerka]

Hi all,

I am going to be working in Spain for almost seven weeks this spring (feel free to pm if you want details).

Obviously, as per the title of this thread, I'm going to be traveling almost every day and will have very little time to spend in each city. What I am looking for is this: restaurant recommendations for lunch or late (very late, like after 11pm) dinner - interesting but NOT expensive regional food. I've only been to Spain once (Bilbao, for three days or so back in 1999) and am greatly looking forward to it.

Here's the daunting part: the list of all the places I'll be hitting in a very short time. Help a girl eat?

Villena

Torrent

Alcoy

Alicante

Alzira

Cartagena

Lorca

Yecla

Leganes

Leon

Logroño

Vitoria

Tarragona

Pozuelo

Talavera

Lugo

Villagarcia

Burgos

Santurxi

Fuenlabrada

Manzanares

Xativa

Ciudad Real

Jaen

Tomolloso

Puertollano

Cadiz

Zaragoza

Cuenca

Valdepeñas

Toledo

Soria

Albacete

Orihuela

Murcia

Oliva

Requena

Thanks in advance!

K

[docsconz]

Wow, Kathleen, good luck! That should be a fascinating tour, although I imagine you will return home exhausted. While I'm afraid that I cannot give you any specific recommendations, I will suggest that with that kind of itinerary, you stay in a more traditional regional mode and look for subtle differences in preparation and style. I expect that you will eat very well and for not much money. Your dining times are late even for Spain!

[Rogelio]

It's really a wide and strange trip the one you are going to do, many of them are suburban and residential areas so I'm going to give you some recos for some of them but bear in mind that others like Toledo, or Alicante have been well reviewed here, you'd better try a serch.

Here we go:

Leon: Vivaldi is the best (michelin starred) local restaurant with a unmissable tapas bar at the entrance.

Logroño: Bar Tahití in the (famous for tapas) Laurel street serves great comfort food and a superb tortilla. Another good option is La Taberna del Tio Jorge in Galicia 11 St.

Vitoria: Sagartoki (Prado, 18) is the best modern Pintxos (Basque tapas) bar in Vitoria, good product and great technique.

Pozuelo: Bodega la salud is the place, simple food with superb product, great meat, good fried peppers and a delicious tortilla and croquettes.

Talavera: Bar Mingote is a bit hidden but worth the search to taste good local product simply prepared. They own also a seafood restaurant (if you miss it so far away fro the sea) called El Esturión.

Lugo: La Barra serves delicate seafood, terrific meats and dilicious desserts.

Villagarcia near there, Casa Boveda in Carril is one of the best seafood restaurants in Spain, weel praised here by Victor.

Burgos: El Ángel, c/ Paloma, 24. serves castillian food with a modern aproach and a good wine list.

Cadiz El Balandro is a big bar with a few tables where they serve incredible cheap tapas with very good product.

Murcia Virgen del Mar in the cosy Plaza de Las Flores serves delicious seafood and shellfish simply prepared.

I don't want to abuse so I'll leave some cities for the rest.

[bergerka]

Rogelio - this is EXACTLY the kind of thing I'm looking for! Thank you!!

[Bux]

As has been said, that's quite a tour. It includes a wide range of places and a lot of provincial places off the tourist routes as well as a few places of note.

Logroño has a very active tapas bar scene, if you don't see something enticing in one bar, just move on the next, although I'd start with Rogelio's recommendation. If the weather's good, you'll find as many people eating in the street as in the bars. If memory serves, calle Laurel is in the old section of town.

We once spent the night in Albacete with some trepidation simply because when we told a Spanish associate of Esilda's that we planned to stop there for the night, all she could say was that no one stops in Albacete except to relieve themselves. Alright, it's not the hippest of cities, but I found it a pleasant place. As we had a very long and late lunch, we didn't have anything for dinner and just went out for coffee. There were a number of attractive options for coffee. Most of them probably served tapas as well.

In Murcia, we ate well at the Rincón de Pepe in the hotel of the same name, but I don't recall it being particularly inexpensive, or expensive for that matter.

In Leon, or rather outside of Leon, we had a wonderful lunch at a working class place, but you'd really need a car and I doubt it would be open late.

Rogelio is a very reliable source. It might be worth while to invest in a guide. I'd recommend Campsa over Michelin, but places recommended in either are likely to be reliable at the moderate dining price range.

[dfunghi]

Do you need a driver???? Or perhaps a food taster????

[docsconz]

Kathleen, I think Bux's advice in addition to Rogelio's is good. While I certainly wish you all the best on this journey, I must admit I'm not totally jealous of you as yours is a working trip with a lot of traveling. On the other hand any time spent in travelling in Spain is a worthwhile time and you will be doing what you love. Come to think of it, maybe I am pretty jealous after all.

[Eric_Malson]

I don't think Kathleen will mind my taking the liberty to toss out another, slightly emended, request for eating recommendations. Being in possession of her itinerary, it is also now clear that the hotels in which she will be staying (and therefore serving as the base for meal-foraging) aren't always in the same locales she listed in her original post. Most are places with which I have absolutely no familiarity, and some are places not mentioned in any guidebook of mine, not even my trusty Guía Azul/Trotamundos books.

With this in mind, can anyone help with the following places?

Getafe (Madrid) - Kathleen will be spending several nights there, and this is one of the places left unmentioned by any of my books (I suspect for good reason...).

Ciudad Real - Another multiple-night city.

Logroño - Same as above, so further suggestions would be particularly welcome.

Zaragoza

Cuenca

Soria

Jaen

Albacete

Toledo - My reasons for reiterating this one are somewhat selfish, since this is mostly likely the place I will be catching up with her. All previous discussion of Toledo I've been able to find has centered on expensive/high end places... any recs for good traditional/every day places?

[Rogelio]

A few more suggestions:

CUENCA: La Ponderosa C/ San Francisco 20 is a bar specialized in game escabeches (pickles) that they comercialize as well as traditional dishes like morteruelo, pig's ears and mushrooms.

ZARAGOZA: Symbol (Illueca, 5), and the fried tapas at Marly (Gran Vía, 50).

LOGROÑO: Again on the poular Laurel st, Soriano, Lorenzo, Sebas and Blanco y Negro are among the best for tapas.

MANZANARES EL REAL: Parra on Panaderos st.

POZUELO: Los pescaitos, La Montanera and El Legado de Castilla y León

JAEN: Casa Antonio (953270262; Fermín Palma, 3) is a very good restaurant but they have a bar at the entrance.

TOLEDO: El Trebol C/Santa Fe, 5. is a classic for tapas, Bar Ludeña. Plaza de la Magdalena, 10 is anothe classic for traditional dishes and the famous Adolfo has a tapas bar besides the cathedral.

And that's all I can add.