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Restaurante Los Albardinales can be found on the main road in between Sorbas and Tabernas, it is very easy to find as it is a long, low ,yellow building. The restaurant opening hours are quite unusual, as generally speaking they only open during the day. However, if you are a party of 4 or more and make a reservation, they will open up for you in the evening. We were a bit apprehensive about this arrangement and thought maybe the food and the service would not be very good with so few people but we could not have been more wrong. It was fantastic!
When you enter the restaurant you go into a large open space with the restaurant on one side and on the other is the area where you can purchase an array of local goods, including bottles of olives, olive oil, dried fruit, bottled peppers and too many more to mention.
After a good few minutes browsing we took ourselves off to the bar where we were greeted by our waitress for the evening and shown to our table. As expected my partner and I and our two friends were the only diners that particular day of the evening. Our waitress brought the menus and took our drinks order and within minutes we were presented with some lovely crusty bread and a very unusual dip (fresh cheese with capers), which was very nice. The menu is huge and has so many things that we hadn’t heard of before but everything was in English as well as Spanish, and many items were produced locally, so choosing our meal took some time. Eventually we all made up our minds, decided to share two starters and ordered mussels in oil priced at €18and a plate of local cured meats also priced at €18. The choice of starters is immense and includes meats, cheeses, fish and pate of duck, venison goose and many more.
For our main course we all ordered something different. I chose the suckling pig priced at €18, my partner the cod pil- pil at €20, one of our friends chose the entrecote steak priced at €19 and our other friend chose the lamb at €18.
When our starters arrived we were glad we had decided to share as there was more than enough for four people. The cured meats were lovely and most of the meats were different to any we had tried before. The mussels were equally delicious. To go with our meal we ordered a couple of bottles of Blanco Ferre and at €10 a bottle it was a very nice white wine.
The timing between the starter and the main course was perfect (we were worried originally that things might be a bit rushed as we were the only ones dining).
The main course was just as good as the starter and the presentation was beautiful, the whole meal was faultless. Although everyone was really full we thought that the desserts just had to be sampled, as they sounded so good, but decided to order just two and share. The desert menu is lovely, with a great assortment of ice creams, including chocolate and cookies and gooseberry. We chose the fresh figs in almond sauce and the meringue ice cream both of which were extremely good.
The total bill for the four of us was €160 which included the wine, three beers and a sin alcohol lager, and although not particularly cheap, the whole evening was a very different and thoroughly enjoyable experience and one of the nicest meals we have had. We finished our evening back in the shop where we couldn’t resist buying some olive oil and some dried fruit.
Features:
The restaurant has been beautifully restored on an ancient oil mill of the beginning of the 20th century. Olive oil is the major ingredient of its cuisine. The restaurant shares its space with the Museum where you will be able to observe the history and development of the production of the olive oil through the time.
Customers of the restaurant are shown their oil factory and also taken to the solar platform free of charge.
CATEGORY: Spanish Cuisine
OPEN: 09.00 to 19.00 everyday except Thursday
For evening meals call for a reservation
CLOSED: February
Ambience 5
Food 5
Service 5
Value for money 4
Overall 5 |
