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Restaurante
Azabache is a restaurant and hotel in Arboleas. Its not the
easiest place in the world to find as just a small portion is
visible from the main road. Most of the restaurant and all of
the hotel are in a dead end road.
We entered the restaurant by way of a nice terrace, with
plenty of tables and umbrellas, and then into a large bar
area, again with lots of tables. We ordered drinks at the bar
and decided to go outside on the terrace with the menus. It
was lovely sitting there with our drinks, but then as so often
happens, the little black flies arrived. You know the ones,
the ones that dive into any sort of alcohol as soon as you put
it down. We persevered for ten minutes and then gave in and
went inside.
The restaurant itself is medium size, nicely decorated, very
clean and the staff are friendly and efficient. And something
of a bonus, there were proper table cloths and napkins, no
paper ones that so many restaurants seem to use.
The menu is not enormous but is quite varied with something
for everyone. Starters are between 2.50 and 9.00 and
include mixed salad priced at 6.00, manchego cheese,
assorted meats and a few prawn dishes. The main courses are
very reasonably priced with chicken at just 6.00. Other
dishes include rabbit, goat, lamb, a whole selection of steaks
from 14.00 with various sauces and pork fillet priced at
11.00. Paella is also available but has to be ordered
before the day it is required. There are three different
paellas and they start at 8.00 per person.
For our starter my partner and I decided to share the Tostadas
Surtidas which was an assortment of fish, smoke salmon and
Iberian ham, each on a piece of toast. For main course we both
chose fish. My partner ordered Milenese Swordfish and I chose
Grilled Merluza (hake). The wine list is fairly large but just
as we usually do, we ordered a bottle of house red.
When the starter arrived we were amazed, it was enormous and
at 7.50 would be enough for three or four people. It was
nicely presented and tasted every bit as good as it looked.
The house wine was very drinkable and very reasonable priced
at 6.00.
The fish was cooked to perfection, the swordfish was coated
with a very light batter and was probably the largest portion
of sword fish I have ever seen. At 9.50 it was extremely
good value. The merluza was equally good, two cutlets grilled
with herbs and priced 8.00. The only downside to all this
is the vegetables as so often happens in Spanish restaurants.
Everything comes with chips , the whole beans are not even
worth a mention. However, the rest of the meal was so good, we
didnt really feel that we were missing out by not eating
the vegetables.
Desserts start at 2.50 and include strawberry cheesecake,
lemon tart, various other Spanish desserts and a selection of
ice creams. We were so full that we gave them a miss and
rounded of the meal with two coffees.
We chose to go midweek and the restaurant was probably half
full with mainly English diners but also a few Spanish which
gave quite a nice atmosphere. The food was good, the staff
very efficient and it is definitely worth a visit. The bill
for the two of us was 38.10 which was extremely good value.
Category: Spanish Cuisine
Open: Tuesday to Sunday 13.30-16.00 and 20.00-23.00
Bar: 09.00-17.00 and 19.00 till late
Holidays: 15 days at the end of August and 15 days in February
Ambience 4
Food 4
Service 4
Value for money 5
Overall 4
CATEGORY: Mexican/American
RESTAURANT/BAR: Open 12-16.00 and 19.00 till late
CLOSED: Sunday night and Monday |
