Guide to the best cafés and bakeries in Ciudad Real, Castilla La Mancha- Part 1

Long time, no hear but I´m finally back,this time with a guide to the best cafés and bakeries in Ciudad Real. Although Ciudad Real is a fairly small city, it has its fair share of cafes and bakeries. I´m going to give you a tour of some of my favourites.

La Deliciosa,  located in the Plaza Mayor, or main square, is a cafe and cake shop rolled into one and is one of my favourite places to go for breakfast. I am definitely one of the ¨regulars¨ and even know my name and my order. 

I love the doorstep-sized toast here with butter and jam although they also offer a more Spanish style breakfast with baguette- style bread, olive oil and tomato. In my opinion, it´s also one of the few places where you can get a decent cup of tea (although in any cafe you go to in Ciudad Real, always ask for the milk to be separate, otherwise you get milk with tea rather than tea with milk!) They also serve delicious cakes although I often stick to the toast but can´t resist their Tarta de Santiago (almond cake), when they have it, nor their torrijas although these are not always available. 

La Deliciosa has two seating areas, inside the café and outside on the terrace, weather permitting. The only bad point about this cafe, is that it is often busy, especially at certain times, so finding a seat can sometimes be a bit tricky. 

Pasteleria Mas Cuqui is a fairly new bakery that has opened recently in Ciudad Real. It is a cosy, comfortable bakery and cafe ran by Venezuelans with fresh,homemade food, with one of their specialities being Venezuelan arepas with various fillings and other typical savoury Venezuelan treats such as pan de jamon(ham bread) & tequeños (cheese rolls). 

They sell a variety of cakes, both individual cakes or pieces and whole cakes, cupcakes, doughnuts, cinnamon rolls. They have certain cakes that are always on the menu but each day there are different cakes to try.

 Everything I have tried is delicious and is a reasonable price. Service is very friendly. I have tried Papelón con limon (a sweet lemonade drink) with a small Black Forest cherry cake,which was heavenly..I thoroughly recommend you to try this cake, a Nutella cupcake and an Oreo and passionfruit brigadeiros,which are similar to truffles. The passionfruit brigadeiro was to die for!

Mad Hatter´s Teashop & Patisserie

Another of the foodie places on my bucket list of places to visit while on my recent trip to the UK was Mad Hatter´s Teashop & Patisserie, a lovely café & teashop which I discovered on Facebook.
I booked a table ahead to avoid disappointment,which was lucky as it is a fairly small café and is pretty popular.

Mad Hatter´s is known for it´s afternoon teas and cakes but they also do hot lunches...I think hotpot was on the menu when we went! They also specialise in baby showers and are even expanding and taking over the shop next door in order to be able to cater better for special events, such as baby showers. The cafe is tastefully decorated in soft,pink pastel shades with their yummy cakes displayed on the counters, which you can´t help but drool over!!

 We ordered a savoury and a sweet afternoon tea and there was also the choice of a Christmas afternoon tea. The savoury  afternoon tea consisted of sandwiches with various fillings, soup of the day...which that day was leek & potato, pork pie and quiche and a giant scone with fresh cream & jam. The sweet afternoon tea came with sandwiches with a variety of fillings...cheese & Branston pickle, ham & piccalilli, tuna mayonnaise & Coronation chicken. As I am a bit fussy and don´t like tuna, they didn´t have any problems with changing the tuna mayo sandwiches for extra coronation chicken ones. We also got a vanilla slice,a coffee renoir...I changed my coffee renoir for carrot cake,brownies and  giant scone. The afternoon teas are for a minimum of two people but I think there is enough for 4 people...we couldn´t manage all of it as we were too full so they packed what we couldn´t eat into boxes for us to take with us. Although a little on the expensive side, it was well worth it as everything was delicious and you get your money´s worth...as I said we couldn´t eat it all!! The service was also good and they were very friendly. It definitely didn´t disappoint and I totally reccommend it as a special treat. I´d love to go back again sometime.

Dilnaz Restaurant,Preston Restaurant Review

  

 I was lucky enough to return to the UK for a flying visit recently after 6 years without going so couldn´t resist having an Indian meal the first night, as I miss Indian food because there aren´t any Indian restaurants where I live! We decided to go to one of our frequent takeaway and restaurants, formerly known as the Naaz, which has now reopened as the Dilnaz Restaurant.

The decor of the Dilnaz is modern, smart and clean-looking. We ordered a chicken tikka and onion baji starter and as the owner recognised us he threw in some poppadoms,mango chutney, sweet chilli sauce and mint yoghurt.All were delicious! I then ordered some plain Naan bread and my favourite curry,lamb pasanda and plain Basmati rice. The Naan bread was lovely and fluffy, the rice cooked to perfection and the lamb pasanda,which I haven´t been able to find a similar version of in many Indian restaurants,did not disappoint and tasted exactly the way I remembered it. The lamb was lovely and tender and the pasanda curry sauce was lovely,creamy,coconuty and sweet.The only problem was I was so stuffed I couldn´t eat it all! The owner also threw in some samosas but again I didn´t even eat one as I was so full. I´d definitely reccommend the Dilnaz Restaurant...hope I can return again some time!

Biergarten Spanien, Ciudad Real Restaurant Review

 I´ve decided to resurrect my restaurant reviews although in the past this has almost seemed to spell the kiss of death to the restaurant as they ended up closing!!!However, I hope this isn´t the case this time.

The Biergarten Spanien is a fairly new restaurant and which is decorated and made to look like a German beer tent similar as to what you might find in the Oktoberfest. I love the central streamers and sign post that almost looks like a maypole. You can find German beer of course but it also sells Spanish and other beer....I´m not a beer lover myself so couldn´t really comment about the beer but you get a free tapa with your beer-ours was tiny sausages but a fairly generous portion).

My parents and I opted for the pork knuckle,sauerkraut and chips or mashed potatoes while my husband chose spare ribs with chips and my daughter had a children´s portion,of chicken nuggets and chips,which was huge. I hadn´t expected the food to be the best due to the low prices and I thought that it was probably a chain restaurant and sometimes chain restaurants aren´t as good  but I was pleasantly surprized as they served decent-sized portions, the food was hot and it was really tasty. Our pork knuckle was really tender and just fell off the bone. We then had a dessert for 2.50 euros. My husband,mum and daughter tucked into a brownie with a fruit coulis and ice cream but I decided to go for something more typically German and had the apple strudel with  fruit coulis.It was also supposed to come with a vanilla cream or custard like sauce but I didn´t see any evidence of it. However, it was still delicious.


There is also a little area for children to play although it is very small and consists of only a table or two and some chairs, where they can sit and colour.

All in all I enjoyed this new restaurant where you can try some German cuisine and would definitely reccommend it. It´s good food at a reasonable price.  We will definitely be going again!!

La Cabina, Ciudad Real

Last weekend was my birthday however I chose to celebrate it the weekend previous to that of my birthday as my mum was here. We decided to try out a fairly "new" restaurant that we hadn´t been to before,La Cabina. Located in Plaza de la Constitucion 18, it is a small but chic restaurant with modern and trendy decor.

We all settled on the menu of the day, which consisted of 3 courses with a few choices for each course and all for the reasonable price of 25 euros per person. The starter courses were a little disappointing for me as they all contained fish or seafood,which I´m not a big fan of. Both my mother and I plumped for the mango salad with prawns and a balsamic vinagrette(I asked for it without the prawns and they very kindly replaced the prawns with Iberian ham!)-a lovely, light and refreshing starter. My husband asked for a cod scrambled egg-and-fries dish,which he thoroughly enjoyed.

All three of us went for the same main course, pork tenderloin/sirloin in a Dijón mustard and honey style sauce with peppers and potato rosti.Beautifully cooked pork with a nice balanced tangy,sweet sauce and soft potato rosti but crisp on the outside...it was delicious. We all opted for something different for dessert, mainly so we could all try each other´s!! I went for the sweet potato and patisserie cream millefeuille, which despite being pastry and sweet potato was fairly light and delicate,Mum chose the pistachio truffles, very rich  chocolatey, nutty goodness and my husband´s choice was Pan de Calatrava, a typical dessert from the region, which is quite similar to flan.

 All in all, a lovely meal was had by all and the quality and quality was excellent for a fairly reasonable price. We´ll definitely be going again and I thoroughly reccommend this restaurant. Great service too.

Ate o´ Clock Restaurant Review, York

We stumbled across this restaurant by chance while we were in York and thinking that Chloe would need feeding soon and that it looked very charming and pleasant, decided to eat there. The restaurant is tucked away down a little alley or side street.As it was such a beautiful day we chose to sit oustide on the picnic style benches,which are surrounded by flowers. Unfortunately, we didn´t take any photos but I have to say this is one of the best meals we had during our trip to England and it was also one of the prettiest restaurants. Inside it was fairly modern with clocks set at eight o´clock and the toilets, which were upstairs, with Hollywood film set memorabilia such as clipboards.

There is a lunch menu for lighter lunches but you can also choose a menu of two courses for a fairly reasonable price(can´t remember exactly how much it cost now!). We all went for the two course menu,my inlaws chose soupof the day,which that particular day was tomato and basil and my husband and I chose the Vegetarian Black Pudding. It was a very unusual dish but really tasty.The Vegetarian Black Pudding was actually a bit pinkish in colour and I couldn´t identify what it consisted of.It was a cross between sweet and savoury and was accompanied with a sauce or jus and strawberries...beautiful presentation. My husband wasn´t as convinced about it and he identified the taste of cinnamon in the Vegetarian Black Pudding.My inlaws enjoyed their soup too.

For the second course two of us chose Pork sausages with thyme, apple mash and shallots and unfortunately I can´t really remember what the other two chose....maybe fish(this only proves that I should try and post as soon as possible otherwise I forget!!)What I do know is that we all really enjoyed our dishes. In the end,my daughter fell asleep and we had to wake her up to give her her dinner.My only complaint with this restaurant is that they had nowhere to change my daughter but as we were sat outside and we were the only ones around(we were still on Spanish time!)we just changed her outside on the picnic bench seats.

I´d thouroughly reccommend going to this restaurant if you are in York. You can find out more about Ate o´Clock restaurant by clicking on the link.Enjoy!

Hyltons,The Lake District

I´ve been on my travels hence the absence of posts. I went back to my roots in Lancashire and it was great to meet up with family and friends and show Chloe where I´m from, even though she´s too young to probably remember much about this trip!! One of the places we visited
is The Lake District, or Bowness-on-the lake, Windermere to be more precise, which is one of the most beautiful areas of the British countryside. Chloe enjoyed seeing all the swans, ducks and Canadian geese. Beatrix Potter, the famous children´s author who created Peter Rabbit was from the Lake District and we visited the Beatrix Potter World attraction, which Chloe loved.

We stumbled across Hyltons by chance and even though it was packed we managed to find a table.Hyltons is in the centre of Bowness-on-Windermere. It is a modern, fairly spacious and pleasant restaurant which serves traditional British food and European dishes such as lasange etc.The staff were very helpful and friendly and the food was served quite quickly,despite the fact that the restaurant was fairly busy, so it is obviously a popular place too! It was child-friendly too as highchairs were available...I can´t remember if there were child changing facilities.There is also a children´s menu but my daughter was so hungry that we gave her a jar!

Although, I´m not a big fan of fish and seafood, I decided to choose an old fav of mine,scampi and chips and everyone else chose fish and chips. The scampi was succulent and covered in a lovely crisp and crunchy batter and the chips were thick and golden....delicious. Everyone also enoyed their fish and chips...tender haddock in a crispy batter,not a greasy batter...I tried a little bit and liked it too...it didn´t taste too fishy!! The portions were quite large and filling so we didn´t have room for dessert unfortunately! The food was a reasonable price so all in all a great place to eat. In fact, it was one of the best meals we had during our trip to England. I´d definitely reccommend eating here if you are visiting the Lake District!Here are more reviews of Hyltons.

Birthday Meal at Doña Croqueta, Ciudad Real

Almost two months ago now,it was my birthday(I told you I had a backlog of things I wanted to post!) and my husband and I managed to go out for a meal to celebrate at one of my favourite restaurants, Doña Croqueta,leaving my mum babysitting. My husband knowing my passion for cakes and cake decorating bought me a subscription to Squire Kitchen´s Cake & Sugarcraft magazine, seeing as at the moment it´s impossible for me to take part in any cake decorating classes.

When you first step into Doña Croqueta, it looks like any other tapas bar but you are pleasantly surprised when you discover the restaurant tucked away. It´s a lovely, modern, brightly-coloured room decorated in bright pink & green ,albeit a little on the small side. You usually have to book this restaurant becuase it´s quite small and immensely popular. The food is Spanish-meets Nouvelle cusine.

Usually we almost always order the same, which includes their "famous" mixed croquettes, a mix of ham & bechamal, spinach, "cocido", boletus mushroom and sometimes fish croquettes. This time we decided to order things we hadn´t tried before. To start, we had grilled Meditterean vegetables in a sweet sauce but which also had flakes of Maldon salt(if I remember correctly),which was delicious.


One of the specials that was on that night, revuelto(scrambled egg) with blue mushrooms(god know what type of mushroom they are) and I think it also had foie in it...good but nothing special in my opinion.

We then had spare ribs in a sweet sauce, I think it was like a caramel type sauce, which were also delicious. Although all their food is delicious,I did prefer what we usually order but it´s good to have a change!

Another reason why Doña Croqueta is one of my favourite restaurants is because their desserts are definitely among the best in Ciudad Real. This is one dish we decided to keep the same. White chocolate truffles with Peta Zeta(popping candy) so creamy that it melts in your mouth and is reminiscent of ice cream, then you get the popping sensation of the candy on your tongue! Sheer heaven! The only thing is that after a couple, they can get a bit rich so we always share them!

I only had 2 glasses of Lambruscco Rosé and I was feeling giddy! I´m such a lightweight now!! All in all a wonderful meal at a great restaurant which I´d definitely reccomend visiting if you are ever in the area and all for a fairly reasonable price!

Spa weekend in Seville and two restaurant reviews

I haven´t been doing much wandering lately since I got pregnant and having Chloe but finally about a month ago now, we managed to escape for a short weekend break at a spa in Seville, taking Chloe with us of course. We met up with my parents in Seville and they also stayed at the spa, Andalusi Park, with us to help look after Chloe while we enjoyed the spa. We also gave them a night and a spa circuit as a favour for them looking after Chloe. The Andalusi Park is a lovely hotel, very clean and modern, with spacious rooms and we were really lucky and had the biggest balcony to sit out on and enjoy!Breakfast was included and comprised of a buffet which you could help yourself to as little or as much as you wanted. The spa, although fairly small was very relaxing and just what I needed after all those sleepless nights after Chloe came along. I´ve never been to a spa before but thoroughly enjoyed it, from the sauna-style room, to the water jets, jacuzzi and massage. My fav part was the jacuzzi and massage and my least favourite was the hot shower followed by a swinging bucket which when you pull the cord, drenches you in freezing cold water. Now why would anyone willingly tip freezing cold water over their heads? I would definitely reccomend this hotel & spa with it only being a hop,skip and a jump away from Seville city centre (about 10mins drive and there is also a shuttle service from the hotel) and it is also a reasonable price, around 65 euros per night with breakfast included.

The first night we arrived, we decided to eat locally at a restaurant within a short walk of the hotel. We ended up at a lovely restaurant, La Alacena (Cabo de Gata, Benacazón), which was decorated really nicely for Christmas.It was quite spacious so there was enough room for Chloe´s buggy. For starters we ordered some seafood bits & pieces (I can´t remember what exactly as I didn´t eat any of it seeing as I don´t like seafood very much) and some ham croquettes, which were very tasty. My mum and I ordered the "presa iberíca",a pork cut from the shoulder blade as far as I can gather with apples and a toffee sauce, which was absolutely delicious. The pork was lovely and tender and the sauce not too sweet or heavy.

My husband had fish and my stepdad had lamb chops. We were all too stuffed to order any dessert. I´m not sure what the bill was but dishes cost between 15-25 euros. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

We spent a lovely day in Seville seeing the sights. I don´t know who enjoyed it more, us or Chloe...she loved taking in all the new sights and sounds and hardly slept a wink all day.That evening we decided to go back into Seville and try a Japanese restaurant.I haven´t eaten in many true Japanese restaurants and they don´t really grab my attention much as I don´t like fish or seafood much so sushi is definitely a no-no! It took us awhile to find it but with the help of the SatNav we finally arrived at Sakura (Avda.San Francisco Javier 19). It is a fairly small restaurant with modern decor and Japanese touches such as prints and pictures. I had a meat & vegetable dumpling to start with, which was tasty although I don´t know where the vegetable was as it tasted a bit sausagey! I then had rice and if I remember rightly duck teriyaki. Everything was delicious but the portions were fairly small and it probably cost the same as the previous night but for a lot less food. The food was very nice and I´d reccomend this restaurant if you want something a bit different but for me the portions were a little on the small side. Unfortunately, I didn´t get any photos of the food as I didn´t have my camera with me!

Tapearte 2011-Tapeando in Ciudad Real & the joys of weaning!!!

I´ve been meaning to post this for awhile now but just haven´t managed to get round to it!! I have been doing some baking including a mango and chocolate torte and Custard Pie but haven´t had my camera at hand. I´m also pretty caught up in weaning and homemade purees for my daughter. So far she´s tried baby rice & baby porridge, carrot, carrot & sweet potato, banana and apple. Thankfully she seems to like everything so far, not like her mother!! I´m mainly following the Annabel Karmel website & her recipes. The funniest reaction we´ve had was a disgusted face and then a shudder after trying banana for the first time. Maybe she´s going to be like her mummy and not like banana!


Anyway, on to the main post, Tapearte 2011. This is an annual tapas contest held in Ciudad Real, where restaurants and bars compete against one another to win the title of best tapa and it is voted by you, the general public. Participating bars/restaurants have leaflets or you can pick them up at the tourist office, which list all the tapas and places taking part. You can then visit the bar and try the tapa which you fancy the most for the small fee of 2 euros for a beer or other drink(some allow you to have soft drinks or Salobriña, a red grape & apple juice drink, others you have to pay extra if you don´t have an alcoholic drink!)plus the tapa! This year Tapearte 2011 was from October 12 -October 16. The bar then stamps your leaflet and you mark the tapa on taste, presentation and originality. If you collect 7 stamps, you can also enter a prize draw!





This is the first year that we actually managed to take part in it and I think now it is going to be a regular event that we will join in!The first bar we tried was La Calle in C. Mata, The tapa was pork tenderloin with caramelized onion on a slice of bread in a reduction of sherry (Pedro Ximenez, I think) .It was delicious, especially as the bread had soaked up all the juices howver not very good on the originality and presentation counts! Unfortunately, I didn´t get a photo of this!



The next place we tried was the tapa in Miami Gastro (in Avenida de Rey Santo), unfortunately I can´t remember exactly what it consisted of. I think it was a toast with mushrooms in truffle oil or something. It was good but a bit of a disappointment coming from them as I really enjoyed this restaurant when we went there.

Next we tried Guridi´s (C. Libertad) tapa. Guridi has already won the tapas contest twice before and this year, their entry did not disappoint. By far the winner in presentation at least, the tapa was a mini burger complete with a quail´s egg and served on a poppy-seed bun (the bun was a little dry, I have to say), a potato chip coil wrapped round a flower as you can see in the following photo:

We then went to La Esquina de Hierbabuena, directly opposite Guridi on C. Libertad, whose tapa was a tasty sheep´s cheese Encomienda de Cervera covered in pistachios and spearmint and fried.

We then headed for the main square and tried two tapas in different bars, the first bar we tried was El Portalon, whose tapa was a type of pie, with pastry at the bottom, aubergine and a bechamel sauce, rather reminiscent of a lasange but very tasty even if not very original.

Then, it was on to the bar next door, El Ventero, again can´t quite remember what exactly the tapa was but it invloved mincemeat, cheese and tortilla type bread and was a little spicy if I remember correctly. Another delicious choice but they lost points in my book for charging us extra for the tapa. (Both of these restaurants can be found in the Plaza Mayor).

Finally, we ended our tapas trail in Cafe del Arte (C. del Lirio), where the tapa was made up of a kebab with red & green pepper,onion, cherry tomato and kangaroo meat.Good but the meat was a little tough, the tapa itself was neither very original nor very well-presented.

My three fav´s were La Calle (Pork tenderloin and caramellized onions), La Esquina de Hierbabuena (fried cheese covered in pistachio and spearmint) and Guridi (the mini burger). Still don´t know who won this year´s Tapearte and in the end didn´t get round to entering the prize draw as we lost our leaflets but was fun doing it all the same!!

Miami Gastro, Ciudad Real

Miami Gastro is a very new restaurant which opened recently at Avenida del Rey Santo in Ciudad Real and belongs to the same restaurant group as Miami Park, one of the supposedly most expensive and best restaurants in Ciudad Real. However, Miami Gastro is more of a gastro pub and is more of a place to eat small raciones rather than a large meal!

It is housed on two floors, the bottom floor is a bar area with some seated and standing areas whereas upstairs is a more formal sit-down restaurant area. The whole restaurant is very chic,modern and trendy.

When I went, San Fermines was about to finish so the waitresses were dressed in San Fermin outfits (white clothes with a red bandana) and there was a special menu for San Fermin although we didn´t go off that menu. Apparently there is also a special taster menu for only 20 euros but we didn´t see this at the time. We chose a rocket salad with cheese and a balsamic vinegar dressing (if I remember correctly), chicken sticks, which were long,thin crispy sticks of chicken in filo type pastry with a curry sauce (pictured below)-very delicious!

Mini gourmet burgers of beef/ox (buey) with gorgonzola cheese and rocket salad.I had a plain burger as I don´t like blue cheese although they offered to give me the burger with Cheddar cheese but in the end they didn´t have any! The burgers were very tasty, juicy,meaty and tender. We also couldn´t leave without trying the famous courgette flowers, which are coated in a crispy batter very similar to Tempura and stuffed with goats cheese and herbs, also very tasty but rather on the expensive side as you only get one courgette flower for 5euros!

Everyone went for yoghurt foam with fruit for dessert which came in little glass pots and were apparently delicious. I selected my dessert from the San Fermin menu, which I was luckily allowed to do, and decided on a cherry and almond tart. It was very reminiscent of a Cherry Bakewell tart and was absolutely yummy-one of the best desserts I´ve eaten in a Spanish restaurant.

All in all, I was very impressed with the restaurant, the food was amazing and the service was very helpful, quick and friendly. The only thing I would say is that the portions are fairly small and they are quite expensive,particularly the courgette flower for what it is! It has now become one of my favourite restaurants and I´m looking forward to taking my parents there next week! I also have to add that they do cocktails there but as of yet I haven´t been able to try any yet!

Sabor y Sazón Columbian Restaurant, Ciudad Real

Since having Chloe I haven´t had much time for cooking & baking or blogging although I have managed to make a salad dressing, one quick chocolate cake which I whipped up in my Kenwood food processor and spaghett bolognese so it´s a start!! However, we have been doing quite a bit of eating out with my parents, trying out or taking them to new restaurants. As my parents have never tried Columbian food, we decided to take them to Sabor Y Sazón. Unfortunately, the restaurant is being sold so I think I must be a bearer of bad luck as the shop I liked, Fabricando Delicias, closed and a shop which was the only shop in which I could find tilapia also closed!

Sabor Y Sazón is a fairly small restaurant,not particularly chic but cozy. The restaurant does a taster menu for only 10 euros per person minus drinks so it´s very reasonable too. We all chose a taster menu, which is comprised of about 5-6 small courses. First of all we had empanadas, a type of cornmeal pasty filled with meat (shown below)



The second course was a fried cornmeal ball stuffed with meat, potato and rice (very delicious but also very filling!) (shown below)



We then had an arepa (a flat,round patty made of corn flour) with cheese on it, followed by two smaller arepas,one with chicken on and the other had tuna on it.By this time, I was full to bursting and yet there was still one more dish! However I couldn´t eat the tuna arepa or the final dish, which is a flat cake or patty made from banana and which was topped with prawns and thousand island dressing. As we were all so stuffed none of us tried a dessert but they also have a variety of tropical juices which you can have with either milk or water. My mum had mango juice with milk, which was lovely and creamy and tasted very similar to a mango lassi and on the waiter´s reccommendation , I tried a fruit juice I´d never heard of with water, lulo (also known as naranjilla) shown below:



Although it doesn´t look very appealing, it´s a greenish colour and is quite lumpy looking so a bit reminiscent of puke really, it has a sweet acidic taste, which was actually very refeshing and pleasant tasting!

As I ´ve never been to another Columbian restaurant before I have nothing to compare this restaurant to but on the whole, it´s a nice restaurant where you can find good, tasty, filling, and reasonable food.

Restaurante Gabinadas, Ciudad Real

I haven´t been doing much cooking or baking recently, due to being pregnant and finding it increasingly more difficult to manoever (only about 15 days to go!! Gulp!). My mum is here helping us out with the cleaning, cooking etc and also so that she doesn´t miss the birth!

Anyway, I have been meaning to review this restaurant which we went to last time my Mum came to visit but just haven´t got around to it until now!! Restaurante Gabinadas is situated in C/Alcantara 8 in Ciudad Real. The restaurant is fairly small but decorated in a modern style. It is a fairly new restaurant but we have been three times now, always for lunch.


Usually we order from the Menu of the Day, which costs around 12.50 euros and includes a first course, main course and dessert or coffee and also bread. Drinks aren´t included in the price. One of the reasons I like this restaurant is that it has a wide choice of first and second courses. I had gnocchi with pesto for my starter, which was delicious but maybe a bad choice as I sometimes get a bit bored of this type of dish. Another good thing about this restuarant is that the portions aren´t too big as in some Spanish restaurants, just the first course fills me up! Last time I went to this restaurant I had Piquillo peppers stuffed with meat, which is delicious and I thoroughly recommend.

My husband and his father had Callos (tripe...yuk!), which although good,they said was a little salty or bland-I can´t remember which!

My mum and I chose pork fillet with pastry in a cranberry sauce for our main course, which was absolutely scrumptious (I´ve eaten it twice now!).As with most of the main courses, it was served with a tiny portion of mashed potatoes, a brussel sprout, a cherry tomato and a slice of beetroot (Spanish restaurants don´t really do much in the way of side dishes).



As dessert is one of the most important and my favourite course of a meal, the desserts are a little disappointing. Although the choice is quite wide, there is nothing on the menu that particularly grabs my attention. I had strawberries with cream, which was served in a glass and there is rather more cream than strawberries!

All in all a good restaurant to go for a fairly reasonable but good quality menu of the day,with plenty of choice. However it is important to reserve a table at the weekends as it is very busy and it can be difficult to get a table!

In search of a good paella en Ciudad Real-La Arrocería de Picón

I am trying to bake and blog as much as possible while I can as when the baby is born, I´m not sure how much time I´ll have to spare on the blog. Seeing as I´m not keen on fish or seafood, paella has never been one of my favourite dishes, however I do enjoy it if it is a meat paella. The best paella is said to originate from Valencia but you can find paella throughout Spain. One of the best restaurants for paella in the Ciudad Real area is La Arrocería de Picón (unfortunately the website is only in Spanish at the moment-probably as you don´t find many foreigners or tourists around these parts!) The restaurant is located in the small rural village of Picón and is decorated in a very modern, elegant and chic manner. It is a very spacious restaurant with two eating areas, both of which have water features and with views of the countryside, which makes dining a pleasure. My husband and I went with my in-laws and we shared a paella between the four of us. I think we ordered a Valenciano paella, which contains chicken, rabbit and snails (however we ordered it without the snails for my benefit as I don´t like them) and also has red and green pepper and large white beans (fabes). Although the paella was huge we ate every last morsel and in my opinion it was the best paella I have eaten as of yet! The restaurant also serves other dishes if paella is not your cup of tea as the first time I went to this restaurant I chose lamb chops, which were also delicious.

We had room for dessert too and although the majority of the dessert menu is frozen ice cream-style products, which is a little disappointing, they have a small selection of homemade desserts. I opted for the mango cake (pictured below), which was definitely a good choice. It´s a mango mousse-like cake on a sponge cake base topped with slices of caramelized fresh mango slices. Delicious!

I thoroughly recommend visiting this restaurant if you are in the area although it tends to get very crowded at weekends so it´s better to book a table. One of the down sides about this restaurant is due to it being popular and busy, it can be very noisy and it is difficult to have a conversation.

La Viña Restaurant, Ciudad Real

When my parents come to visit, we like to take them to different restaurants and my mum´s visit during Carnival was no exception. We discovered this restaurant by accident as due to my timetable I had to eat early and it was one of the only restaurants near the university that I could eat at before 2pm! Needless to say we really enjoyed it and ended up going every Thursday after that!

The restaurant, situated near the University on Rosalia del Castro 1, is half cafe/bar, half restaurant so the restaurant part itself is fairly small but is adequate. One of the things I like most about this restaurant is that the Menu Of the Day has quite a few options which is great for a picky eater like me as I can usually find something I like!However, the day we went with my mum, I found it a little disappointing. I didn´t like any of the starters, Mum had a fish stew and Andrés had fideua, which they both really enjoyed. For our mains, I had lamb chops and chips, which were really tasty, Mum had churrasco (pork fillets) and Andrés had fish with salad.

For dessert I chose homemade yoghurt in an effort to be more healthy and Mum and Andrés ordered this chocolate sponge cake thing. Unfortunately the yoghurt turned out to be banana flavoured and as I can´t stand anything that tastes of banana, I ended up swapping desserts with my mum. I wasn´t that impressed with the sponge cake dessert either so dinner was not a success for me! Serves me right for being such a fusspot!

Despite not having had the best of meals this time, I would reccomend this restaurant as the food is clearly homemade, well-cooked food and the Menu of the Day is quite a reasonable price at 12 euros per person. I have had lovely starters such as stuffed courgette and their white chocolate panacotta is to die for!