Meal time in Europe is one of the highlights of a trip to most European countries because the standard of quality of restaurants in Europe is better than in America, although America has made great improvement over the last 40 years. Also, by sampling the local cuisine, we often come across a dish we never had before that turns out to be very good. After our first few trips to Europe, we realized the best way to eat in Europe was to ignore guide books and internet restaurant ratings and eat wherever the menu, invariably posted outside the door, and the looks of the place struck our fancy. Doing so, we have rarely been disappointed and more than happy with the results in almost every case (we will deviate from this plan from time to time in France to eat at Michelin Guide recommended restaurants).
I found further confirmation of the forget the guide book recommendations and go with your gut feeling approach to dinning in Europe to find a place to eat when I went to several web sites providing, like IgoUgo, real traveler ratings of restaurants before a couple trips to assemble a list of recomended places to eat. It turns out to be hopeless task. Almost everybody loved anywhere they ate in Europe, which is my point. Europe is great place to eat.
First, we head for local food. You came here to experince the country, so it is foolish not to experience the cuisine of the nation in which you find yourself. Like the scenery or historical sighs or famous monuments, the local food is an important part of the scene, and you ought to experience it. Besides, European beef is very different from American beef and if you a typical unimaginative Texan steak eater, you will not like what you get when you order steak in Europe, but try a Wiener Schnitzel in Austria, or goulash in Hungary, or bratwurst and sauerkraut in Germany, or chicken with tarragon cream sauce in France, or Pizza Margarita in Rome, and you will be delighted. Nevertheless, some nation’s cuisines are more appealing than others, so when we need a break from the local cuisine, we head for a French or Italian restaurant.
Now, having told you that you should ignore restaurant reviews and guide book recommendations when traveling in Europe, I now go on to provide another review. Why? Because I know that many travelers can’t bring themselves to trust their own gut instinct. They need an authority to tell them where to eat which reduces anxiety about plunging into the unknown. So OK, listen to me. I’ve spent more that 400 days traveling in Europe, and that means I ate a lot of meals in Europe. With that much experince eating in Europe, I am not likely to steer you wrong. Go to one of the restaurants I recommend and you will get at least a good meal and maybe even a great meal– so enjoy. That is, along as the place is operating as it was when I was there and you order the same meal.
Back to Torremolinos. As we walked around Torremolinos, we checked out restaurants to pick a place that appealed for diner– most restaurants in Europe have the wise custom of posting a copy of the menu outside door so you can peruse where you might want to eat as you explore the town. Being in Spain, we wanted a Spanish restaurant, which turned out to be rather rare in central Torremolinos. Spain’s Costa del Sol is a hot spot for vacationing and retired people from Northern Europe. Torremolinos seemed to hold special appeal for the British, for most of the restaurants we came across featured items such as fish and chips, Irish steak, chicken with chips, and smoked salmon. Nevertheless, we did locate a handful of Spanish dinning spots as well.
So we picked a restaurant for dinner because it was the second most appealing Spanish Restaurant we came across in a couple hours of exploring central Torremolinos. We rejected the place with the most interesting Spanish menu and location– an outdoor terrace overcooking the sea because it was, being late November, chilly– not conducive to outdoors dining– and, being late November, it was dark by the time we were ready to eat.
I don’t know the name of the restaurant where we ate in Torremolinos because I use the restaurant's credit card receipt to tell me where we ate, but we had to pay cash because there was some story about the credit card machine not working. However, you can find it from this description of how to find the restaurant: The main shopping street for tourists is a pedestrian street that winds its way uphill from beach level to the town square. At the end of the square, where the traffic jam starts, is a fountain, nicely illuminated at night. Stand with your back to the fountain (near the train station entrance to your left), and walk along the square, away from the fountain and train station. Take the first right off the square. The restaurant is on the right at the end of the block, at the top of some stairs in the street that start you going downhill to the beach. When coming up the shopping street from the beach, you go up the last flight of stairs, turn right (the only option), and the restaurant is on the left, more or less on the corner.
Our diner started with an appetizer (tappas) of sausage and onion on a small slice of high quality bread. It was very nice. The Roast Chicken was overcooked and rather dry, but it had the flavor typical of European chicken, a real chicken taste unlike the almost flavorless chicken generally served in America. The skin was nice and crisp, but overall, it was a decent but not impressive dish. The accompanying steak cut fries were OK. There was also a good basic mixed salad on the large diner plate. Altogether, the meal was so large that we regretted ordering so much– two entrees. Dinner was also accompanied by excellent warm diner roles that had an outstanding crisp crust.
Pizza Margarita was not the Italian classic of slices of tomato, torn basil leaf, and chunks of Mozzarella cheese on crust, but rather a very good cheese pizza accented with oregano.
Typically wine is drunk at dinner in Spain, but we opted for beer which was of fine character. A large beer was 3.5 Euros, the roast chicken diner was 9.50 Euros, and pizza Margarita was 8.5 Euros.
Service was excellent, but of European standards, that is, unlike American restaurant service. American waiters periodically drop by you table to enquire if everything is OK but otherwise it is often hard to get their attention if you need them for something. European waiters operate under the opposite system– they ignore you all the time until you signal you want them– look their way and raise finger in the air, and they will promptly appear at your table (doing this is essential to get the check).
We had to pay cash because there was some story about the credit card machine not working. May the machine was broken. Maybe they wanted to hang on the fee they would otherwise have to pay American Express (BTW: we’ve had a number of credit cards, and it seems that American Express always has the best exchange rate. Lookout for MasterCard, at least those from CitiBank whose MasterCard’s statement lists an outstanding exchange rate but then they add a 3% fee at the end of statement for foreign exchange. American Express has a 2.7% fee built into the exchange rate listed in the statement, so it’s a better buy even though it looks worse on the line listing the foreign purchase).
The restaurant had an attractive rustic decor and several small dining rooms, at least one of which had a large screen TV showing some soccer game.