Restaurante Asador El Choto — Restaurant in Córdoba

We came across this restaurant while exploring Cordoba and we were so glad we landed on this one! Multiple restaurants had closed already and El Chato was luckily still open. We've been looking for paella all throughout Spain and so we ordered the Seafood Paella and Mixed Paella. They brought out freshly baked bread despite the late hour. Alongside this, their olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and butter were all delicious - especially the butter. The Paella came along and completed the experience nicely while we dined in the ambience. Despite the late hour, they continued the service as is which made us feel unrushed and welcome. Can't stress enough, ASK FOR BUTTER!! ...

Never expected such a poor restaurant with a 4.5 rating. Gruff, unfriendly service (the waiter was clearly frustrated because our Spanish was rather limited), long waiting times (more than an hour for a paella dish?!) and a poorly translated English menu which is very misleading (we ordered Black rice, thinking it was exactly that, but it was white rice with squid ink). In a touristic place such as Cordoba, having waiters that can speak only Spanish (no English, no Italian, no French) is quite simply daft. Very little fish at all in a paella dish for two, no more than 4 clams and maybe 8 slivers of squid, and too salty.

You have...

Nice atmosphere, poor food.

Ordered the mushroom and shrimp salad. Shrimp was passable. Mushrooms were watery and had no flavor. The salad itself was flavorless iceberg lettuce.

Ordered the seafood rice, sort of a paella. Absolutely awful. The rice was mushy, overcooked with supermarket tomato sauce. The seafood was just not good.

We had a few bites and left.

The moral is a slick website with nice photos doesn’t make for a good experience.

One...