Hostal Restaurante Taberna La Villa — Restaurant in Canales de la Sierra

We booked this stay from home – not realizing where it was – or more precisely how remote it was. There was nothing around but this small village – and there was to places open – whereof one was this small place with a bar/café/restaurant and 4-6 rooms. The staff was a young couple and an older couple – none of them spoke English but we got along so well with body language and single words they or we know in each other’s language. To me it is always stunning how much we can get along – we humans – without sharing a verbal language. Also, it seems (also from the reviews here) that the customers here are mainly locals, not international – but I do recommend that you try it – if you’re in for an extraordinaire experience of local atmosphere…||We came in at the afternoon and got to the room, which was clean, small and had everything you need. Good beds, small but nice shower, no aircon, view to the mountain next door with some cows grassing. Cows are walking freely – sometimes on the road, mostly in the fields on the mountainside, friendly and calm animals – never hostile or threatening.||So we spend a late afternoon there – hanging out, drinking fabulous coffee and taking a slow walk around the entire village, taking a closer look at the dogs laying around, the church up the hill and the historic buildings. The silence of the city was absolute – expect from the sound of the cow bells – cows grassing up the hills wear bells that has this calming sound…||Dinner wasn’t served until 9 pm which is a bit late for me, but that’s the way to dine in Spain, and until then the bar hosted the whole village watching some football game on the huge screen in the room. Suddenly the silence was broken, shouting, chatting, talking, laughing and drinking filled the room, the street – the whole village.||When entering the dining room (which was different from the bar with the football audience, luckily, but then again they seem to really like big tv screens next to their dining, so here another tv was on – with a dating program. In Spanish. No texting.) the young hostess showed us a small notebook with the dinner written in English. Wauw – we didn’t expect that – and also the dishes we could choose between was a surprise. I’d thought that we would have THE dinner – meaning 2-3 courses readymade - but we had a choice between 4 different starters, main courses, and desserts – or a burger-dinner (the safe choice).||We went with some “cheeks” which was a pork dish and the one named “veal” – both with fries. Nice and tasty meat – fries are not crunchy in Spain, but spongy – and so were these.||My starter was called Asparagus – so I expected the vegetable by that name – but got instead a salad with mayo, potatoes, carrots, and some asparagus. Tasted very delicate – a nice surprise I’d say. The dessert was a coffee pudding with cream – a bit on the heavy side, but very well (home)made.||Breakfast was average – lots of sponge cake as the like it here in Spain (I don’t!) and some toasted bread with butter/jam. Lovely coffee – again, again – we had lots of it by now. The smell of fried eggs and onions that we noticed in the early morning was not for the breakfast (unfortunately) but for the tapas that the older man was about to make for the display in the bar. Looked nice, though, also there were some ham and bread in there.||All in all, we felt very happy to have found this little extraordinaire place that I won’t hesitate to go back to – even it’s a bit off the beaten track.||Go there if you get the chance – enjoy the calmness and friendliness and...

We booked this stay from home – not realizing where it was – or more precisely how remote it was. There was nothing around but this small village – and there was to places open – whereof one was this small place with a bar/café/restaurant and 4-6 rooms. The staff was a young couple and an older couple – none of them spoke English but we got along so well with body language and single words they or we know in each other’s language. To me it is always stunning how much we can get along – we humans – without sharing a verbal language. Also, it seems (also from the reviews here) that the customers here are mainly locals, not international – but I do recommend that you try it – if you’re in for an extraordinaire experience of local atmosphere…||We came in at the afternoon and got to the room, which was clean, small and had everything you need. Good beds, small but nice shower, no aircon, view to the mountain next door with some cows grassing. Cows are walking freely – sometimes on the road, mostly in the fields on the mountainside, friendly and calm animals – never hostile or threatening.||So we spend a late afternoon there – hanging out, drinking fabulous coffee and taking a slow walk around the entire village, taking a closer look at the dogs laying around, the church up the hill and the historic buildings. The silence of the city was absolute – expect from the sound of the cow bells – cows grassing up the hills wear bells that has this calming sound…||Dinner wasn’t served until 9 pm which is a bit late for me, but that’s the way to dine in Spain, and until then the bar hosted the whole village watching some football game on the huge screen in the room. Suddenly the silence was broken, shouting, chatting, talking, laughing and drinking filled the room, the street – the whole village.||When entering the dining room (which was different from the bar with the football audience, luckily, but then again they seem to really like big tv screens next to their dining, so here another tv was on – with a dating program. In Spanish. No texting.) the young hostess showed us a small notebook with the dinner written in English. Wauw – we didn’t expect that – and also the dishes we could choose between was a surprise. I’d thought that we would have THE dinner – meaning 2-3 courses readymade - but we had a choice between 4 different starters, main courses, and desserts – or a burger-dinner (the safe choice).||We went with some “cheeks” which was a pork dish and the one named “veal” – both with fries. Nice and tasty meat – fries are not crunchy in Spain, but spongy – and so were these.||My starter was called Asparagus – so I expected the vegetable by that name – but got instead a salad with mayo, potatoes, carrots, and some asparagus. Tasted very delicate – a nice surprise I’d say. The dessert was a coffee pudding with cream – a bit on the heavy side, but very well (home)made.||Breakfast was average – lots of sponge cake as the like it here in Spain (I don’t!) and some toasted bread with butter/jam. Lovely coffee – again, again – we had lots of it by now. The smell of fried eggs and onions that we noticed in the early morning was not for the breakfast (unfortunately) but for the tapas that the older man was about to make for the display in the bar. Looked nice, though, also there were some ham and bread in there.||All in all, we felt very happy to have found this little extraordinaire place that I won’t hesitate to go back to – even it’s a bit off the beaten track.||Go there if you get the chance – enjoy the calmness and friendliness and...

We booked this stay from home – not realizing where it was – or more precisely how remote it was. There was nothing around but this small village – and there was to places open – whereof one was this small place with a bar/café/restaurant and 4-6 rooms. The staff was a young couple and a older couple – none of them spoke English but we got along so well with body language and single words they or we know in each other’s language. To me it is always stunning how much we can get along – we humans – without sharing a verbal language. Also it seems (also from the reviews here) that the customers here are mainly locals, not international – but I do recommend that you try it – if you’re in for an extraordinaire experience of local atmosphere… We came in at the afternoon and got the room, which was clean, small and had everything you need. Good beds, small but nice shower, no aircon, view to the mountain next door with some cows grassing. Cows are walking freely – sometimes on the road, mostly in the fields on the mountainside, friendly and calm animals – never hostile or threatening. So we spend a late afternoon there – hanging out, drinking fabulous coffee and taking a slow walk around the entire village, taking a closer look at the dogs laying around, the church up the hill and the historic buildings. The silence of the city was absolute – expect from the sound of the cows bells – cows grassing up the hills wear bells that has this calming sound… Dinner wasn’t served until 9 pm which is a bit late for me, but that’s the way to dine in Spain, and until then the bar hosted the whole village watching some football game on the huge screen in the room. Suddenly the silence was broken, shouting, chatting, talking, laughing and drinking filled the room, the street – the whole village. When entering the dining room (which was different from the bar with the football audience, luckily, but then again they seem to really like big tv screens next to their dining, so here another tv was on – with a dating program. In Spanish. No texting.) the young hostess showed us a small notebook with the dinner written in English. Wauw – we didn’t expect that – and also the dishes we could choose between was a surprise. I’d thought that we would have THE dinner – meaning 2-3 courses readymade - but we had a choice between 4 different starters, main courses and desserts – or a burger-dinner (the safe choice). We went with some “cheeks” which was a pork dish and the one named “veal” – both with fries. Nice and tasty meat – fries are not crunchy in Spain, but spongy – and so were these. My starter was called Asparagus – so I expected the vegetable by that name – but got instead a salad with mayo, potatoes, carrots and some asparagus. Tasted very delicate – a nice surprise I’d say. The dessert was a coffee pudding with cream – a bit on the heavy side, but very well (home)made. Breakfast was average – lots of spongecake as the like it here in Spain (I don’t!) and some toasted bread with butter/jam. Lovely coffee – again, again – we had lots of it by now. The smell of fried eggs and onions that we noticed in the early morning was not for the breakfast (unfortunately) but for the tapas that the older man was about to make for the display in the bar. Looked nice, though, also there were some ham and bread in there. All in all we felt very happy to have found this little extraordinaire place that I won’t hesitate to go back to – even it’s a bit of the beaten track. Go there if you get the chance – enjoy the calmness and friendliness and...