Restaurante El Birra — Restaurant in Garrucha

El Birra Restaurant Garrucha Spain 4th October 2019

We had some friends to stay and they rather fancied trying the local speciality, Garrucha Prawns: “One of the most exquisite sea foods from the Mediterranean Sea.”

The prawns breed and reproduce in a coastal strip that fronts the town of Garrucha, they are caught daily, though in September 2013 they mysteriously disappeared and for over a month the fleet seemed unable to catch enough prawns to make it viable. This drove the price up to €70 a Kilo. The mystery of why the prawns disappeared and then came back has never been resolved.

So we drove in to Garrucha parking in the harbour where there are always plenty of spare places ( except perhaps Fridays when its market day) and walked around the port area deciding which restaurant would get our patronage.

There are several good restaurants and some have Fantastic view of the Harbour and the myriad of small boats, but of course this comes at a price so we opted for El Birra which is set back just on a junction.

The first choice was 'Inside or out' but given it was dark and the temperature had dropped the outdoor seating was damp due to some strange and unexplained phenomena that happens here in the early evening. We made the mistake of leaving the cushions on the sun beds one evening and when we went up on the roof to collect them they were soaking wet, even though it was only just after sunset.

So we chose in, with the added advantage that people wont blow smoke over you whilst your eating and the flies which are horrendous this year, are less bothersome.

The decision to have some Garrucha prawns had already been made so we chose 3 each as a starter.

You pay for them (and the fish) by the Kilo, so its always a bit of a lottery what the final bill is going to be and I suggest you accept this before you order as it can come as a nasty shock afterwards.

In this case the prawns were €96a kilo so 12 prawns came to €30.72. Not cheap in anyones book but as a special treat, well we thought money well spent.

The local wet fish shop sells them for €26 a Kilo.

11 people were injured in an incident at a local restaurant as a result of an argument over the price of a plate of Prawns back in 2016 and the incident required the intervention of the Guarda Civil who took the owner to hospital with a head wound.

Our plate of prawns caused nowhere near as much fuss though we all fawned over them and agreed just how delicious and how unlike 'ordinary prawns' they were.

For our main course we went to the counter where all the fresh fish was on display packed in ice.

There you chose your fish and agree the way its cooked and presented.

We chose a large fellow that the waiter suggested was Sea Bream, however, it looked nothing like Sea Bream, which we've eaten both here and at home, it was a different shape and much much bigger.

I'm inclined to think it was Red Snapper (El Pargo) and the receipt confirmed this. (€38 per Kilo so the whole fish was €83.60).

We agreed it would be split in half length way, filleted, and cooked on a BBQ.

It needed very little dressing other than a squeeze of fresh Lemon juice.

The meat was firm, white and it flaked into good size chunks though the bit with the most flavour was the charred edges that had browned on the BBQ, this took the flavour to the next level.

We picked at it, choosing the best bits first and then scavenging amongst the bones for morsels of juicy flesh that were initially hidden.

There were some bones but they were big so they were easy to spot and remove so this was a good choice for some one like me who is a bit nervous of fish bones having had one removed from my throat in A&E many years ago.

4 glasses of wine at €2.25 each some water and a coffee for me saw the total bill at €127.32 including 10% charges which we didn't notice at the time so left a healthy tip on top.

This was a good choice. The seating was comfortable, the service good, professional and friendly even though the staff didn't speak much English.

We will come back again.

Well...

We ordered Chopitos, Rejos, tortillas Camaron, costillas Pimentos & paella. The first three 1/2 raciones were good, costillas tough and 5 little pieces more like a tapa and well after 40 minutes waiting the paella never made it to the table but was charged on the bill! When we queried the bill we were told the reason the paella didn't arrive was because they didn't have any. The bill was corrected, no problem, but the service from the start was terrible. 5 or 6 staff, not very many tables and no one seemed to want to attend the tables. One guy was more interested is dragging people in off the street. The majority of the staff pleasant but not attentive. The family on the table behind us had to wait 30 minutes for their bill after asking repeatedly....

Dinned as a group of seven, once seated dirty plates and side dishes were placed on the table, but then removed, "a sign of things to come." The single chicken dish with chips arrived very early, and the chicken was not properly cooked. The waiter collected it without apology and literally dropped it back on the table 5 minutes later, whilst the rest of the party was still awaiting their mains. The pizza then arrived, clearly a "cooked" from frozen pizza. Then the fish "Dourado" arrived on a platter. However, the vegetables, salad, and calamari were very sparse. Overall, the view is that it's a tourist trap restaurant that's not very clean with unpleasant staff, clearly not interested in returning customers...