Chantarela — Restaurant in Granada

We stumbled upon this local gem of a bar/restaurant as we explored the non-tourist side of central Granada. We'd just finished a wonderfully exhausting 4 hours at the magnificent La Alhambra and were ready to destroy a cervaza. Being siesta time, most places were closed, but this place is only open from 1-4pm and 8 pm to midnight so we headed in.

As usual we sat at the bar because this is where the service is always the best and we can talk more easily with the staff. The beer on tap was bitterly cold and was quickly followed by delicious croquettes. Another couple of beers and we were presented with hot, slow-roasted pork that was as good as we've tasted anywhere in the world. Again, this was free tapas! One more beer (only small beers mind you, not 500ml) to finish and, incredibly, a small smoked salmon tapas appeared before us. Perfectly prepared.

The place was busy with local patrons and the staff were flat out keeping up, but the service was great. Perhaps we were lucky on the day with the abundance of free dishes, but a smile, an effort to converse in the local language and friendliness is uusually reciprocated in good places like this.

Highly recommended for those looking for fabulous local...

I ordered a ham and cheese croquette, and a typical (potato and cheese?) croquette, with a glass of white wine. They also brought a complementary shrimp skewer.

The main entree I ordered was the braised pork "ribs", which was really pork belly, served with potatoes and a vegetable medley topping. Wow was it delicious, unctuous, and flavorful!!! Such tender pork, with the fat rendered down to perfection. I wish I had other folk to join me to go to this restaurant again to try all of their dishes!!

**The best part of the visit - the restaurant is CASH ONLY, and I failed to recognize this until I was finishing up my meal.... The waiter assured me that it was no problem, and that it was entirely okay for me to walk back to my hostel to grab cash, then return to pay.

So...

At this restaurant you get a free tapas with every drink you order - and the tapas is very good! It was some of the best tapas we had in Granada! You don't get to choose what tapas to get for free, but at this place it doesn't matter, because it's all very yummy! They also got e good selection of beer and wine. They doesn't really speak English here, so learn som Spanish and you'll be good. It's a very popular place, so you need to be there early to...