Mesón El Labrador — Restaurant in Ribeseya

This is a great place with a three course menú del día offering unique local home style dishes, incredibly quick service, all-you-can-eat portions, locally sourced meat, and low prices.

The daily choices are posted on a chalkboard to the left of the bar entrance, starting at about 11 a.m. in the morning. Lunch is served here starting at about 1:15 p.m., a quarter of an hour earlier than almost all the other restaurants in town. There are three courses, plus dessert. The first course, is a soup served family style (i.e. in a tureen left on your table, serve yourself as much as you would like). There is no choice for this first soup, served the second you’ve sat down and given your order. Usually it is Sopa de Cocido, which looks and tastes like chicken noodle soup, but those “noodles” are actually made of chick pea flour - so it’s rich in protein, and more or less gluten free. But the soup changes with the season - during slaughter season (that’’s my translation of “matanza”) it might be liver soup, and at other times of the year, what I think might be tripe soup. The second course is then usually a choice between a meat-rich lentil stew or fabada, cooked vegetables like green beans and potatoes, or a fresh cold salad such as a ploughman’s salad (lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes in a vinaigrette), or a seafood salad. The stews, meat and bean soups, and rice dishes, are served once again in huge family-style portions - basically, all-you-can-eat. The third course, is usually a choice from two seafood dishes, and one meat dish, all served with delicious homemade french fries. Sometimes they are dishes that can be breath-takingly strange to the North American palate: stewed pigs trotters (manos de cerdo) anyone? But don’t worry, there is always a choice of something for the less adventurous on offer. Then, finally, long after you’ve been stuffed to the gills and can’t eat a bite more: there is a wide selection of homemade desserts included with the meal. Now a word about the locally sourced meats: one of the waiters (owner too?), Mario, is a rancher, an award winning rancher, whose bulls got the highest prices paid in regional cattle shows in (I think) 2013 and 2014 - there are photocopies of the newspaper articles announcing the cattle show sales results framed and hanging in the bar. That big beautiful oil painting of a bull in the dining room - that’s one of his prize winning bulls. After enjoying lunch, walk over to the bridge and look upstream, throw out your hand and point across the river: all that pasture land on the other side, past the cave museum, and up until you get to the pink villa called the Palacio of La Piconera, is where he pastures his herd. If you drive to the wonderful not-to-be-missed drive-through cave of Cuevas, his herds are those that you pass as soon as you leave town, pastured along the left hand side between you and the river. Short of leading the cows into town on a leash, you can’t get any more “locally sourced” than that.

You can eat in the bar area, but most people head to the dining room in the back, past the bar and to the left of the restroom. When you get to the dining room, let the waiter know you are there, and he’ll suggest a table. The dining room is small, so large families or groups might want...

Debimos ir en mal día, dado que probamos todas las opciones disponibles del menú y, a pesar de las excelentes reseñas del mesón que habíamos leído, nuestra experiencia no nos invita a repetir ni recomendar este establecimiento.

Comenzaré resaltando que el camarero que nos atendió fue muy cortés y, a pesar de que tardó muchísimo en atenderno, es evidente que no se debía a su profesionalidad, si no al número de mesas que atender sólo.

Menú 20€ adultos (y el mismo menú, 15€ niños). Sopa de entrante, tres primeros a elegir y tres segundos + postre, vino de la casa y pan.

En primer lugar, la sopa no tenía prácticamente fideos. Tuvimos que rebuscar para ponerle a una niña un plato mínimamente decente, y nosotros nos conformamos con el caldo (que tenía buen sabor).

Pedimos los tres primeros: fabada, pote con repollo y ensalada de pulpo. Ésta última, ni bien ni mal. En general, todo normal, sin mucha pega pero nada excepcional.

Los tres segundos una gran decepción. Sobre todo, el "cahopo" que era más bien un San Jacobo muy pequeño, sin carne y con un rebozado peculiar. Los escalopines al cabrales y la merluza rebozada pasables... Para ser un menú de 20€ me refiero. Más propios de un menú de 12€ (15€ en zona turística).

Postres normal.

Creo que en la zona, por 20€ adultos y 15€ un peque menor de 5 años, se puede comer mucho...

Seems to be aimed at local workers for their lunch break as service is fast. We were obviously tourists but made very welcome. Menu del dia offers 4 courses with bread and a full bottle of wine between the 🕝 of us for €22 each - excellent value. Food was simple and local but very tasty especially the bean stew with chorizo and black pudding. Highly recommended if you want local not...