ANDALUCÍA - MÁLAGA - PEDREGALEJO - RESTAURANTE EL CALEÑO

Miguel Renoir Spanish Guides
Jun 30, 2022
2 min read

Updated: 4 days ago

RESTAURANTE EL CALEÑO

To find a nice lunch in the sun, with a view of the sea, head east, along the coastal road from Málaga for about 6 km, and you will arrive in Pedregalejo. It's a pleasant walk or a short taxi ride from Málaga centre.

Looking back toward Málaga City

Just before you get to Pedregalejo, you will see Baños del Carmen, a summer seaside resort that was opened for the rich and famous in 1918. The still beautiful building and its ruined gardens are now a restaurant and bar overlooking the sea, and are an excellent spot for a drink to watch the sunset.

The still, very traditional village of Pedregalejo has retained its local character and charm, avoiding the ruin caused by tourism. The beaches here have been divided up into small U-shaped coves. This makes them the perfect place for families with young children.

This old fishing village is now known for its excellent restaurants, which line the promenade next to the beach. In the warm summer months, sometimes during pleasant days in winter, most people eat outside on the terraces where you can see the local way of cooking sardines (espetos) on wooden sticks in the jabegas (traditional fishing boats).

We chose Restaurante El Caleño, where Owner Chico looked after us. Whose wife is the cook in the kitchen?

This is an absolutely fantastic place to try super-fresh fish.

We had, on this occasion,

Ensalada de cogollos, tomate y cebolla (lettuce, tomato and onion salad).

Anchoas y tomates (anchovies and tomatoes).

Top-quality anchovies.

Chopitos cocinados en su propia tinta (baby squid cooked in its own ink).

Zamburiñas (a relation of the scallop but with smaller meat).

For the main course, we chose Pargo a la sal (a large snapper cooked with a technique that covers the fish in salt and cooks it in its own juices). The result is a very juicy fish texture.

In this case, a considerable amount of coarse salt is used because the fish must be covered entirely. That is why the fish is not salty, since the fat in the skin prevents salt from penetrating.

The fish was expertly prepared for us by Chico.