ANDALUCÍA - MÁLAGA - PEDREGALEJO - RESTAURANTE EL CALEÑO

Feb 3
2 min read

RESTAURANTE EL CALEÑO

We returned to the still-very-traditional village of Pedregalejo, just outside of Malaga. This village has kept its local character and charm and has not been ruined by tourism.

The beaches here are divided into small U-shaped coves, perfect for families with young children.

This old fishing village is now known for its excellent fish 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 the espetos,

which are fish skewered and grilled over an open fire, on wooden sticks in the jabegas (the local, small, traditional fishing boats). You can find the famous sardine espetos, as well as other species like sea bream and red mullet. This is a classic Málaga tradition. Locals are known as ‘Espetos’!

We were returning to Restaurante El Caleño.

The restaurant was originally founded in 1987 by Rafael Alcaide and Loli Ramírez. After 35 years, they are now enjoying their retirement. They entrusted their legacy to Fabio Horacio Donofrio, who now manages El Caleño and continues to offer the same high-quality fresh fish and seafood. Pick your fish and seafood from the menu board.

Once settled in, we started with some papas aliñas (known as poor man’s potatoes).

Concha finas (large pink clams).

This bivalve is a giant clam species that, when eaten raw, with a squeeze of lemon juice, delivers a burst of salty freshness on your palate. The clam’s white, reddish, sometimes orange flesh is quickly sucked with great pleasure.

Zamburiñas pil-pil (spicy Galician scallops).

Coquinas de Málaga (small local flat shell clams).

Gambas de Málaga.

We had a bottle of Pago de los Capellanes O Luar do Sil Godello 2023 to drink.

For our main course, we were going to have either Pargo or Urta. We were advised to have the Urta (a red sea bream rockfish), and this turned out to be an excellent choice.

You can have it a la sal (baked in sea salt) or espeto (grilled over an open wood fire from the boat on the beach). We had the grilled version, which was expertly cooked and very succulent.