Restaurants in and around Ronda.

By John Gill

Most restaurants in Ronda are walk-up, even in high season. Those that might require pre-booking, such as Tragabuches, have telephone numbers listed below. As a rule, visitors are advised by we locals not to eat in the central Plaza de Socorro: expensive, badly prepared meals and designed solely to exploit day-trip visitors who are guided there by tour guides in the pay of restaurant owners. In short: avoid!

Pedro Romero , Virgen de la Paz 18 (952 87 11 10)

The classic Rondeño restaurant, opposite the Plaza de Toros, or bull ring, and where the matadores and their admirers, including luminaries such as Orson Welles and Ernest Hemingway, went to celebrate or commiserate with the likes of local legend Antonio Ordoñez. The walls are covered with memorabilia from the corrida, bullfight, and even though the menu has gone up-market recently, it's still the place to find classic Rondeño and Andaluz dishes.

Tragabuches , Jose Aparicio 1 (952 19 02 91) Closed Sun eve, Mon.

Tucked in an alley to the right of the Parador, this is the most stylish in Ronda - indeed, the whole of the Sierras - and is the only Michelin-starred restaurant in the region. Named after a legendary bandit, it prides itself on traditional Andaluz dishes done with a nueva cocida flourish, to often startling, if sublime, effect. Prices aren’t cheap but still a fraction of what you'd expect of a joint like this in a north European city.

Almocábar , Plaza Ruedo Alameda 2 (952 87 59 77)

Curiously, the Barrio San Francisco, traditionally the most working class district of the old town, is home to two of the best, most unpretentious restaurants in Ronda. El Almocábar - Arabic for burial-ground, which this area was during the Arab occupation of Andalucía - is a well-kept secret among locals, and tourists only appear if a local has spilled the beans. An unusual menu - braised duck leg with baked apple, for example - served by friendly staff.

Casa Maria , Plaza Ruedo Alameda 27 (670 79 24 38)

Diagonally opposite Almocábar, Casa Maria is a summer favourite, with waiters dashing through the traffic to serve tables set out under the laurel trees by the fountain in the square. A superb set menu, if eccentrically served: there's no menu, they tell you want they've got, and you tell them when you've eaten enough. Not cheap, but the number of Rondeños flocking here is testament to its quality.

Albacara , calle Tenorio (first right across the Puente Nuevo bridge) (952 87 38 55)

The restaurant of the new four-star Hotel Montelirio, this is an upmarket treat at lunch or dinner, with stunning views of the countryside below Ronda, and the staff are friendly and accommodating. There's also a bar and a cheaper cafetería with a balcony overlooking the gorge.

Don Miguel , calle Villanueva (opposite the Parador)

A big favourite with visitors for its views south towards the Sierra de las Nieves (Mountains of the Snows), the hotel's restaurant and cafetería both have terraces, and the restaurant especially goes out of its way to provide a menu of well-produced Andaluz specialities. Friendly staff add to the atmosphere.

Casa Santa Pola , Cuesta Santo Domingo (first left across the bridge)

Perched vertiginously on the edge of the gorge, this has multi-levelled terraces with views of the mountains and newer town opposite. New ownership has taken the menu upmarket, and its terraces fill up quickly.

La Leyenda , calle Remedios

Better known as the smart bar where the señoritos, Ronda’s ancien regime, sup fino after church on Sunday, this is also an excellent restaurant proper, with some Andaluz dishes not seen on other menus, and a cheap tapas menu plus outdoor seating. The décor is after Antoni Gaudí’s trencadi (broken) tile mosaics from Barcelona.

Atrium , Paseo Ernest Hemingway

The restaurant-bar to the smart new Acinipo hotel, this has an excellent Andaluz (the owner is Rondeño) menu and, in clement weather, a pleasant patio with views of the mountains.

Los Cazadores , calle del Rosal 1 (952 952 19 03 16)

The best fish restaurant in Ronda, on the right by the health centre at the top of 'La Bola', the local nickname for the pedestrian calle Espinel. It opens erratically, doesn't have a written menu - they serve whatever fresh fish and seafood they find that day - so you'll have to have your wits and some Spanish about you when they explain what's on. The mariscos - shellfish - are excellent, and to start the deep-friend berenjenas - aubergine - drizzled with honey are splendid.

Puerta Grande , calle Nueva (opposite the Parador)

A superior local eaterie, with amiable staff, a good take on local and international dishes, a bar and tapas option as well as full-on lunch and dinner, probably the best bet in this increasingly busy thoroughfare.

Quino , calle Nueva

Once Ronda's hippest tapas bar, Quino transformed itself into a restaurant proper some years ago. It still offers a mezcla, mixture, of tapas, but has also developed a menu offering bacalao and rabo de toro, oxtail stew. One favourite is costillas, knuckle-like mini ribs, and also an excellent revuelto (scrambled egg) with potato and local sausage.

Restaurants near Ronda

Molino del Santo , Boulevardia Estación de Benaoján (952 16 71 51)

Actually in the outlying village of Benaoján, a short train, bus or cab ride from downtown Ronda, El Molino has been unofficially adopted by Ronda as its favourite countryside hotel-restaurant. The meat and vegetarian friendly kitchen is run on organic lines, and you can eat on the idyllic terrace under weeping willows by a rushing mill stream (hence the name; molino, mill). A treat.

El Vapor , Ronda-Algeciras railway line, Arriate

One of many former rail almacens, storerooms, on the railway line - there are others further down the line (and a great little bar on the platform at Benaojan) - that have been turned into restaurants, this has a traditional Andaluz menu, a bar, and an outdoor area where you can wave at the trains.

Quercus , Ronda-Algeciras railway line, Jimera de Libar

Yet another roomy rail shed at a picturesque spot on one of the most dramatic train journeys in Europe (and handy for the end of Guy Hunter-Watts’s ‘The Walk of Mr Henderson’s Railway’, URL??). The name is the latin for oak, a reference to the surrounding cork forests, largest in Europe, and the menu is fittingly traditional.

Non-Spanish restaurants

Chinese

New World , calle Lauria (a block down from the bus station)

Most of Ronda's Chinese restaurants are dire - unlike north European Chinese cuisine, this is often simply cooked meats dunked into a helping of accompanying sauce, and the monosodium glutamate doesn't help. But the New World feels more like a north European Chinese restaurant, not least in its excellent Peking Duck. And they don't stare at you irritatedly if you ask for chopsticks.

Italian

There's something of an overlap in Italian and Spanish foods anyway, especially in the pizza department, and there are a number of restaurants on both sides of the cultural divide that do both. Best, however, are the three restaurants run by Italian pizza chef Giuseppe Vuoccono, Peppe Nonno. The original is midway on calle Nueva, where he built a huge domed brick pizza oven and uses those long wood scoops to handle his crisp, thin pizzas. The second is at the end of calle Nueva, opposite the Parador; the third on Remedios, next to La Leyenda. Each also offers pasta and meat dishes, and a reasonable chianti. Try also Marco Polo, on calle Lorenzo Borrego off the top of the Plaza de Soccoro, and El Vulcan, on calle Sevilla, a block up from the Plaza Carmen Abela, off calle Espinel. At all costs, avoid takeaway pizza outlets; they're soggy and half-cooked disasters.

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