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(Note: This review is now depreciated, and is only available as a historical note. STOP bar has changed hands since then. It’s still very good though!)

.Twas Maters birthday. A rare occasion. As some say, when you have a birthday, you take a day off – when she takes a birthday, she takes a year off. (Only joking!!)

ANYWAY  off we popped to the Vera Hotel. Recently taken over (60%) by the KeyMare group – those responsible for the monstrous apartments of Vera Playa – it´s been upgraded, upmarketed and generally made fit for human consumption. In fact, it´s now almost on a par with my all time favorite Terraza Carmona. Four star hotel, four star food, and two star service. It´s still better than most.

The decor is quite pleasant, with a small and intimate dining room just off the main bar, behind the lobster tanks. If you have a larger party, you can squeeze into one of the private dining rooms, each named after an Andalusian province. If a smaller party, you get a wonderful view of the vast electric pylons and the motorway in the main dining room.

We ordered a number of starters, including pata negra, pan con ajo y tomate, salad, gambas (5E each I should warn you!), Moet e Chandon and sundry others. The main difference between the Vera Hotel and the Carmona is that the VH menu is actually intelligible. I´ve been to the Carmona with university educated Spaniards and even they can´t understand that menu. We´ve complained to Antonio many a time, but he still refuses to change it. Ah well. Back to VH.

Bodge (younger bro) order the Bogavante a la plancha (fried lobster to you). Can´t say I recommend it, but as I write this I have just finished the most fantastic lobster at ´The Old Passage, Arningham, Glos´ (More later). Slightly burnt, not enough butter.

Dad and I shared a fantastic Buey a la piedra. They bring you a hot stone, lots of juicy meat, and you cook it yourself. Damned good. They used to do this at the Carmona, but stopped because the smoke annoyed your neighbors. The same thing will happen here, so get a move on and try it before they remove it.

Mater ordered the Rodabie, local fish, pan fried on the plancha with lemon and vegetables. Lovely. Light, saucy and filling.

We finished off with a wonderful round of puddings, and possibly a little too much Orujo and brandy. A large cigar each (Mater abstained, before the rumours start) completed the evening.

The main event of the evening happened when we ran out of wine – we were drinking a very pleasant 92 Rioja, but sadly they only had two bottles in stock, the third was a 96. After some complaining on Dads part, we got two bottles free, plus the aperitifs! Can´t complain. Mind you, the total bill was still almost 300E, so they didn´t do too badly out of us.

(Note: This review is now depreciated, and is only available as a historical note. )

Update Summer 2007
The Bann Thai is, sadly, no more. It is now a funky chill out bar going by the name of “Titos Buddha Bar”. Best of luck to Tito, but I shall miss it´s passing.

Original review (posted June 2006) as follows:

Sunday, and after the excitements of the boat race, followed by a leisurely caipirinha at El Patio chiringuito, to dinner. But where? Thai! Wonderful.

It was my first visit back to Bann Thai this season, and I approached it with high hopes. Last summer it had been a favourite haunt of mine, and I have to say it was fantastic. Would it keep up appearances? Would my tingling taste buds be disappointed?

It was a bit strange. The table service was great, wonderful service and very attentive. The kitchen produced a great meal – but very slowly. About 40 minutes twixt entree and main!

We started off with a selection of starters which we shared, always a winner. I thoroughly recommend the Tempura of Prawns with a sweet and sour sauce. Sadly, I forgot what else we had to start. Well, it´s not as if I´m getting paid for this.

As I was the only one who wanted wine, I was pleasantly surprised to find a half bottle of Herederos de Marques de Riscal Reserva 2001 on the wine list. Why don´t more restaurants in the area serve half bottles? They do have a decent little wine list, and some quite decent French champagne at a good price. (We got through a few bottles of that at a party last year there!)

The wine kept me going until the main course arrived (eventually). I was going to say something, but general exhaustion and a kick under the table from one of my beautiful assistants stopped me.

Now, the rice was red. Nothing against red rice, I just find it strange. However, it didn´t taste red, which I suppose is what matters. The thai green curry was fantastic, full of flavour and very juicy. The vegetables were just right, al dente. The same for the stir fry and the vegetarian thai curry that my companions had. We polished it all off and sat back feeling bloated. Even the presentation of the food was pleasant.

A fresh fruit pudding and a mango ice cream polished it all off, followed by coffee and liqueurs.

Just a pity it took so long between courses! It´s a great restaurant with lovely views over the bay, friendly and attentive waiters, and great food. They just need to stick another chef in the kitchen.

Costasol, Husa Hotel, Almeria city

I was recently in Almeria for a meeting with the Provincial Delegate of Industry & Innovation, as part of the Levante sin Cables Aereos campaign (www.levantesincables.org). There were 6 of us, and we had some time to kill after the mornings demonstration, so off we popped for lunch.

Since we at the bottom of the Rambla anyway, somebody suggested Costasol, a pleasant restaurant and hotel, about 150 m up the Paseo de Almeria (number 58 -> Google maps). So, once we´d been ushered back out of the main hotel and directed downstairs to the restaurant, we got a decent table in the corner of the private dining area.

An interesting menu was presented, possibly best described as typical Andalucian fare. After some discussion, we all plumped for menu del dia, and a couple of bottles of some decent Rioja.

There´s been some fuss recently, over a study by Consumer.es that claimed that Almeria serves the worst menu del dia in Spain. (Article in Spanish) As far as the capital goes, it´s possible. I´ve never really found a restaurant here that does a good one. While there´s nothing wrong with the quality of the food, the variety and the dishes tends to be rather limited. And this was much the same. I chose the fried beans and jamon Serrano to start with (oily), followed by lomo con patatas fritas (quite nice) and flan (of course). Not really anything to write home about (so why am I?), but not bad for lunch. And probably better than anything else that end of the street. Mind you, I wouldn´t mind popping back sometime to sample the A la carte, it seemed to be quite a good Andalucian menu. Oh, and it was 9.50€ for the menu del dia, which was nice.