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.