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The Welcome Stranger is a restaurant I never knew about in a village I didn’t know existed.

It’s in a hamlet called Limaria which is technically part of Arboleas, but you have to go through Albox to get there. I drove there over fields and dirt tracks in the Jeep and it was a rather surreal experience, coming over a hill into a large place full of luxury villas in the middle of absolutley bloody nowhere.

It’s a very nice place, and according to the plaque outside has been built with public money, which is nice for someone. Nice large tables outside under sunscreens and a large restaurant inside. Bar is a tad pokey, but I suppose most people sit in the salon or outside. Nicely decorated tho’.

It being lunchtime in the middle of Albox, and having been driving over field and track, I was more interested in the water than the décor at first, but having quenched my thirst proceeded to examine the menu.

A strange construct, this menu. It’s high class English “pub grub”. I forget the components (wrote it down but then lost the piece of paper), but it’s the sort of menu that is either well cooked and delicious, or ham fisted and bloody awful.

You know the sort of thing; (from a website advertising their menu, but which I think may be out of date): Tropical Prawn Cocktail (rosemarie sauce over prawns and pineapple with kiwi orange and lemon), Oven baked trout (stuffed with leeks and wrapped in bacon), homemade pies, many with beer in them, Tournedos, home made puds, etc.

I had a salad, tuna mayonnaise one. Very nice, crisp and fresh. There was a bottle of some sauce on the table instead of olive oil and vinegar – I gingerly sniffed it, and it was some sort of sweet plum salad dressing. I gave that a wide berth.

Steer away from the house wine, it’s a tad…. earthy.

It was an interesting place. The waitress was a bit sniffy when I first traipsed in, trailing dirt and dust all over her nice clean floor, but was pleasent enough once food was ordered. I’m still wondering how they get away with just a linen handtowel in the toilets, fairly sure that’s not permitted. Nicely decorated throughout, the restaurant is a fine place that if (and I have no experience of it, I hasten to add) it has a decent staff working in the kitchen then should be a fine place for dinner.

One of these days, I shall have to traipse back up (bit cleaner next time) and try it out. It didn’t seem expensive, either.

Welcome Stranger Restaurant & Bar, Limaria
950432719
Closed Mons & Tues. Open for food 12-3.30 and 7 onwards.
See it on Google Maps (photo is a bit out of date)
Get there from Albox: Go towards the Aljambra for about 4,5 KM. At both main forks in the road take the right hand one. Just before Limaria, it’s on the left, big building with parking in front.

 While pottering around in the wilds above Albox, I realised that it was lunch time. Feeling hungry, feeling lost, feeling desolate, I happened across the Travellers Inn, in Los Marcelinos.

Navigating the steep little incline down into the car park, I noticed a sign stating “English Tourist Board: 2 crowns”. No idea what that is all about, is it even permitted to have that sign up? What would the Junta say? It says it a B&B, but doesn’t have any Turismo signs displayed.

The Travellers Inn bills itself as a B&B, restaurant, live music and bar. I had no idea what to expect. I certainly didn’t expect to duck into the main bar and find myself back in the UK. I’ve never seen such an authentic looking English pub. If it weren’t for the Telefonica public phone in the corner and the Mahou on tap I would have thought myself in wildest Kent.

An amusing incident at the bar, where I was served what the barmaid insisted was Amstel and was in fact Beamish Stout. Turned out somebody had turned the tap over that morning.

While they run a number of specials throughout the week (check their website for more info) they have a bar snack menu, and a restaurant menu for the evenings. We ordered, and decided to sit outside in a nicely revamped garden area, with a fountain and fish canal running along two sides of the seating area. The ground was painted a lurid green, no doubt to impersonate grass. No complaints, it was sheltered enough, although the flies were a bit of a nuisance.

Now I have to say that they are taking the English export a bit too far. The décor, the menu, the staff, even the food was English. Even the onion rings, which were just as tasteless and soggy as any onion ring I’ve ever had in the UK. Must be imported specially.

The burgers were OK, the patties quite tasty and the buns fresh, but let down by the limp salad. The club sandwich was quite nice on malted brown bread. The pub lunch menu was fairly typical for an English pub, so you imagine the stuff on it. Mind you, despite this, I am still attracted back to the idea of actually dining there one evening. Shows promise.

That’s about it, really. If you ever feel homesick for Blighty, go and sit in the bar for a while, let the Beamish warm up, have a few peanuts, look at the pictures on the wall. Then go and have a few tapas. You want England, stay there. It doesn’t export well.

The Travellers Inn
B&B, Restaurant, English Pub
http://www.alboxalmeria.com
Tlf 950 523 762

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