This is a Readers Review submitted by Britt Arenander on the Mojo Picón Italian restaurant on Mojácar Playa.
I have discovered a little pearl of an Italian restaurant on Mojácar playa, unpretentious and cosy, situated on the Casa Egea stretch, more or less opposite Tito´s.
It´s still called Mojo Picón, as when the chicken with mojo picón was the main attraction.
Now it´s run by a friendly young Italian couple who serve really good homemade Italian food – I´m stuck on the ravioli filled with pumpkin, accompanied by bolognese sauce or a fresh tomato sauce, but there are many other pasta dishes to choose from. Last time my friend had pasta with homemade pesto, great!
There is also a selection of meat and fish dishes. If you ask for it a small salad comes with whatever food you choose, which saves you from ordering one of those huge salads that usually cost around 6 euros and that you can´t possibly finish.
I haven´t tried the pizzas yet, but I´ve seen they are big, and look highly appetizing.
If you don´t have a pudding a small bowl of fresh fruit is served after the meal, and the very reasonable bill comes with a chupito of a delicious liquor.
This is a Readers Review submitted by Britt Arenander on the Mojo Picón Italian restaurant on Mojácar Playa. To submit your own review, please use the Add your own review option above.
Alas, the perils of living in a culinary wasteland.
Food options in Mojacar are, sadly, limited. Even while living in Brittas Bay (Co Wicklow) I had the option of Dublin just up the road.
And no visit to the family’s UK base of operations is complete without a trip to the Thai Emerald, Cirencester (one of the best in the UK, to my mind).
But recently, my taste buds have been neglected. Spanish or Italian seems to be the order of the day. Yes, our local Sushi restaurant in still open, but raw tuna on rice just doesn’t do it for me anymore. I have to go to Asahi in Almería to get anything more exotic. Or, if they deign to open their doors, the Youet (Almería’s best kept Chinese secret).
So just for a laugh, we tripped into the Cowboy Cocina. A delight to all the senses, including, and this is rare, visual.
If you’ve never been to the Cowboy, you should, just for the amazingly well thought out decorations. Imagine, if you will, a typical “Yankee” themed restaurant. Let’s take, for the sake of argument, TGIF Fridays.
They have lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of crap on the walls, right? Number-plates and old cars and fishing rods and radios and general ‘hey ho, it’s 1960′s America, aren’t we God’s chosen people’ sort of stuff.
Well, Cowboy Cocina is like that, but tastefully done (inasmuch as such a theme can be “tasteful”). Object acquired and carefully positioned. Nice posters and photos, many to do with the Spaghetti Westerns they filmed in the area. Not too sure about the dead buffalo on the wall.
If you want to, you can sit outside on the roomy patio and watch the traffic go past, whilst also admiring the old wagon wheels.
I mean, just look at these bar stools (click for a bigger pic):
I’m easily pleased. The second I saw those chairs I knew I’d like the place.
Kenny, who owns the joint with his wife Catherine, is a wild west enthusiast. He loves the wild west, and wishes he’d been born a real ole cowboy. (He’s from the midlands, I believe).
He makes a wild homemade BBQ sauce, and Ric P., a man who knows all about America, assures me he once entered a BBQ sauce competition at Elvis’s Graceland mansion and came second. Good enough for me.
The food is southern style BBQ, properly done (ie, fresh and made with loving care), in some sort of smoke pit. I didn’t understand the technicalities.
The burgers are enourmous and tasty, as are the steaks (no freezers here!). The ribs are to die for.
Let’s be honest. You don’t usually go to a place like this for the food, as it’s always burgers, steaks and ribs covered in sauce. You go for the ambiance. And this place has that in shovelfuls.
Kenny is knowegable about the wild west, and an authority on the spaghetti western film industry that used to exist in Almería. If you have a question about the films, go and speak to him. He’s also pretty good at whipping up a party.
And surprisingly enough, I’d probably go back for the food.Where else can you eat so much for so little and enjoy it so much?
Cowboy Cocina,
Urb Los Angeles, Mojacar Playa
950 472 924
Mojacar’s beach bars are an institution with which I have a love hate relationship.
On the one hand, I love visiting them, eating there, having a few drinks, maybe bopping to the live music and in general having a great afternoon.
On the other, it’s a long way to get there (from Turre) when the traffic is heavy, there is always a large police presence making their greasy little fingers felt on your wallet (via the state mechanism of fines, I should add) and there is always the fear that your car will be broken into whilst you are off enjoying a brief few minutes of bliss away from work. The cops being too busy fining tourists to actually bother catching the crooks with crowbars.
Last year, the family made Neptuno’s beach bar a habitual stop. Easy to get to (turn left at the Parque Comercial, second place on the beach), with many easy access routes over the fields back to Turre and Los Gallardos, with excellent food, few riff raff and attentive service, it ticked all the boxes.
And to top it all off, the large, clean and safe beach in front of the restaurant allowed my many nieces and nephews free reign to indulge themselves making sandcastles on the high tide mark whilst indulgent parents beamed with approval from the terrace.
Assuming we spent an average of between 100€ and 200€ a visit…. let’s say we dropped a couple of grand there last year. Infrequent visits, but every one was pleasant.
So, when the clouds over Mojacar finally lifted, we restarted out visits to the beach there. I’ve been there twice this year. The clouds may have lifted from Mojacar, but not from my heart after going there.
Neptuno is a main building, enclosed with large plate glass windows, which allows for easy indoor eating when the wind is strong. On the beach.
Should the breeze be lighter, you can sit outside on the many enjoyable shady tables. Larger parties out front, smaller tables on the boardwalk around the main building. Comfy chairs, large tables, and lots of sparrows to feed while waiting for the food. Or you can watch the elderly chef cook sardines on the sand filled boat, and feel your mouth water with anticipation at the sight. It should be paradaise.
Of course, it isn’t.
The last time we went there, with a cousin from the UK, we found ourselves relegated to the beach front patio, in full blast of the wind. We complained, but were told that there were no tables in the lull of the wind. The waitress was right. Not because they were full – because they hadn’t bothered to set them up. So I had to sit there, and fill my teeth with sand from the wind every time I smiled.
The sardines were cooked on the plancha that time (no fire, we were told). The salad was indifferent. The paella was full of tomato, tasted frozen and was unappetising.
We left, feeling sad, but determined to give it another go, on the understanding that they had just opened and weren’t up to speed for the summer season.
Anyway, ’twas Maters birthday. I have made jokes about this in the past, and been threatened. I pass over the jokes. The family was there, along with two little ones. We were sited in a nice table. It was cloudy, but not cold, and not windy. The sea was calm. The fire in the boat was roaring.
For starters, we ordered a salad, chipirones and two plates of fire cooked sardines.
Now, the Neptuno, in case you didn’t know, has an old fishing boat outside where they cook the fish. It’s full of sand, and fish are speared on spikes before being roasted over the flames.
The sardines were delicious. Perfectly cooked. Five to a plate, as always, and fresh, with rock salt. The salad was also wonderful. The chipirones were frozen and deep fried. Heh ho.
For main course, we had ordered a number of fish (I forget which types), a steak and two BBQ grilled chicken breasts.
The fish turned up in a timely fashion. We watched them being cooked on the open fire. One of them was badly undercooked and was sent back. It was returned, and was reported as being lovely.
Meanwhile, the meat eaters wondered where our food was.
When the fish eaters had half finished their dishes, we asked where the meat was. The waiter looked surprised, and fled to the kitchen. We later realised, from the length of time it took for the meat to arrive, that someone had forgotten to put the order in, and they started cooking it the moment we complained.
The fish were eventually finished. The fish eaters took it slowly, but still finished before our meat turned up. This gives you an idea of how long it took.
The meat turned up. I dug my fork into the meaty chicken thigh, and a spurt of blood hit my sun glasses. The chicken was returned to the kitchen for a “repaso”.
Meanwhile, to hide my fury at the chicken episode, I took the two young ones to the sea. We had a paddle with grandma (she had finished her fish ages ago and was now on the coffee). A lovely time was had by all until grandma discovered quite a lot of broken glass scattered amongst the beach chairs. Bottles and glasses, we agreed. The children were scooped up and returned to the boardwalk.
Now, who leaves broken glass on a beach, when you’re selling deck chairs there? Words fail me. We scooped up some of the glass and gave it to a waiter with a stern word, but I doubt anything was done.
Eventually, the chicken was returned. It had been ripped apart by the chef, burnt on the outside and flipped several times in the flames. The chips and the vegetables were the same as before, only now cold and greasy. The chicken was not much edible.
Nothing wrong with the meat, I hasten to add. It was a fine chicken thigh, firm and meaty. But it was far too large to be cooked on a BBQ. It should have been done in an oven before being finished off over the flame. And by the time the amateur in the kitchen had finished with it, it was basically chicken strips burnt over a flame.
To cut a long story short (I could go on) this used to be a fine restaurant, in a wonderful location. But the maitré d has gone.
He now runs Finca La Parata, and I have yet to go (I will).
But I blame the collapse of this once fine restaurant on him.
Take away the firm hand and watchful eye, and you get what I’ve had this month – an amateurish, sloppish mess of a restaurant, where the waiters don’t talk to the kitchen, the kitchen doesn’t know what’s happening with the open fire and the staff couldn’t care less.
Neptuno Beach Bar.
Playa del Descargador s/n, Mojacar Playa.
Mojácar Playa. Turn left at the Parque Commercial towards Garrucha, about 600m along on the beachside. You can’t miss it.
616005387
Ottocento is a restaurant that I’ve never been to. It used to be called “Arcano” until it changed its’ name earlier this year. It can be found next to Asuntxu tapa beer pull restaurant on the Playa.
Here’s a photo:
Hudson Stubbs tells me that:
“We went there for a meal tonight and I cannot praise it too highly. Nice restrained modern decor – excellent service and very reasonable prices.
We both had starters – me aubergines and my partner goat’s cheese — beautifully cooked and really tasty.
I then had lamb off the bone with broccoli/parmgiano and crushed potatoes. The whole thing was heaven on a plate.
Partner had pork in mustard sauce also very good. With wine, though no dessert, the bill came to €46 – pretty much the norm for the area but if we’d had pizzas could have been a lot less.
Lots of Spanish and some English customers but overall a most pleasant experience and our best since L’Incanto a few weeks ago.”
Cheers, Hudson. We shall pop in at some point and see if your review was accurate!
To submit your own review, use the “Add your own review!” link in the top menu.
Many, many, many years ago, Finca La Parata was the benchmark for expat food in the area.
John in the kitchen serving up exquisite delights, Anne out front with the family making you feel at home.
This all changed when they left for pastures new. Then they came back, and I wrote about their triumphal return here.
And then they left again. To open up the old Agora, next to Lua on the beachfront, as a swish modern restaurant called Restaurante La Fantasia. Together, once again, with Edd and Claire.
To those of you who reminded me I have not written about it before, despite having been spotted there on half a dozen occasions, I must apologise (especially to Hudson, who asked me months ago for a critique). Pressures of work, etc etc etc.
La Fantasia is a rather strange building. When you first arrive, you walk through the main door, only to be presented, not with a lovely dining area, but with some rather steep stairs.
Negotiating these stairs with care (every time I go, it seems to be raining) you come to the main restaurant downstairs.
The main room downstairs has a large seating area, with a big bar. Then there is a long conservatory outside, which leads onto the paseo maritimo, large outdoor terraces on either side and another dining room (not normally used except for functions) to the side. Should be great in summer when those terraces are in use.
The ambiance is… fresh. Nice and airy. Views into a gleaming kitchen, large spacious bar and tables with a bit of elbow room.
The menu is much the same as before, including John’s famous chicken kievs, of which I have fond memories from my youth (before Kings Food swamped the area with frozen imported ones).
The cuisine is very English. Imagine decent, slightly upmarket pub grub from the 90′s. Huge prawn cocktails, Duck á la orange, chicken kiev, usually a curry dish, beef stroganoff, etc. I keep thinking I’ll glance out the window and spot an angler by the Severn.
Spanish – I have taken some there – are usually intrigued, despite the fact that the menu is translated into Spanish. The translations aren’t always 100%, in my opinion – they translate the food but the concept is lost. For example, a pie is translated as beef stew with pastry. Technically accurate…. just not quite what it is. I nitpick. I’ll be quiet now.
It is not, if I am honest, an exciting menu. It is a reliable menu. A menu that, even when it changes, remains much the same.
This is not a bad thing, as evidenced by the fact its currently one of the busiest places around. The clientele are happy, and the management has cleverly catered for their every whim.
Good solid British pub grub on hot plates.
Prices are decent. During the day we have the “menu del dia”, which is a seperate menu for 10€, and in the evenings we have the “menu luz de luna”, for 12€. Both have excellent choices. Or order off the á la carte.
They have something for everyone. Fish, meat, vegetarian and pasta / pizza. Not a huge menu that they can’t cope with, but a good solid range of food meaning there is always something for each member of the party.
Unless you’re those fruterians I once met in Malaga, who only ate windfall and lived in a Buddist temple. But I doubt they eat out much in Mojácar.
The single biggest quibble I have with the place is that they insist upon drawing their logo (a heart with stars in it) on all the puddings, usually in strawberry syrup. Frankly, it annoys me. Why, I do not know, as I do not usually eat puddings, but if someone else at the table has one I find myself using my finger to wipe up the syrup and write something with it. This, as you can imagine, makes me even more unpopular than I am now.
So yes. Go there. Reserve first, it’s often packed and I’ve had to wait for a table there. Staff are attentive and kind.
Restaurante La Fantasia
Paseo del Mediterraneo 6, next to Lua, in front of La Gaviota complex.
Mojácar Playa.
Tlf 950 475 127
Website (with menus): http://www.restaurantefantasia.com/
A German restaurant? Called “El rincón de Lola?” Has the sun finally addled the lad? I hear you ask.
Well, actually, it was 7ºC and raining (almost sleeting), so no, the sun has not addled the lad. Nor has the wine, since the police crackdown.
Ric P. bullied me into lunch (unfair, really, to insinuate that, as he paid) and we met in Turre. Turre had a two hour power cut, so we said the proverbial “bugger this for a game of boules” and went to Mojácar.
Ric, being a man who knows his food, suggested Lola’s.
If you follow Ric P. in a car down Mojácar Playa for several minutes, you eventually come to a square known as “the square in front of Harmony Gym”. (For both Ric P. and myself, Harmony Gym, and its ilk, is but a simple landmark pointing towards more interesting places). Just in front of Mojacar windows and doors. Next to the catalogue shop. Got it? Check the map link at the bottom of the posting.
In the aforementioned square is a fountain, no idea if it works, a hire shop which is hiring everything including the office it’s in (se alquila, muy barato) and a few bars. One of these, the big one at the top of the square, is, it seems, where the local Germans hang out. No, I didn’t know we had any, either. Seems they’ve outgrown Roquetas.
Now, I consider myself a well travelled man. A man who, when confronted by the possibility of dog in Xi’an, blanched not. A man, who when given KFC in Don Mueang International Airport, managed several brave bites. A man who survived two weeks of comida Criollo whilst travelling around Cuba before snapping and, British Passport in hand, imperiously broke down the security barrier at the Melia Santiago de Cuba Hotel to get into the Italian restaurant to eat something other than pork (Restaurante La Fontana is a terrible restaurant, by the way, but the only international restaurant in Santiago I could find that was open).
However, my only experience of German food was two days in the German part of Switzerland. So, presented with the menu, and surrounded by happy Teutons, I was at a loss. The menu meant nothing. It may have well as been in Martian. Have you ever tried to read a menu when really drunk? It was like that, only I was sober. German is not a language with which I am familiar.
I can now sympathise with those poor Brits who flee the Spanish bars to take refuge in pies at the Jimmy’s Place. It’s a bewildering experience to be in (fairly) familiar surroundings and not know what is going on. I was, in fact, in the hands of Ric, who patiently guided me through the menu. I later discovered that he’d found the Spanish translation at the back.
The cook, who I presume is Lola, is an elderly lady who rules with an iron thumb and has several people scurrying around for her. I wouldn’t venture a guess at who is who – suffice it to say that they are a friendly bunch.
There was a menu del dia for 10,50. Three courses. A Sauerkrautsauppen to start with, a selection of main courses and some puddings. One of our party selected that, and had for main course three potato & apple cakes with toppings – one something, the other two herring and beetroot. Interesting. Here’s a pic.
I & Ric had a salad to start. It came with a nice sauce, similar to coleslaw.
We both had escalopes for mains. A meat – chicken I think- cooked in breadcrumbs and with toppings, as if they were crêpes. You get them in Spain, although usually they are drier than the ones served today, which were nicely done. Mine was pepper and onions. Rics was pepper sauce. On the side we had a sort of potato bake. Delicious.
8,50€ to 9,50€ for the escalopes. They’re enourmous and tasty. A bottle of wine for 9€, a white from Rueda which slipped down nicely, considering as to how it was a white from Rueda.
A couple of problems, neither to do with Rincon de Lola: German food is heavy, and generally looks unpresented. It also sounds bloody unappetising. I’m looking at the bill now. Zigeuner Brattiz? Who wants to eat one of those? Well, I do now I know what it is.
Puds were delivered, and the chappie behind the counter cheekily insisted we try a selection of puds “on the house”, which we did. Very nice.
The place was busy for a Wednesday lunchtime. It’s small, about five big tables, all were filled several times, mainly with happy Germans. A table of British ladies came in later on, fresh from their workout in the gym.
Total bill (for three) with beer, wine and puds was 47,70€ and I didn’t have to eat again that night.
It’s not a place for a fancy night out. But for a fun lunch, albeit a big one, that’s cheap, well cooked and damn tasty, it gets my vote. Or for a tapa and a beer. And you can pop into the gym opposite to burn off the fat between courses, should the need take you.
El Rincón de Lola,
German Restaurant.
677 697 233
Mojácar Playa. Paseo del Mediterráneo 261. Google Maps.
It’s the 16th of November 2009 and at midday it was around 26ºC. Perfect weather for a paella on the beach.
Let’s be honest. The weather is perfect. No wind. No clouds. The sea is so calm that even I, with my chronic sea sickness, would consider venturing out in it. If it were not for the incompetence of the townhall and the Junta’s tourism department we would be inundated with tourists. Instead parking is ample and roads are empty. The police that plagued us in the summer have, as there is noone left to fine, gone elsewhere.
So we closed the office and skipped off down to the beach. Off to Neptuno.
Neptuno is a large beach bar / restaurant situated on the beach. A large wooden building with nice pleasent outside chairs and shading. Quite a few birds fluttering about.
Neptuno has a large rowing boat full of sand outside where they roast sardines. (Sometimes they burn them). Usually they are delicious. We didn’t have any today, no real reason why.
The food in Neptuno is not ecstatic. It is not mouth watering and it is not pants wetting. However, it is consistent, unlike so many places in the area. You know you can have a decent (if slightly wet) paella, with trimmings and salad, maybe some fish, and a bottle of plonk, and be happy.
It is also not terribly expensive. They do not increase their prices 200% in the summer; they do not rip off the tourist. Instead it is consistent, year round, tasty and happy. It is also on the beach.
If it is raining, you can sit inside and water does not drip on you, instead you can see the rain plink into the sea. If sunny, you can sit outside. If windy, you can sit on the opposite side in the lull.
They do, rather annoyingly, charge a basic for bread. €1 per head. These things get on my nerves. If you asked me “would you like some warm fresh bread and ali oli?” I would say Aye! and damn the expense. Deliver it without warning and slip an extra euro on the bill and I feel ripped off. Sadly, this is something that is becoming ever more common across Spain.
A mixed salad, which is large and ample, costs €7. A Paella costs €11 p.p., min two people. No reservation needed. A beer €2,50, a G&T €5 and a cheap Navarro rosé (Palacio de la Vega, I believe) €11.
The paella was not, today, perfect. It was not quite wet enough to be caldo, it was not dry enough to be paella. The meat was somewhat stringy. But the taste was nice and we finished it.
€64.80 for three, excluding the G&T’s.
Neptuno Beach Bar.
Playa del Descargador s/n, Mojacar Playa.
Mojácar Playa. Turn left at the Parque Commercial towards Garrucha, about 600m along on the beachside. You can’t miss it.
616005387
This restaurant used to be called “Bollywood” and I dined there once, much to my dismay [Read the Bollywood Indian restaurant review (now archived)].
The owners eventually left, whether or not under a cloud it is not up to me to say, and it was taken back by the two owners who decided to install a new chef -he goes under the name “Mr Manchester”- and reopen it as “The Indian Tandoori”.
I paid it little attention until enticed there by some locals who live & work nearby, and presumably know what they are talking about when they said over the phone “we’ll meet at the best Indian in Mojacar”.
It was, as usual, a lovely sunny afternoon in Mojácar. The wonderful local management by the townhall has ensured that tourists have stopped coming to Mojacar, so that meant no traffic queues and and easy parking outside La Gaviota complex.
The restaurant is much as I remember it, albeit cleaner. It’s a big L shape around a large sunny exterior patio looking over the bay. The top has the bar, toilets, kitchen and storerooms, the rest the main restaurant.
I was pleased to note that both the lightswitch and the toilet door have been repaired, so the experience of being locked in with no light was not repeated.
We ordered a mixture of starters and a mixture of mains, seeing as to how it was lunchtime and we were four.
Poppadoms, fresh crispy and tasty. Nice mix of dips. Bhaji’s were nice, too.
A mixture of curries came for the main. The rice was crisp and fresh, as were the nans.
The curries? They were very nice. Not outstanding and I struggle to bring the taste back, but they slipped down nicely. Meat was fresh, which is nice as there is nothing worse than recooked chicken in a curry.
Prices were decidedly average for Mojacar, which was a nice surprise. With food, wine, g&t’s and bits, just over €110 for four. Cut down on the booze and the bill would, no doubt, be substantially lower.
The Indian Tandoori
Mojacar Playa – La Gaviota complex (just before the roundabout going up to La Parata)
950-472-114
Beachcomber John (Beachcombers on the Playa, you know it!) has invented a “finger licking good” deep fried chicken recipe that he claims rivals KFC’s. Not to be picky, but surely the idea is to surpass KFC? The only time I’ve eaten in a KFC was at Bangkok Airport (it was the only restaurant open) and I spent the next few hours feeling quite, quite, ill. Just from the taste.
I mean, come on, they sell a whole bucket of fried chicken to people who are presumably overweight. Who wants a whole bucket of fried chicken???
Still, everyone who’s tried Johns it is raving about it, so if you like your chicken fried, pop down and try it. No doubt I’ll be forced into trying it, and will have to climb down from my mighty high horse and admit I enjoy it at some point.
Oh, and thanks to Steve from costaalmeria.com for the ironic photo:
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