zOMG Does nobody go to Tenerife???

[desylicious]

Or is the food really that unmentionable? Grumble, grumble. Why is it so hard to find out about this place? The internets are not showing me. I'm also stumped about recs for Elba, another island paradise, but that, my friends, is for another board.

[cleveland park]

I´m from tenerife, there are plenty of places to go:
Meson del Drago (used to have a michelin star) serves up great canary islands food, excellent rabbit in salmorejo.

El jable in san isidro is one of my favorites

La playita in santa cruz for extremely fresh fish on the road to las teresitas beach just by Maria Jimenez

Meson Castellano for meat in Santa Cruz center

La Frasca in the center of the city as well serves up good mainland food.

go to www.eldia.es in teh gastronomy section. Its the local newspaper and they are constantly finding new places that I´ve never been to

Also you cant miss la pimienta or el salon in la matanza for the best fish in the island, el bodegon campestre for roasted meats

[desylicious]

Thanks for the serious response. This is going to very helpful for my next trip to Santa Cruz. The last time (in '08) we were shuttled around to various places without any say-so whatsoever. We managed to eat at a couple little places across the street from the Mencey, where we were staying, a very nice modern restaurant/lounge across a plaza or park from the Opera House, and a sort of middle eastern place that wasn't very good. This time we'll be having a little more freedom and I'm looking forward to following your suggestions!

[cleveland park]

Taberna ramon in la Rambla across teh street from the plaza de toros is a small place that serves up great local food.

[agent99]

planning on going to Tenerife in a few months, did you find anything interesting there?

[Harters]

To answer the OP, I visit Tenerife most years - as do thousands upon thousands of other British people and other north Europeans. Many of us own properties there, mainly in the south of the island. I love it and it's easy to get good, simply cooked food - fresh fish, grilled meat, etc

[desylicious]

"thousands upon thousands of other British people"???

So..... avoid south island restos catering to English, is that what you're saying?

[Harters]

No, that's not what I'm saying. What I said was "it's easy to get good, simply cooked food - fresh fish, grilled meat, etc".

As with every tourist resort area, there are also places catering to the lowest common denominator. Doesnt matter if the denominator is British, German, Irish, Dutch, Scandanavian or whatever - these places are also easy to spot and avoid.

If you choose to visit one of the major tourist resorts on the island, you will find that many restaurants have a lot of tourists as customers. If you wish to find restaurants that have fewer tourists as customers, these will tend to be away from the tourist areas.

We'll be spending two weeks in Los Cristianos in January and know that we'd be able eat out every night in the resort and have a good meal each time.

[Harters]

An update from our fortnight in Los Cristianos with some particular recommendations:

Rincon del Arroz and the Bistrot d'Alain - both mentioned in the Michelin Red Book. As suggested by is name, the former majors on rice dishes. The latter is mainly French.

Don Quijote - specialises in the gastronomy of La Mancha. Had a great lamb stew.

Bodega El Parral - simple grilled meat and fried fish. Excellent quality.

El Brasero - touristy - but a house special is a long cooked shoulder of lamb.

Rincon del Marinero - near the port, we've been eating there for years. Always spankingly fresh fish, cooked simply - as in a whole baked grouper, landed at the port that morning. Needed nothing more than a squeeze of lemon and a few Canarian potatoes. Fab.

Of course, Los Cris is a tourist town, so if you don't want to run the risk of dining with North Europeans, please ignore the above reccs and go and find somewhere else :-)

[desylicious]

Turns out we got shipped off to La Orotava for the duration, so we weren't able to exercise any of your recs. Maybe next time. If you are ever in the area, try to go to Tajinaste winery. Tiny and amazing.

[JoyinHK]

Depends on what you are looking for,as for local cuisine i'd definetly head to some of the places mentioned by cleveland park.If you are renting a car i'd drive direction Tacoronte,La Matanza,El Sauzal and you'll find wonderful hidden gems where to have delitious food.Casa Juan in Tacoronte is one of my fav's and La Rosa Di Bari (outstanding italian) in Puerto de la Cruz.Now if you really want authentic canarian food(and not really care abt fancy curtains and expensive china) ask any local to point you the nearest GUACHINCHE.You'll have a great time,great food,great wine and great prices.

[desylicious]

We will only be in Santa Cruz this trip, so exploring further won't be possible. I think the guachinche experience is what I'm looking for. Thanks for the suggestion. Between your advice and cleveland park's I think we'll eat quite well this time.

[Harters]

Sorry not to have been more help for your trip - obviously Santa Cruz isn't a tourist area so you won't be running into folk like me but you now have an answer to your original questions. Glad to have helped with those. If ever you're visiting the south of the island, just post and I'll give you a long list of places worth trying. :-)

John

[Azza]

Santa Cruz has a great little place that specialises in Andalucian food - it's on the pedestrianised street called La Noria. The name of the actual place refuses to come to mind, but is about three doors along from a very good bar called Mojitos. This place serves the best cazon en adobo I've eaten outside of its 'home' in Cadiz.

[quark]

We are going to Tenerife for the first time in December, staying in the Los Gigantes area but with a car, and I'd love to hear your suggestions on where to eat in the south of the island.

[Harters]

You may well need the car.

As you'll presumably know, Los Gigantes is a small resort, just about purpose built for tourism and slightly isolated from other urbanised areas in the south. We stayed there about 10 years ago and thought the restaurant options were fairly limited. May well have changed over time - although looking at posts on the Tenerife Forum (http://www.tenerifeforum.com/), possibly it hasnt.

[Harters]

Tenerife diners will, no doubt, be interested to know that Restaurant MB at Guia de Isora was awarded a Michelin star yesterday. As far as I can see, it is the only starred place in the Canaries.

[michael5085498]

That's correct BUT there are several Michelin listed restaurants in the islands and on Tenerife there is a restaurant called Los Roques in Los Abrigos. www.restaurantelosroques.com, just look at their tripadvisor reviews. The best on Tenerife. MB is good if a bit stuffy and certainly up to its star. Nearby in Los Gigantes is Rincon de Juan Carlos. Really a very good under-rated restaurant. Don't opt for the degustation, they try too hard. Good food, good winelist too.

[Harters]

Not much to add from this year's fortnight in the sun. Most of our eating was in tourist restaurants in Playa de las Americas - good quality places, but tourist restaurants all the same. Ate out every night - didnt really have a bad meal.

However, I'll add two to the information base that were stand-outs. La Fresquera and Meson Castellano - next door to each other in the El Camison area on the edge of the main resort. Really fine examples of the sort of cooking that Spain does best - take good quality ingredients and cook them simply.

The latter place has no menu - the waiters will tell you what they have. Your command of their language, or their command of yours, will dictate how fully you understand what you're going to get for dinner and how it's going to be prepared. We ate there twice. First time we left it up to them to serve us tapas until we'd have enough. Second time, we ordered Padron peppers and some grilled prawns to share as starters.Followed by steak - one fillet, one entrecote. Excellent quality beef - simply cooked in the pan.

Dunno if Meson Castellano has any connection with the place of the same name in Santa Cruz, mentioned upthread. Apparently this one has been open since 1993.

Fresquera has a particularly good wine cellar - including a goodly number of Canarian wines.