This week we were enticed back to a restaurant we haven’t been to since last November, La Herradura (The Horseshoe) in Los Montesinos. This is a Spanish restaurant at the expensive end of the market, that has a good reputation with the local Spanish.

 

If you are looking for a restaurant with something special to offer by way of ambiance then La Herradura will fit the bill. Set back from the road (CV 945) the restaurant is built around a central courtyard dominated by a large palm. This forms one of two outside dining areas.

 

The reason for our return was that the management have had an injection of ‘fresh blood’ so to speak and are making a real effort to appeal to a wider audience by offering set price menus and entertainment most evenings. Whether these two diametrically  opposed dining styles will be able to coexist remains to be seen. What you have to admire is their willingness to try something different and if it means more people will sample the delight of visiting this charming finca then it will only be for the good.

 

Inside La Herradura you will discover a choice of dining areas, so no matter whether you are out for a romantic evening with just the two of you or in a large party there is a space especially designed for you. Check their website (there is a link from their listing on our site) it has some great photos.

 

The night we had chosen to try this new Herradura experience there was music and witty repartee supplied by Tony Kelly who bills himself as the only ‘Rat Pack’ tribute and very entertaining he was too. This entertainment and the fixed price menus were available on the terrace.

 

We were a party of four which enabled us to sample dishes from all three of the set price menus (€19, €15 and €12), although none of us fancied… sorry Francisco… the Worm Turkey! This is a new menu and of course there will be teething problems such as this amusing typo. We were served the traditional bread alioli and tomato salsa while we awaited our first course and were serenaded by Tony.

 

Two of us went for the timbales of mushrooms with roquefort cheese. Interestingly when I got home and referred to my notes from our last visit here it was exactly the same starter that I had selected from their al a carte menu. My subconscious must have been at work, this is a very tasty dish with the two flavours complementing each other wonderfully. Linda decided to go with the Gazpacho and Pam had prawns with spring onions. Well?... Round one completed and the wine was flowing, all good then!

 

We all four managed to pick differing main courses, Thyme Chicken, Pork Spareribs ‘Pequenita Style’, Salmon Mouse with Tartara Sauce and the house special of the day which was a Macaroni with Chicken. I’m not sure what ‘Pequenita style’ is supposed to be but my ribs were not as I would have expected them. The meat had to be forced from the bone, I prefer it to fall off the bone! The flavours were good though much the same as you would expect from barbecued ribs. Pam’s macaroni with chicken was prepared the way we have come to expect in Spain, the small pieces of chicken still on the bone in a delicious tomatoey gravy!

 

Dessert was in the form of a cheese cake which I have to say was of undefinable flavour.  I’m struggling here because I do so want to be positive about this review. This restaurant is trying hard to do something different. The venue is superb, the entertainment was entertaining, we laughed, we sang and generally got involved but in the end a restaurant is about food and here is the nub of my problem. La Herradura can do much better. Maybe I’m expecting too much but La Herradura is at risk of becoming a paradox, on the one hand there is the over priced but good a la carte menu and on the other there is this budget menu that only just misses getting it right.

 

Hey it’s early days with this revamp, things will get better I’m sure. Would I return? Yes. Can I recommend this restaurant? Yes. Please go and and try what La Herradura has to offer, you will have a good night out.

 

Avda. del Mar, 03187, Los Montesinos. Tel. no. 966 721 078.

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