As I write this I can’t help but think that this post should be called “what’s a few months old in Logroño”. You already know that as of recently I am no longer living in Logroño, but the truth is I had the idea for this post a few months ago. I meant to go ahead and post it at the time. but that thing called life got in the way. Yeah, that old chestnut. I’m sure you know the feeling.
A few months ago I returned to Logroño after several weeks on the road. Both C and I arrived on the same day. It happened to be a Saturday morning so we decided to go out on the town. For lunch and for dinner. Whoops. We do love eating out and sometimes opt for eating in restaurants and bars when really we should just have a meal at home. But I digress.
We took a walk around Logroño’s Casco Antiguo and thought about where we should go to eat a menu del día. La Tavina was too busy already, Asador Ardanza didn’t have enough pescatarian choices on the menu for my liking. Where to now? We paused for a minute outside the Cathedral of Santa María de la Redonda while we took a moment to look up and enjoy the view. And that’s when I looked over at Marinee Restaurante. Only it wasn’t Marinee Restaurante anymore.
I mean sure, there was still a restaurant, and still tables and chairs out on the terrace. I could see in the distance the current day’s menu sitting inside a glass box by the door. But when I looked up above the doorway, there was no sign of Marinee Restaurante anywhere to be seen. I was looking at a new restaurant called Restaurante Boragos.
C and I meandered over to check out what the deal was. At €25 the menu del día was definitely at the pricier end of meals in town. I knew full well I could walk on into a handful of other restaurants in Logroño and find myself a decent meal for €12 to €15. But I was feeling experimental.
“Screw the money,” I said to C, “Let’s eat here. I feel like something different.”
So we tried something new.
Restaurante Boragos
Plaza del Mercado, 2
Restaurante Boragos has the ideal location in Logroño. Smack bang on the edge of the biggest square in the Casco Antiguo, just off the busiest pedestrian street called Calle Portales, and with front row views of the Cathedral which is arguably the biggest sight in the city.
Normally I would be wary of such establishment. But the great thing about Logroño is, as it is virtually undiscovered by mass tourism, normal rules when choosing a restaurant do not apply. That means that eating around large tourist monuments is not a risk, nor are pictures on the menu – which is quite a common sight in some of the pintxo bars around town.
I knew from the word ensalada that Restaurante Boragos was going to be a good one. A salad in Spain consists of no more than iceberg lettuce, tomato, onion, tuna, and if you are lucky, boiled egg, sweetcorn and grated carrot. So when I opened the menu to inspect the current menu del día and saw the mackerel salad, it was love a first sight.
Every course of the menu del día at Boragos was not only inventive, but perfectly executed. The wine was good (like you could expect any less in La Rioja) and the service was friendly. Following on from the salad I ate the merluza relleno – hake stuffed prawns and mushrooms and the macedonia de fruta – fruit salad served with ice-cream. Needless to say, I was happy that I put the budget aside and enjoyed one of Logroño’s premium menu del días.
Umm by Alex García
Calle San Juan, 1
Later the same night we backed up our leisurely lunch with a night out on the town. As usual, we toured around Logroño’s many pintxo bars. Although Calle Laurel is the most famous place to go for pintxos in Logroño, I secretly (or as the case may be, not so secretly) enjoy heading down to Calle San Juan.
On this particular night I approached Calle San Juan as I always do, but this time something was different. On the corner, where El Rey de la Tortilla used to be, there were bright lights and shiny things. People smartly dressed with glasses of wine dangling out of their hands. The chatter and laughter of people enjoying a Saturday night out. The excitement of something new.
C and I had been talking about the closure of El Rey de la Tortilla for awhile. He thought they were closed for renovations. I thought it looked like a more serious closure. Perhaps I was secretly hoping it was a permanent closure, as the last couple of times I had been in there with tour groups, the staff had been incredibly rude.
So, it looked like I was right. I WAS RIGHT. I love being right. In the place of El Rey de la Tortilla was a new shiny gastrobar called Umm (by Alex García, incase you wanted to know who came up with the ingenious idea). How hipster.
Now, I will start by saying the pintxos at Umm aren’t cheap. At least, not in comparison to the other bars on Calle San Juan, which is already cheaper than the more popular Calle Laurel. But when thinking about the quality to price ratio of Umms’ pintxos, and when thinking in the general scheme of prices throughout the developed world, the pintxos aren’t that expensive. And the wine is very fairly priced.
Umm and I were already off to a good start as soon as I ordered a glass of vino blanco.
“Do you want a wine from La Rioja?”
“Why, of course, that would be great.”
And so, they poured me a glass of Viura produced by Ijalba. Ijalba is an bio-organic winery, and not only have I visited Ijalba and loved the experience (after all, it is only 15 minutes walk from the centre of Logroño) this is also the standard wine you find in all the expensive organic supermarkets that are scattered around the country. And how could I forget to mention the most important thing – it’s also super tasty. Crisp, and with a great mineral flavour, just the way I like it.
So I just realised I’ve written a lot about Umm and I haven’t even got to the food yet!
Well imagine this. A glass cabinet filled with eight to ten different pintxos, a mix of flavours and techniques – some typical to La Rioja but still done in their own creative way, like the slow cooked egg with red peppers, and others not so typical, like the Tuna Tataki with rice and sweet mayonnaise sauce. The service was friendly, with the added bonus of a smile, and the atmosphere slick without being intimidating. I mean, what’s there not to love about this place?!
Lavid
Calle Laurel, 16
There was another place that I had planned to add to this list, a new crepería that had opened on Gran Via. But given that crepes are completely impractical to someone who doesn’t eat gluten – especially in a country where there is not a gluten free option by default, I had to think outside the box.
Well, thinking outside the box was begging C to go to the crepería with me, and trusting his taste buds to give me an honest review. But that idea was met with something along the lines of “you aren’t supposed to eat them anyway!” So I came up with a new idea.
I didn’t have to look far for a third new place that I loved to feature in this post. Only a matter of nights later I was wandering down Calle Laurel with C and his dad, and we stumbled across Lavid. Given that we have eaten at pretty much every single pintxo bar in Zona Laurel, if not every single pintxo bar in Logroño’s Casco Antiguo (and more), it would be rude not to give the new kid on the block a chance. Or some of our hard earned cash, whichever way you look at it.
On first glance, I wouldn’t say i was so impressed with Lavid. The choices seemed complicated – okay, I admit, that could have just as easily been several glasses of Rioja’s finest impairing my judgement – and the lights were too bright. Random fact: I hate bright lights in pintxo bars. There, you learnt something new about me today.
But we secured ourselves a little table out on Calle Laurel, and before we knew it we were eating mushroom risotto with a garnish of crispy cheese, a coulant of bacalao confit with a tomato and pepper sauce, and pita bread stuffed with meat, vegetables and spicy tomato sauce. For Calle Laurel, this all seemed quite fancy.
Although the pintxos were, as most new places seem to be in Logroño, more on the pricier side, I still enjoyed what was on offer. The only sad thing is I have walked past other times since and it didn’t seem to be too busy. Or perhaps there is an indoor dining room I didn’t know about.
However, sometimes I think the locals in Logroño get a little scared off by these shiny new places, and prefer to stick to the old favourites. Who can blame them. Though, I base that comment on nothing – it’s just a slight observation I’ve made during two years of living in Logroño. But give these guys a go! 10 points for creativity and 8 points for well executed pintxos makes for a worthy stop on any ruta de pintxo.
So that’s what’s been happening in Logroño lately! What’s been happening in your city? Have you made some new discoveries? Maybe you’ve been to Logroño and already eaten at one of these places? Tell me all about it!
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Cat of Sunshine and Siestas says
Good to see that Logroño is stepping up its tapas game!!
Cyra says
They had to! There can only be so many bars doing similar things 😉