Finca Cigüeña

Many restaurants are closed on Tuesdays in the area. It’s worth checking this before going to your chosen restaurant, telephone numbers are listed in the house book. There are some exceptions in the height of the season but it’s up to the owner/chef.

There are plenty of restaurants to dine at whilst staying at Finca Cigüeña.  The first two you can walk to, (they are both about 15 minutes away) you will need to drive to the others on this page.

Venta Campano

This restaurant is just off the main road as you approach Finca Ciguena.  Venta Campano is a rather unassuming slighty scuffy looking looking set up but they do a great cheap breakfast and Tapas at lunchtime.  In the evenings they do a simple dinner menu.  The staff speak English and there is internet access.

La Hacienda El Torilejo

This is a very upmarket restaurant, hotel and bar.  The bar is beautfully decorated in Moorish style and there is plenty of outside seating.  The restaurant is expensive but the bar is in line with local charges and it is a lovely place to stop on the way home from the beach.

El Timon de Roche

About 20 minutes drive away this restaurant overlooks the sea and is a beautiful location to sip the local wine and watch the sunset.  You need to book at weekends and is often closed on Tuesdays

El Palmar

Casa San Francisco

Situated opposite El Palmar beach this restaurant is hugely popular and is well protected if the levante is blowing.  Medium price and good Tapas at lunchtime.

La Torre

Specialise in fish and like Casa San Francisco is very popular.  It sits in the shadow of a watchtower and hence it's name.

La Chanca

The building is a cleverly restored warehouse and fish canning factory.  The setting is dynamic with a good choice of fish dishes.  The sell some interesting Rioja that are not easily found elswhere.  Medium prices with smart casual attire in the evenings.

Conil de la Frontera

San Francisco at Fontanilla

An excellent fish restaurant set on the beach of Fontanilla.  Very relaxed about dress code.  lovely place to watch the sun go down.  Very busy Sunday lunchtime

Blanco y Verdi

Close to San Francisco, good simple food in a relaxed atmosphere

El Rezon

One of the top fish restaurants in the area, popular with business people at lunchtime.  Smart casual dress code, medium prices.

El Roqueo

Set above the beach of Fontanillo this is a small stylish restaurant

El Colorado

Hotel Antonio

Hotel Antonio is very popular with the locals.  Food is good simple Spanish cooking at a sensible price.  Great for continental breakfast.

Venta Melchor

Good simple Andalucian food, all made from local produce.  Popular with the locals and service is personal.

Arcos de la Frontera

Hotel Marques de Torresoto

Good food in the most delighful setting for the village on the top of a hill.  Medium pricing.

El Convento

Specialises in meat and game with an excellent winelist.

Medina Sidonia

Venta La Duquesa

One of the traditional Ventas that can be found in the area. This one serves excellent food in classic Andalucian surroundings. A Previously a well-kept secret as it looked very unimpressive inside and out! However since being furbished its customers have greatly increased in number. Medium prices, good wine list and very good service. Smart casual dress. Essential to book for Saturday night and Sunday lunch.

Cádiz

Lots and lots of restaurants but we suggest three which are worth hunting down for that elegant evening.

El Ajibe

Near the old beautifully restored tobacco factory in the old town. Imaginative, delicious food. They serve you pate as a pre-dinner nibble sometimes – and it’s to die for! Elegant surroundings. Surprisingly good value. Smart dress code. Good wines as you would expect at such a venue.

Ventorillo de Chato

Nothing much to look at from the outside in fact it looks just like another semi-deserted ruin on the salt flats as you whiz past on the dual carriageway! Blink and you miss it. But inside. Wow! This is another one of those places where if you are Spanish, you save up and go there for something special. Definitely not a jeans or shorts place and quite an experience.

El Faro

San Felix near the cathedral. Reputedly the best fish restaurant… wait for this …. not in Cádiz, not just in Andalucía…. but in all of Spain! I don’t know if it’s true but it is certainly  exceptionally good. Prices and wine list to match. They own the tapas bar next door if you want to taste it ‘on the hoof’ and pay a lot less!  Essential to book in advance. 

In and Around Vejer de la Frontera

Trafalgar

Probably the best food in the Vejer town centre, this restaurant has two different areas. Downstairs rather ultra modern and quiet and upstairs older and more quaint. The food is the same in both though. Imaginative, different and consistently good. They also have a row of tables outside which might suit you if you have young children or if you want a view of the Plaza de Espaňa to watch the world go by.  A bit formal inside, quite smart and mid-priced though you can eat quite expensively too, if you try hard. Small but well put together wine list. One of the few places in Andalucía that does good puddings!

El Jardin de Calipha                              

Located in a beautifully restored building in Plaza España, this restaurant is downstairs in the old dungeons and stables of the hotel of the same name. A Moroccan theme with tagines and couscous and a good vegetarian selection (well, it has some which is more than most!). Particularly beautiful is sitting in the garden on a warm summer’s evening. Smart casual and mid to low priced.

Meson Juderia

A tiny place in the old Jewish quarter hence its name. Small restaurant with a tiny but picturesque roof terrace offering great views over the town.  If it’s windy you would lose your lettuce so go on a still night! Smart-casual and mid priced. Popular with locals.

La Posada

One of the old established restaurants in Vejer. Simple local food, consistently well presented. The tapas are really good here. The bar is smoky but the restaurant not so. Popular with locals and mid to low priced. Dependable wines reasonably priced. 

La Tajea

Recently re-furbished, La Tajea has a rustic yet stylish atmosphere in amongst the bamboo of the village called Santa Lucia just outside Vejer. Great views of the town form the roof terrace. Very meat orientated – great steaks, pork and buey (ox!). They have some great dishes not listed on the menu as well - Alberto, your host, will recommend them to you at the beginning when you are choosing. He also has other wines that never make it to the wine list either. English is difficult, so go with a dictionary and a spirit of adventure but it’s a reliable restaurant with consistently tasty food. Medium priced.

Venta Pinto

The other well established restaurant just outside the town on the roadside. This is one of the Andalucian ‘ventas’ or roadside inns and has been here, it seems, for ever.

Very good at fresh fish - but check the market prices before you go for that lobster or crayfish! If the locals go anywhere to celebrate anything special, they save up, and go here on a Sunday  lunchtime.  If you want to eat expensively you can do so here, and well. Lots of good wines too as you would expect in a place like this.

Castilleria 

In the same village as Tajea. Famous locally for its exceptional steaks. They have many regular customers throughout summer who know the secret of the ‘best steak in the area.’ An atmospheric restaurant where you eat outdoors. Because seating is available only outdoors, it is open for lunch only in May and early June, from 1.00pm until 4.00pm and again in September. It’s open in the evenings as well from around the 10^th June until mid September depending on the weather. It is easiest to get a table at lunchtime as in summer an evening table has to be booked in advance and on Fridays and Saturdays usually about a week ahead – but its worth trying for. Wine list is extensive and has many included that you do not see at any other restaurant as well as the usual favourites. 

Il Forno

This is an Italian restaurant on the hillside going into the village of La Muela just outside Vejer. Basically pizza and pasta with a few other good dishes but the owner is Italian so it’s the best authentic Neopolitan food you can get in the area. All things are cooked from fresh and there are many things served that are grown in the garden of the restaurant. Simple format, great food, great atmosphere, great value, always busy, service from staff who love their job and often with a queue (speaks volumes) – but when you try their fresh home-made pasta you would know why. No bookings possible, Opens about 8.30pm depending on the mood of the chef but by 9.pm it’s full in summer, holidays and every weekend, so get there early if you can, or after 11pm! (It’s full in winter by 9.30!)

Hotel Marques de Torresoto

Good food in the most delightful classic Andalucian surroundings. Mid priced

El Convento

Specialises in meat and game but it’s all very good. Good wine list.

Jerez

Bar Juanito

A great tapas bar just up from the Tio Pepe Bodega and situated in the old town. Great place for people watching, but there are lots to choose from around here.