Best Eats in Tenerife

My first experience of Tenerife was when I was 5 years old. We stayed in a new apartment building in Playa De Las Americas (which, is still there) and I slowly turned the colour of terracotta whilst making new friends who only spoke Spanish in the pool. Back then Tenerife was very rural and still predominantly Spanish. This is my favourite side of Tenerife I must say and you can still find pockets of this culture throughout the country.

I could probably be considered a veteran of Tenerife now having visited every half term holidays until the age of 16 and then visiting regularly thereafter. My parent still go 3-4 times a year to see friends and still visit some of the traditional Canarian restaurants we used to go to when I was a child. This year I decided to join them and thought it would only be right for me to write about some of the best places there are to visit in the country.

Da Vi Da – Los Cristianos

On our 2^nd night my Dad wasn’t feeling well so I ventured out with my Mum for cocktails and then a meal in a more touristy area of Los Cristianos called Da Vi Da. It’s marketed as a Mediterranean restaurant but the food also has a Canarian twist. We ordered the special of fillet steak for 2 with pepper sauce (mushroom for my Mum) papas arrugadas (baby potatoes cooked in their skins with lots of sea salt) and a jug of Sangria. Being a cocktail girl I was a little disappointed with the Sangria as it was overly sweet with just orange slices. I was expecting more to be fair. That said, the food was fabulous. The steak was cooked perfectly and melted in the mouth the way a good steak should. The potatoes were just cooked so still firm with the lovely salty film you can expect from this Canarian specialty. We were stuffed from the one meal and it was a bargain at €36 for us both.

San Martin – Cabo Blanco

The next night we visited my favourite place! San Martin is in a lovely little village called Cabo Blanco up in the hills from the coast of Las Americas. Quite a few ex-pats live up here and when I first visited there was a church, the restaurant and some houses. It is a bustling village now with shops and other cafes/restaurants to try. I kind of miss the traditional Canarian style village it once was but, luckily for me, this restaurant hasn’t lost its charm. The dining area is vast and regularly used for weddings, confirmations and christenings. They are famous for their suckling pig and amazing papas arrugadas which are cooked for several hours. It is regularly full of locals watching Spanish football and they are incredibly passionate about the sport. Barcelona were playing Real Madrid during our visit and the staff updated us in Spanish throughout the meal. The food is basic but full of flavour and ridiculously cheap for the sheer amount you get. We started with a mixed salad, croquettes and chistorras (paprika spiced thin sausages) as well as fresh bread with mojo and alioli. We always have the bread with mojo, a spicy pepper dipping sauce that varies from restaurant to restaurant. The sauce here is particularly spicy but cooled down with the extra garlicky mayonnaise dip. The croquettes were excellent too which chunks of chicken just binded with enough potato, none of the ‘trace of chicken’ here. So good and so filling!

The wine here is awesome too and home made, served in ornate glass 1ltr bottles. The white has a lovely spiciness making it like a rose rather than a traditional white wine.

We had a break between courses but when it came my ropa vieja was as good as always. I always have the same main here, it is just too good to miss. Ropa vieja translated means, ‘old clothes’ and is a stew of pulled meat, chick peas and potatoes with saffron and olive oil. They literally throw in whatever they have left and boil it all up together. So simple yet so tasty. The papas arrugadas have a twist here also, they are large jacket style potatoes cooked for hours on a bed of sweet onions which adds a unique depth in comparison to the salty crispy skins. To finish the meal we were left with a bottle of herbal liquor in an icy bottle to sooth my indigestion, according to the wait staff. 🙂

Just amazing, and do you know what is even more amazing? The bill comes to less than the price of the taxi to get here. Madness!

El Rancho – Palm Mar

El Rancho was our next trip and is on the main road into the small resort of Palm Mar. You would think this would be a negative for this restaurant but it certainly doesn’t seem to have an impact because this place was packed with a loud heavy metal band rehearsing for a gig later on in the evening. This place is all about the meat and that is exactly what you order, just the meat you fancy for the evening. I was planning on the t bone until the waiter said they had none left but he recommended the shoulder of lamb, who was I to argue? This place isn’t the prettiest dining area in the world. They had a devastating fire a few years back and still haven’t really re-built to full capacity but that doesn’t hinder the experience. The food here speaks for itself. The lamb came in a huge slab and was so tender it just fell away from the bone and melted in the mouth. It came with papas arrugadas but I had that much meat to get through I only managed 1 small little potato. Such a shame because they were tasty but, that meat, wow. You have to try it. This is where I tried my first barraquito; a short layered coffee of espresso, condensed milk, triple sec and frothed milk. This is one sweet coffee so no extra sugar is needed but it is such a fabulous flavour, the condensed milk gives the drink a lovely creaminess to cut through the boozy taste of the triple sec. It was something I repeated after every meal for the rest of the holiday.

Otelo 1 – Barranco Del Infierno, Adeje  

If you come here for nothing else, come for the views. The restaurant is on the cliff at the start of this popular walk which leads to the highest waterfall in Tenerife. It is far too steep for me to even consider but the views are just breath taking, especially when the low cloud swallows the peaks in smoke like wisps. The food is good mind, many refer to this restaurant as the chicken shack and the garlic chicken is the most popular item on the menu. All 6 of us ordered it with chips and it arrives in a huge dish for you to share. The skin is crisped to perfection with an enormous amount of garlic. I certainly kept the vampires at bay that night! We had puddings for the first time during the holiday here and I opted for the gofio mousse. Ironically gofio is a type of flour made from roasted grains said to have been used by the guanches who were the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands, and they resided in the Barranco Del Infierno caves. A nice touch I felt hence my decision to try it. The mousse was delightfully fluffy and the gofio gave it a lovely savoury roasted nut style taste. I spent the rest of the holiday looking for it in the local delis and never succeeded.

Churrasqueria Rodeo – Fanabe

Our trip wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to the Brazilian style BBQ restaurant Rodeo. Similar to Bem Brasil there is an all you can eat buffet of hot and cold salad, potatoes, vegetables. The wait staff are dressed in traditional Canarian outfits carving meat from swords. Unfortunately the buffet wasn’t as good as it has been in the past. The chips were cold and the cold buffet food didn’t taste as fresh as usual. The meat, on the other hand, was fabulous. Delightfully rare fillet beef and some amazing pork with spicy bbq sauce were the highlight. I missed the fillet with Roquefort and quail that they usually serve though so that was a shame but it was fairly quiet compared to our other visits.

And that is it! If you have any questions do get in touch, there are so many other restaurants that we just didn’t have time to visit. Top of my list next time is MB at Abama Golf and Spa resort, Guia de Isora with its Michelin star but there are some fabulous local places that you don’t have to spend a fortune to get a fabulous meal here.