Wined, dined and rested.

We’ve come down to the old stamping-ground to see friends and take in a few eateries. One of our friends here has pointed out that whenever I blog about somewhere in or around Marbella, it closes within the year; I would argue that this is normal down here in an atmosphere that is relatively transient in terms of population, institutions and infrastructure. The residents come and go from a mix of many nationalities, the locals can’t get a job in tourism in their own country – and especially in this region that lives mainly off tourism – unless they speak English, and very few catering establishments continue to succeed year in year out.

So, in order to try and protect the places we’ve visited this time, here they all are in one place under the global term of “Marbella”….

Our fist visit was to Raices up at the little white village of Istán; I’ve blogged about it before, it is the semi-circular café/restaurant that sits next to the (very lovely) municipal swimming pool;  the food is extremely good and the views of the surrounding hills are amazing.

This time we were disappointed to discover that the menu had lost the delcious prawn pil-pil with the deep fried prawn heads, and seemed generally to be a little less adventurous than before. The food was still good but didn’t have the zing of previous visits.

They have gone up-market and now use branded water bottles, which is nice but unnecessary –  there must be some enterprising water bottle salesman doing the rounds of Marbella restaurants because we’ve since seen the exact same shape of personalised bottle in at least 3 other local establishments.  Are they trying to be ecological?  It did cross my mind to wonder if there is still a crate of bottles in the kitchen that are just opened and emptied in to the personalised ones….

The tomato salad with goats’ cheese was delcious; the local area produces wonderful pink-fleshed tomatoes that actually taste of something, but it is not exactly a technical triumph to produce the salad.

So I still love Raices, but for me it ‘s lost some of the magic it once had.

Another day we had dinner at Origen, an Argentinian steak restaurant in central Marbella. The steak was superb, perfectly cooked and tender;  they claim proudly to use only certain types of wood on  their grill, ensuring exactly the right temperature for each piece of meat, and they have a dry ageing cupboard visible in the restaurant.  (Not a place for vegetarians, perhaps…)   There was a good selection of wines and they’re reasonbly priced. A slight surprise for me was to discover that this restaurant is not just a one trick pony – the starter that we shared of grilled octupus was superb, just beautifully cooked.

Then for lunch one day we visited the Forum on the main street of Marbella going out of town. The Forum has been there as a building for a long time but has just been turned into a smart whitewashed shopping centre with various different eateries.

The home decoration shop was all white and beige, the sunglasses shop – sorry,  eyewear gallery – was all white and beige, the communal areas were all white and beige and only the pizza palace was a kaleidoscope of colours and textures. We went for the ladies who lunch option at Planta Bistrot and after struggling with the contorted English of the menu and having to ask the manager to explain it to us, we had a very nice salad lunch, with my “leafy greens” salad actually containing avocado and baby broad beans alongside the leaves, as well as a sesame oil-based dressing.  It was expensive, as you would expect in such a place. You’d think they could find a budget for an English-speaker to write their menu in actual English if that is what they want.

Their hilariously-named “garden parking”, which you have to use because you are not important enough to use the few parking spaces right in front of the main building, is actually a patch of what was once woodland just up the steep hill behind the Forum. All the undergrowth has been cleared, but all the trees and uneven hilly ground remain, alongside rocks and lumps of concrete randomly scattered about to make your parking experience more exciting.

Finally we went for Sunday lunch to Macaao beach (yes, it really does have 2 As in the middle of it), which in the summer looks beautiful because it’s right on the beach in san Pedro. When we visited it was getting cold, but it was made entertaining by the Belgian diaspora who made up probably 80% of the clientele and seemed undeterred by wind, cloud and incredibly long waits for food.

We waited for 2 hours for our main course, mildly cross but putting up with it because of the entertainment made up of a live band (who actually PLAYED AND SANG for the whole 2 and a half hours we were there) and large numbers of recently retired (it seemed) Belgians dancing the afternoon away along the walkways. Apparently they come every Sunday specifically to do this. The food was mostly ordinary, and although the cod was nice the salads were pretty awful, and the limoncellos with which we were plied at the end did not really make up for the time spent waiting. Here’s a picture of the wine and the rather sweet totem of Belgian references that we were sitting near, because the food was not really photographable.

To summarise – Marbella as always has a plethora of different eating establishments, most of which Shakespeare might recognise as “sound and fury, signifying nothing”. They are entertaining in their own way and it’s always fun to explore, but I still would never call this town a foodie haven.  We’re off to Zaragoza shortly for THAT experience….