It's been along time since we last holidayed in Costa Teguise, Lanazarote. 15 years in fact. From what I remember, a lot has changed. I did a bit of groundwork the week before, by jumping on the Costa Teguise TripAdvisor chat forum to see if anyone could recommend some decent cocktail bars and steak restaurants. Saves valuable time in resort, just head to all the best places. Looking back, this worked an absolute treat, and we were grateful to everyone who chipped in with suggestions.
So this blog post is basically a whirlwind tour of the places we ate and drank at during our week's holiday. Everywhere was within about 10 minutes walk of the wonderful
Melia Salinas hotel.
Saturday 6th February saw an early morning flight from Gatwick to Arrecife and an afternoon of some settling in drinks around a stunning lagoon style pool. In the evening we did that typical first night thing, not venturing out too far, so we went to see what the clutch of restaurants near the hotel at Las Cucharas had to offer. We went for La Chiminea with its delightful enclosed terrace and traditional green and white outside decor. A lot of the food here is home made including the fish pate from the list of specials. It looked and tasted fantastic. If you like a home made dessert, then this is definitely your place - check out the profiteroles which Linda had! We added fillet steak, lasagna, a bottle of wine, a beer and a brownie and the bill came in at €62, great value.
On Sunday night we hit the first of the recommendations, David's cocktail bar in the main square of the resort. A stunning bar, really well presented and great cocktails. I'm fairly addicted to mojitos, Linda went for champagne sangria. In all the resort's bars cocktails are generally priced between €5.50 - €6.50. Great garnishes on the cocktails at David's. Dinner was at El Patio. Whilst the food was pretty good, I had another fillet steak, there was something missing, difficult to put our finger on what it was, maybe eating at the back of the restaurant in a smaller room didn't help, just lacked a bit of personality.
Monday, and pre dinner drinks were at Vali, another recommendation. The bar isn't quite as nice looking as David's but it's still a must visit. I had the classic mojito (of course), Linda went Mojito too, the strawberry option. These were sensational, so glad we called in. For dinner it was TexMex at La Hacienda, the British guy on the door was a good laugh. Food was fantastic, nachos, fajitas and a burrito chihuahua, woof woof (no not really), a bottle and a beer and we're talking €57. Yet more great value.
The middle night out of the holiday took us to Esquire for cocktails. There was much talk on TripAdvisor about this place. A guy called Marco runs the bar and mixes the drinks, he certainly had a deserved reputation. I told him we had read about him on TripAdvisor, he laughed. So a classic mojito for me and a Cranberry Kick for Linda. Again beautifully garnished, and of course both drinks tasted great. €5.50 each here too. Continuing our brief trip around the world, dinner took us to the Masala Lounge. Great curries and the guys there were happy for us to go off piste a bit and name a couple of dishes that weren't on the menu, which was actually very extensive I should add, it's just we were after something in particular. Great food with naan bread to die for, complimentary liqueurs, a couple of pints and a glass of wine and the bill was €50. Our experience of Indian food in Mallorca is that it's generally expensive, quite the opposite here.
So all downhill from here, three nights to go. Wednesday took us to Italy, after some drinks of course, so it was back to David's, for another classic mojito and a Cosmopolitan, we are creatures of habit after all. We headed to Cesare Ristorante Italiano to eat, it only opened just before Christmas. Wow, this place is the business! Contemporary, stylish, chic, it's all that and much more. And I haven't even started on the food. Think I might let the pictures do the talking, but even the bread rolls were a cut above, complete with breadsticks, herb butter and a mint dip. A complimentary welcome drink of rose cava shots were served, before more steak and pasta, and then dessert: another chocolate brownie with white chocolate soup! The dessert was more for Linda, I went for a... mojito! The restaurant wasn't very busy, it deserved to be packed out, so without a doubt, we booked this for our last night, same table for two, right by the window.
Thursday night saw us tick off two recommended venues from the TripAdvisor forum list. Cocktails were at Hook in the main square, another great looking bar. Frozen strawberry daiquiri for Linda and for a change... joking... a classic mojito for me. Very nicely presented drinks but I do sometimes wonder about mojitos made with lemons. Call me old fashioned but it's got to be limes hasn't it? Maybe that's a bit overly fussy because it was still a great drink, and Linda enjoyed her daiquiri. Dinner was at the excellent Mercado Diesiete right next door to David's. Here there was an open kitchen, I'm a big fan of these, some unusual decorations such as a load of wine bottles buried in the floor under a glass platform and a selection of tapas items at the counter. Modern art adorned the walls including an unusual artificial plant display. Want to talk food? We both went fillet steak, mine was topped with foie and came with a potato and cheese cake. Absolutely mouthwatering and the best bit of beef of the week. Linda went for the plain fillet, home cut chips and pardon peppers, a great combination.
And so it came to Friday. Our last night in Costa Teguise. Cocktails back at Esquire, and the same exceptional quality. No need to tell you what we had, because you've probably guessed already. I would say these were my favourite cocktails of the holiday, so it was fitting that we were eating at our favourite restaurant too. We wandered down the road to Cesare. This time it was packed out, with only one table remaining, the one that had our name on it. More welcome drink shots and a complimentary skewer of mozzarella, olive and tomato, that was unexpected. I rounded off the week's mains with a delicious sirloin with rocket, parmesan and balsamic with chargrilled vegetables. Linda went for ravioli with an arrabiata sauce. Our rose wine was from the island, and very nice too. A scoop of coconut ice cream, a triple sambuca on the house each, a schnapps and we were done. All in for €58.56, you'll struggle to find better value anywhere for that sort of quality. And that was it, the week long food, cocktail, wine and lager party had come to an end. What a sensational way to round it off. Definitely coming back! Ian.
