It was a delicious dilemma. We had been invited by local restaurateur César López Bullón to dine at one of his César Restaurants in Costa Teguise, whichever one we liked, and we were strolling from venue to venue, checking out the menus and trying to make a choice.
At the southern end of Playa de Las Cucharas, the menu of classic Mexican chimichangas, tacos, enchiladas, burritos and fajitas at restaurant La Hacienda, was getting our gastric juices into training as we moved slightly further along the promenade to the eye catching frontage of El Maestro. Alongside the striking figure of a matador, images of mouth watering cuisine fluttered in the breeze above a decision-testing menu of traditional Spanish tapas, fish, rice and meat dishes with a sprinkling of Italian and pizzas and a healthy side order of vegetarian options.
Already as decisive as a rabbit caught in the headlights, we strolled back along the promenade towards Sands Beach Resort and arrived at the beach side La Peskera whose menu seduced us with its tapas, fish and seafood specialities. We were hooked.
Located right in front of Playa de Las Cucharas beach, La Peskera has a large open terrace beneath the palm trees and an elegant inside dining room with contemporary décor, plenty of space between tables and cool, jazzy background music at just the right level for easy conversation.
Choosing to sit mid-way between the outside and inside terraces where transparent awning kept the sundown breeze at bay, our waiters Carlos and José welcomed us with a glass of pink champagne (rosé Cava) and suggested we try a selection of their dishes, chosen by them. This suited us nicely as our decision making skills had reached their limit just making it to the restaurant. We sat back, sipped our chilled champagne and watched the colours of the ocean change as day turned to night.
First to arrive was a small appetiser casserole of beans, vegetables, chorizo, potato and leeks in a rich sauce, its savoury contents quickly disappearing and raising our expectations of what was to come. Our opener was prawn croquettes with home made tatare sauce which had us doing passable impressions of Meg Ryan in ‘When Harry Met Sally‘ – succulent prawns coated in a crispy, light batter and tartare sauce that was still being mopped up with the last of the rolls when the award winning Kebab in Batter Peskera arrived. Taking first prize in the Ruta de Tapas Costa Teguise competition, the kebabs of banana, bacon, local goats’ cheese and fig, baked in a light batter and drizzled with balsamic vinegar had us shamelessly chasing every last morsel around the plate.
With our champagne glasses topped up and enjoying the friendly banter between the waiters and customers who had clearly found La Peskera early on in their holiday and wisely made it their default choice of dining venue, next to arrive on stage was two melt-in-the-mouth octopus kebabs on bite-sized Canarian potatoes, flanked by sizzling prawn kebabs. With full capacity just around the corner and ham croquettes with pimientos de padrón and fat chorizo sausages on bread newly arrived, we signalled to Carlos that surrender was imminent.
“Just one more,” he said, as he talked us through the latest dish with the well known fact; “You can never have chorizo without bread!”
Croquettes and chorizo duly seen off (Carlos was right, bread was the essential accompaniment to the rich, garlicky sausage) our final plate arrived with a moist, flaky cod steak in garlic sauce with crispy Iberian ham, potatoes in spicy mojo and crispy mussels.
Now completely sated we decided to give the dessert choices a miss but Carlos would have none of it and after we had negotiated our way to one dessert between us, he insisted we had to try the fried milk. Apart from the fact that I had no idea what fried milk could possibly look like, I would never order a milk pudding from a menu, so expectations were rock bottom when the elegant dessert arrived. A golden circle of bread soaked in condensed milk then lightly fried in butter, coated in cinnamon and brown sugar and drizzled with palm honey and chocolate sauce melted in my mouth in a spice-filled avalanche of childhood memories of my mum’s bread and butter pudding. I almost cried.
The Menu
A varied selection of tapas, starters, meat, fish, seafood and pasta dishes are given a creative makeover and expertly prepared by chefs Gerardo and Toni to surprise and delight palates. Traditional pizzas, hamburgers and a kiddies’ menu as well as plentiful vegetarian options make for family friendly dining.
The Price
Tapas range from €2.50 to €5; starters, salads and pastas come in around the €8 mark, pizzas €5.50 – €9 and main courses average €14. Kebab in Batter Peskera is €3.99.
The Venue
La Peskera, Plaza Windsurf s/n (in front of Playa de las Cucharas), Costa Teguise, Lanzarote; Tel: (0034) 928 59 20 44; open every day from 10am to 10pm
Buzz Trips was on Lanzarote as guests of Teguise Turismo and Sands Beach Resort
Andrea (Andy) Montgomery is a freelance travel writer and co-owner of Buzz Trips and The Real Tenerife series of travel websites. Published in The Telegraph, The Independent, Wexas Traveller, Thomas Cook Travel Magazine, EasyJet Traveller Magazine, you can read her latest content on Google+
Was in Costa Teguise last week, went to this restraunt many times, defiantly our favourite, great food and service, would recommend.
We thoroughly enjoyed it. Some great dishes.
Hi i visited your resturant and i loved the complementry wine you gave us, i was wondering if you could tell me what the sparkling wine was please.i would like to find some.Mrs Walker.
Hi, like you we visited the restaurant, and enjoyed our experience, and this is our review. So, there’s no connection with the restaurant, sorry. But the sparkly wine was probably cava.