Salamanca
Dining And Drinking

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Salamanca is a city visitors fall in love with, not only because of the incredible beauty of its extremely well-known monuments, but also because of its excellent atmosphere and wealth of gastronomic delights. Salamanca´s citizens often enjoy some tapas before lunch. There are a lot of well-established places to visit, such as Cervantes, in the Plaza Mayor (main square), famous for their varied tortilla (omelette) snacks and palomas, ensaladilla-filled pork scratchings. Another place where you can try a good local wine, along with an oreja (ear) tapa, or blood sausage, or chanfaina, the local stew, is Cervecería del Comercio in Pozo Amarillo, a street famous for its restaurants including Dulcinea (Don Quijote´s love) and El Jamón. In both these places, you can try two Salamanca specialties superb roast suckling pig or kid.

Lunchtime offers a myriad of choices. In Corrillo Square, between the famous Plaza Mayor and the cathedral, you will find the Río Tormes restaurant, once called La Viuda del Fraile (The Monk´s Widow). Here you can try delicious onion soup, a dish from the Castilla-Leon region. Another very well-known place is the Mesón La Espada, a small restaurant very close to the Plaza Mayor where the quality is outstanding. You just have to try their famous marujas salad, a dish of their own invention which has become famous in Salamanca and is only available in the spring.

Continuing a gastronomic route in the city center, it is essential to make a stop at La Bellota Charra, a restaurant where you can try a seemingly endless variety of dishes derived from the Iberian pig, as well as exquisite local wines like those of Sierras de Arribes. One must not forget that some of the wines of Castile and León enjoy an outstanding reputation. Ribera del Duero is one of these, and you will find it in almost all restaurants including the cozy Valencia. This restaurant is located just 1min away from the Plaza Mayor; you have to try their onion-flavored blood pudding, or tongue with pine nuts.

After lunch there is nothing better than a coffee. A good place to have it is on the sunny open-air terrace of La Platea in Plaza del Corrillo. Other places where having coffee is a real pleasure are Capitán Haddock and La Posada de las Almas. Both places are well worth a visit, if only for their rustic decor and intimate atmosphere. Another great place is the Irish Rover, located just a minute away from the famous façade of the Universidad (university) and decorated in the style of an ancient theater.

At nightfall, the natives of Salamanca set off again for tapas. There is no better place for this than the district of Van Dyck. The Taberna del Peregrino has great tapas, and those made with barbecued steak, bacon or pork in most places in this district make any outing a pleasure. You will find various restaurants in Van Dyck, including Barbacoa La Encina, Mesón-Asador Las Estrébedes, and El Bodegón. Their specialties include Iberian sausages, roast suckling pig and grilled veal.

Finally, there is no better place for a few drinks than the Gran Vía district. There´s a heap of places where you can throw a party, and they generally have offers to make it more economical. In the Savor you can enjoy the best of Latin music, and in El Callejón you can listen to Spanish music until the wee hours of the morning. In other districts there are also well known places like Camelot and Morgana, two discos with good music and where the night is always young.