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You are here: Home Leisure Dining & Cuisine Patio Andaluz, a delicious Spanish restaurant

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15/10/2008Patio Andaluz, a delicious Spanish restaurant

Patio Andaluz, a delicious Spanish restaurant Sandra Piddock enjoys the paella, flamenco, and welcoming atmosphere at a “typical” Spanish restaurant on the Costa Blanca.

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What comes to mind when you visualise a typical restaurant in Spain? Probably Moorish tiles, vines growing on trellises across the walls, several different paellas and a flamenco guitarist wandering around the tables. Then you think, ‘That was old Spain, it doesn’t happen like that now’. Oh yes it does! At Patio Andaluz, on the N332 coast road at Punta Prima, there’s one difference: instead of a guitarist serenading you, there are two - brothers Juan and Luis, whose family have owned Patio Andaluz since the 1970s.

FlamencoWhen you step into Patio Andaluz, you are attended to by the cheerful team of waiters. Their English is excellent, but if you can order in Spanish you’ve made friends for life. When you’re seated, a basket of bread and alioli (garlic mayonnaise) appears on the table. Then there’s the difficult choice of deciding what to eat. With 18 starters, 28 main courses and 19 pizzas, that could take some time! If you have a sweet tooth, there’s a choice of 27 desserts as well.

The menu, written in Spanish, English, German and French, is teeming with Spanish specialties, but with concessions to international visitors. Frogs legs, ostrich fillets, lasagna and even basmati paella are there to make everyone feel at home. If little Johnny flatly refuses to try anything off the menu, order a huge home-made pizza. At between EUR 5 and 8, it won’t break the bank, and the topping is thick enough to provide most of his ‘Five a Day’ without him even noticing.

We skipped the starter to (hopefully!) leave room for a dessert. Our Alicante Paella for two would easily feed three navvies, so it was a wise decision. If you’re feeling adventurous (we weren’t), try paella with rabbit and snails. For the fish lovers, there’s sole, swordfish, hake, salmon and squid. Rabbit comes in garlic sauce or barbecued. No, Patio Andaluz isn’t perpetrating a bunny extermination programme; Spaniards love to eat rabbit, and this is a typical Spanish restaurant. There’s something for everyone – choose from pork, duck, turkey, lamb, veal, ox tail and fillet or T-bone steaks.

The Spanish don’t do vegetarianism, but Patio Andaluz thought of everyone. As well as several vegetarian starters, there’s vegetable paella and Eggs Andaluz, plus four vegetarian pizzas. Anyone but the most rabid vegan should find something interesting and different to enjoy. From 20:00H onwards, Juan and Luis circulate, singing their huge repertoire of songs. It’s typically Spanish entertainment, but every so often, they burst into a chorus of ‘Que Viva Espana’, just to get everyone joining in!

Go on Thursdays and Sundays to see the excellent flamenco show. Booking is essential for these nights, and advisable for Fridays and Saturdays. We’ve seen queues of about 20 people waiting for a table, rather than eating elsewhere. That’s how good Patio Andaluz is. We visited on a Sunday, and the waiters were run off their feet, but there was no stress or bad temper, nor did the service suffer; they laughed and joked with the diners and each other, and the atmosphere was great.
PizzaA restaurant this popular and this good with such a comprehensive menu must be expensive, right? Wrong! Our bill for three main courses, three desserts, two bottles of wine, water and beer came to just EUR 62.With entertainment included, it’s a great deal for a good night out. Several places on the Costa Blanca advertise flamenco shows with dinner and charge EUR 35 per person. As it’s usually a set menu, you won’t get the quality or variety of food offered at Patio Andaluz. Try it out soon, and say Sandra sent you!

text: Sandra Piddock / Expatica 2008
photo credits: Benjie Ordonez, Garry Knight, Flickr

The writer, Sandra Piddock, is originally from the UK. She moved from Cornwall to Costa Blanca in May, but says it feels like home already. She maintains a website in her spare time.


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