Hotel Casbah; El Puig

El Puig is an interesting town, just north of Valencia and with a famous monastery as well as two hillocks looming over the population.

For reasons I don’t quite understand, it has a disproportionate number of hotels, which may be due to its popularity as a venue for weddings.

After a long walk there along the bicycle lane that follows the old Barcelona road, which in turn follows the old Roman Via Augusta, we turned off just past the Cartuja Monastery, now also a wedding and event centre, across the pedestrian bridge into the town; which also has a new bicycle/pedestrian route to the beach.

After a wander, we came across the Hotel Casbah, which has a sidewalk terrace, and a small but pleasant restaurant inside decorated with original paintings and aired by a small patio with access to rooms.

They offered a tasting menu for 21,50€, and I’m always a sucker for over-eating, so we decided to have that.

There was Pan tostado con tomate y alioli as an appetiser, followed by Ensalada Napolitana, which is tomato, mozzarella cheese, anchovy and pesto sauce, Croquetas caseras de pollo, very tasy with a hint of spices I couldn’t quite identify and then Choricitos del infierno con pimientos del padrón, the famous little green peppers which may or may not play Russian Roulette with your palete.

Finally, Chipirones con salsa Mery, deliciously grilled and rounding off a tasty filling meal. However, those were only the starters and now the main course arrived.

The menu offers only one dish, an Entrecot trinchado con patatas, but in fact we had no problem being offered a fish alternative, a dorado, which just goes to show that everything is negotiable.

The house wine (not included in the price) at under 10€ was a respectable Juan de Juanes from La Font de la Figuera, and there was a dessert or coffee to round things off.

Altogether a more than acceptable meal and it’s a shame we didn’t have time for the monastery and it was too hot to hillock; but when the weather cools down we will certainly return to this very pleasant town.

Av. del Músico Julio Ribelles, 13, El Puig de Santa Maria, Valencia