Mel de Romer

We visited Canals more or less by accident. We went to a funeral at neighbouring Alcudia de Crespins, and not finding anything interesting restaurant-wise, drove under the railway tunnel that takes you into Canals, a larger town, once a textile city.

After checking out the main drag, a wide pedestrian avenue with a number of eateries, we chanced upon Mel de Romer, a place that had the feel of a restaurant and not just a ground floor premises done up for the purpose.

Mel de Romer is clearly a family restaurant with a feeling of having been there before eating out became so complicated.

It has an L-shape, with the main dining room at the back (and turn left), nicely decorated with beam, brick, lanterns and ceramics.

The menu is extensive and the wine list even more so, and reasonably priced, with a predominance of Vicente Gandia wines. I hadn’t realised they now do an Albariño, which was excellent value at 13€.

The restaurant is in a quite side street opposite a school, and the first thing to hit you is the massive collection of wines on display; always a good sign in my book, in a giant glass cabinet; almost a separate room really.

I’m a sucker for freebies and so the peanuts and bag of crisps were welcome.

We were asked if we wanted bread and were delighted to receive two huge, toasted kerbstones with olive oil, fresh tomato and garlic sauce; a meal in itself…..almost.

For starters we went for grilled vegetables, which included two kinds of peppers, onions, courgettes, carrots, aubergine, tomato and green asparagus…..a meal in itself…….almost.

There was a wide variety of rice dishes on offer, as well as various fish and meats, but we plumped for black rice with garlic shoots (ajos tiernos), which took a while coming, but that’s a good sign in my dog eared book.

I’m sure the desserts were enticing, but by that time we had to resort to asking for a container to take home the leftover rice, which is simmering in the fridge as we speak.

My only complaint was that somebody had done something to the ambiental music, and that we had to listen about twelve times to the same song before I plucked up courage to mention it.

My complaint was dealt with efficiently and with a sense of humour, which is all you can wish for from a waitress in my tattered book.

Mel de Romer (which I imagine means rosemary honey, although I forgot to ask why) is in C/ de les Escoles 6.