Cerveceria Erajoma
Plaça Reyes Pròsper, 6 | 46010 | Valencia, Spain
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If you are looking for classic Spanish bar food, you really don’t need to look further. This is a lovely, welcoming cerverceria with great food.
The restaurant is deceptively larger than it looks the small bar that greets you to the right of the front door has only 8 stools. Not a large bar in the but a place to sit and watch the amazing show that is unfolding in front of you because the seats overlook the small kitchen and bar area that serve the much larger restaurant to the back of the space.
And that area is quite large with easily 40+ seats in the dining room. Nonetheless, the whole place feels small, familiar and intimate. At the same time, this space feels modern but don’t let that fool you, the furnishings are 21st century but the service, ambiente and food are well founded in 20th (in the best of all possible ways).
We have been going to Erajoma for years and years and every time it feels like it does the first time we went. The staff, led by Jose, is at incredibly welcoming in the best Spanish way meaning that if you are local, come often or even come back enough to be recognized, you are quite welcome. If you don’t at least try to speak some Spanish, woe be unto you and rightly so. This is a place to respect Valencia and you should go out of your way to, even if that means practicing your Spanish phrases before you go. The effort will be met with generous welcome.
If you at least try to speak some Spanish the welcome will be better but if you rely on speaking English this restaurant may not be everything that you are used to but this is not freaking Applebee’s or Weatherspoons. It is a rightly local place and you should make an effort.
If you do, it will be oh so worth it. It is hard to go wrong here. La carta is at once expansive and controlled — traditional and familiar with some modern touches. In short, just what you want in a great Spanish local.
Start with Ensalada Rusa. There are so many variations of this great salad in Spain and theirs is spot on with perfectly cooked potatoes and not overwhelmed with other ingredients (there are rusas with peas, carrots, onions, tuna, crayfish, olives or red peppers or some combination of those).
This one is quite simple with a great balance of potato, green bean, carrots and tuna. 
The more conventional Ensalada Valenciana is equally delicious. A simple green salad with lettuce, tomato, olives and onion tossed in a vinaigrette is also a perfect start. 
Verduras a la Plancha is just what it says — vegetables on the grill. Super simple with squash, eggplant (aubergine), mushrooms and asparagus. There are two types of mushrooms (creminis and oysters) and they are just this side of caramelized, soft, sweet and umami all at once.
The squash and asparagus almost underdone but not. The thick slices of eggplant are perfect, charred outside with a soft creamy center. 
The padron peppers are perfectly blistered with just a hint of coarse salt. 
For the Ensalada Rusa, the Pimientos de Padrón and the verdures order the half portion (media ración) if only two of you are dining. A full ración is a lot — you could have a whole portion of the ensalada rusa and a half portion of the verduras and be stuffed.
The Jamón ibérico is great and pretty reasonably priced vs. many restaurants. Sometimes when you have good (or not as good) jamon in a bar it is not sliced well. This is just as it should be — thin enough that you can read the menu through it. Soft, buttery, umami and a bit salty. This is the real deal. 
You can scarf all of this down with a beer or a glass of their house white, a Protos verdura. Crisp and buttery at the same time the wine (as well as the water) is served ice cold and is so refreshing against the backdrop of such great food.
The other outstanding choice is their version of pulpo gallega. The Galician style octopus is also deceptively simple — pulpo, salt, olive oil and paprika. Here they serve a good sized tentacle quick roasted with a bit of oil and served over house made mashed potatoes and dusted with what seems like way too much paprika (mild and sweet, not hot). It is not too much paprika and the pulpo is heaven on a plate.
There’s a warmth to Erajoma — a familiarity. You can feel this in the low hum of cheerful talk, smiles, people toasting with cava and the amazing aromas of delicious food coming from the open kitchen.
This is un gran local and great a great place to feel that you are really a part of Valencia.