El Campero

It is with due merit that El Campero receives distinction in this guide. The owner, ideologist, and everything man of the establishment, Pepe Melero, has created a paradise of wonderful products and ingredients of the Atlantic. Here, it is commonplace to meet chefs and gourmets from across Spain that come to enjoy, throughout the monographic menu, the jewel of the Strait of Gibraltar: tuna de derecho, so called because, after filling up on succulent oceanic oils, it returns to the Mediterranean to spawn between April and July every year. Now, after the complete reformation of the kitchen and the focus of the chef, José Manuel Núñez, on creating and perfecting some of the more “imaginative” sauces that the tuna wasn’t assimilating correctly before, the restaurant is running smoothly.

It is recommended that one begins with an assortment of the homemade salted tunas that includes cured strips (mojama), flank (ijada), roe (hueva), smoked tarantelo (back-abdominal cut); followed by two memorable tapas, the exquisite lollipop with tuna roe (male’s testicles), of an unparalleled flavor and texture, and the curious tuna sausage. Afterwards, just order as many plates of tuna that are available that day: slices of tataki filet, warm salad of galetes (a bone surrounded by fat that the tuna has in the gullet, texturally equivalent to ox tail), mini-brochettes of contramormo in tempura, tuna filet tartar, bosom grilled mormo and belly, all prepared with incredibly precise cooking and infinite flavor, particularly the tuna belly sashimi that we would qualify as more conventional but better than the majority of Japanese restaurants that abound in Spain. And to finish, the tremendous galetes stew, a classic dish of the province of Cadix that El Campero recreates with a lighter sauce and brimming with flavors of the sea. Although the described menu above reigns supreme at El Campero, that does not mean that the rest of the fish and seafood exhibited in the window is not worthy of indulgence: fried perfection of the ortiguillas de mar (delicious anemones), savory local clams, excellent lobster and scarlet prawns, and magnificent wild salt roasted fish, baked or fried (pandora, sea bream, sea bass, red porgy, croaker, etc…). In all, this is one of the finest restaurants serving Andalusian products around.