This review is for the restaurant only. After nearly 16 miles on the Camino trail, we were famished and found Restaurante Castro with mixed reviews on Tripadvisor and Google. Xeou! ice cream shop was next door so that more than prompted us to have an early dinner here. Located at the lobby of Albergue Castro (hostel), there was a wait for a party of seven so we decided to do groups of four and three to get seated right away. Gambas al Ajillo - Juicy shrimps in garlic oil... Delicious! Perfect also for dipping the bread in. Pulpo a la Plancha - Four uncut tentacles served with potato next to them. Light on the olive oil and paprika and heavy on the salt, they obviously came out quite salty. Cutting them into smaller pieces was very easy because they were tender. We used the oil from the gambas to make this dish more enjoyable. Paella Marisco - This came out too orange. Their sofrito must be heavy on smoked paprika that day. Shrimps, both unshelled and peeled, half-shell mussels, and green peas dominated this dish. The flavor was just OK. Zamburiñas a la Plancha - Eight half-shell scallops with pesto for the win! This dish was very tasty that we had to go for seconds. Side muscles were intact so there was more to chew. 3.5 stars would be more appropriate, but I rounded up because of the scallops. They were perfectly grilled and lightly torched to give the top a golden brown finish. If we ever pass by Palas de Rei again, these are definitely worth going back to... read more

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We had the rib-eye and the mixed grill. It was all very good. Very nice atmosphere and the service staff were very friendly and entertaining. read more

This review is for the restaurant. We had reservations for our group and the menu was settled on was in advance. I know as Americans we do not eat like Spaniards as we asked to eat at 7:30. The servers couldn't be less interested in trying to serve us. It was 9 pm and we had to ask for dessert. We were served soup with no bread. Our croquettes we inedible. The oil used to fry them was old and made the whole this taste nasty. You would ask a question or make a request and it was like they could not be bothered. read more

This review is for the restaurant. Long day on the Camino, walked from Portomarin. Checked into our alburgue, laundry, etc. Came here around 9pm. Hungry. Ate in the downstairs dining room. Ordered food and a round of drinks. Service okay. Busy. We took our time eating. Around 9:45 PM, we decided to order another 4 orders of the gambas al ajillo. No problem, yes? Should be out quickly, no? No. We waited a full 30 minutes for our order. Now I know the waiter is busy, but I asked him several times about our order. Got brushed off each time. While I would ordinarily just get the check and leave, my family was still hungry. It was getting late... we had wanted to be in bed by now. Finally, our order came without any explanation or apology... the dishes were dropped off and the waiter disappeared. Our order was terrible. Two of the cazuelas were barely warm. No bubbling oil. One of the cazuelas was cracked. Not only was this one barely warm, but there was hardly any oil left, and the shrimp looked kinda...dry. Do we complain and wait another 30 minutes for our order? We couldn't even find the waiter. My kids were so tired, and had a long day ahead of them, they just ate it, as poor as it was presented. Probably our most disappointing meal on the Camino. Waiter brought our bill with a straight face. As we were leaving, the waiter was at the bar joking with another employee about the shrimp with no oil. He seemed amused. Note to the laughing waiter: I understand far more Spanish than I can speak. Hope we amused you. I'm going to eat anywhere but the "Restaurant Castro" on my next Camino. A vending machine would be a better alternative, far less dissapointing, depending on the selection. I can only imagine what the alburgue is like. We stayed at the Outiero. Nice! read more