Belated review from exactly one week ago today. Casa Julian was our last meal in Spain. We ended up here completely by chance after finding a parking spot directly in front of it.
We opted to sit at a small table outside since it was shaded and started with some white wine and the avocado and tomato tartare as a refreshing starter. They also serve you some complimentary sautéed chickpea dish that's flavored with ham hocks(?): yum.
We also got their "famous" dish of a fried egg on fries (huevos rotos "Julian"), which pretty much tasted like how it sounds. Nothing special, but of course eggs and fries are delicious together. The exciting part of the meal was the sticky rice (arroz meloso de carabineros) that turned out to be just like a paella. We learned the hard way that eating paella outside of Valencia was heresy, so it's nice that we had some as part of our final meal. The flavors were all there, as was plenty of seafood.
FYI: this restaurant is in the trendy Salamanca district and there are very rich and well-dressed people milling about. We had been up since 4:30 am to go to the running of the bulls and had just driven in from Pamplona and looked like night of the living dead. Still, we were treated very courteously and were pleased that this establishment ended our trip on a nice culinary note. read more