One of those legendary places that somehow or other we've never gotten to. We're talking about a history that goes back to... 1750! At that point, it wasn't a restaurant, it was what was called a pulperia, sort of a combo general store, with a focus on food, and some pre-prepared food for people to buy and take with them. In 1873, it was converted to a restaurant, and it's been open as one ever since - 146 years of continuous operation!
About as classic local decor as you can get - a combo of knickknacks and futbol memorabilia.
A very good tortilla española. Not the best one we've ever had, but cooked right, with a still gooey interior. Potatoes, chorizo, onions. A touch more salt would have livened it up, but we ate every bite.
They're famous for their rabas, fried squid rings, and, I think, justifiably so. First off, they're thick, plump rings of calamari. Instead of being breaded, they're just dusted in flour and fried to a beautiful gold. Simply served with lemon and salt on the side. Delicious, though slightly uneven in the cooking - while most of the rings were tender, maybe 20% of them were a little rubbery.
Several main courses are touted as their long time specialties, with a party of four of us, we went with two of them (portions are massive). Rabbit cooked in white wine with roasted potato slices. Yum. Yum. Yum.
And, more than one reviewer has touted these folk as offering the best version of Suprema Maryland, the classic fried chicken cutlet with ham, roasted pepper, creamed corn, shoestring potatoes, and a fried banana. You can read the story about this dish on an earlier post of mine. It's one of the best versions of this dish I've had prepared truly traditionally. I still like the version at Gambrinus more, but it's not classic, substituting German sausage for the ham and french fries for the shoestrings. But either one, any time. Neither of them beat the one at Aquiles, but that's way too far away to go just for this dish.
Service was friendly and relatively quick. Pricing looks somewhat expensive until you realize that every dish is prepared in a portion for 2-4 people. I'm not even sure there are any individual sized dishes offered on the menu. Appetizers generally run around 300-400 pesos, while main courses hover around the 450-550 peso mark. read more