Asador El Efebo, Antequera

There is a warm feeling of satisfaction when you come across somewhere that is a real ‘find’, and when you see that the place is full of Spanish families enjoying themselves it is a good indication that this may be somewhere new to Subbetica readers. One reason that it is new to us is that it’s position is on a slip road alongside the dual carriageway that goes past the hospital into Antequera, just past the Cepsa filling station.

The restaurant is named after the statue which resides in the Antequera museum. It is a 1st century Roman life-size bronze statue of a boy and is well worth making a trip to see.

We have eaten at El Efebo for Sunday lunch and a weekend evening meal. There are separate rooms for smokers and non-smokers and the restaurant is decorated in warm colours with comfortable furnishings. Los servicios are of an excellent standard including disabled toilets. The menu in both Spanish and English covers most of the choices we would expect to find, plus a few extras and surprises.

While we pondered our choices we were given olives and a dish of freshly cooked whitebait. Our starters included scrambled eggs with mushrooms; a salad of tomatoes and soft cheese and a huge house salad, all tasty and well-presented, but the most impressive was the salad of thinly sliced avocado and smoked salmon. All were priced between 6 and 9 euros. With our starters came a basket of beautifully tasty and warm different types of bread rolls, just one of the extra touches that made our evening special.

For our main courses we selected a variety of dishes. (It’s a necessary part of coming out to dinner with us these days!) We were fascinated by the sound of the ‘Iberian feather’ which turned out to be a tender and beautifully cooked pork steak which had been opened out to look like a feather; my dorada (goldfish? surely not!) was very large, semi-filleted and full of flavour; the solomillo was perhaps a little well-cooked but still very much enjoyed; but one of our friends picked the most impressive dish of the evening which was a brocheta or kebab of pork with tomato, mushroom and onion, presented on a hanging frame with a flame underneath – both interesting to look at and delicious to eat. We felt our main courses were good value, all between 8 and 16 euros.

Although we did not try them this time, on the menu they also have a small section of Argentinean beef dishes such as Bife Ancho (450g) and Chuleta sin hueso (250-300g) which look interesting to try another time.

We were fairly full and so shared a couple of puddings. As usual in Spanish restaurants, these were more a sweet end to a meal than a raison d’etre but the cheesecake was well regarded as ‘freshly made, not frozen and not too sweet’.

We did not investigate the wine list to any great extent on these visits but were well satisfied with a white Montespejo at 6 euros and glasses of the house Rioja. They do, however, have a good selection priced between 5 and 19 euros, including some French and Italian!

Our bill came to just under 25 euros a head which was a pleasant surprise. Now, this is not haute cuisine of Michelin star standard, but good, honest fare well cooked and attractively presented with attentive service in very pleasant surroundings, providing very good value for money – certainly good enough for us.

Until next time,

Keri and Gordon Vincent

Rating: (out of 5*)

Food *****
Service *****
Value for money *****
Vegetarian options none
Ambience *****
Entertainment n/a
Toilets *****
Recommendation *****