My first meal in Toledo was a journey because my planned spot was too full (not sure how, there were empty tables...) and the second choices was the same (at least this time, no empty tables). So I went next door to the second place (where I was able to go to dinner on Sunday) to a place I didn't ahve on my list, but had some good reviews - called Taberna del Pescador. Despite the name, their menu wasn't just fish and seafood, but I limited myself to such, getting their Menu del Dia, where you pick one of many options for starter, main and dessert. It was great, as you would expect, from the starter of a truly refreshing, wonderful Octopus salad, with the octopus just so lightly dressed in acid, and then a main of grilled grouper with otehr things, which was incredible. Grouper is a fairly non traditional fish, but every time I have had it, it has been wonderful. For a spot I didn't know of until 30 seconds before eating there, it was a great place. Showed when I just beat the lunch rush (it was ~1:30) and many people came in after and were told to wait.
Lunch on Sunday was similarly audibile-ized, when my planned spot was randomly closed. Now, it isn't too random - probably many places shut down for a few weeks in summer (the weird dichotomy of a lot of Europe closing in summer when that is the busy season...). The spot would've been great to try some famous stews, but I did that anyways at Taberna Skala, which was perfect - it was a low key tavern with some great dishes. I tried the famous in Toledo Carmacusa stew, which is a braised pork stew with peas taht is just lovely, and then I got a dish taht I can only describe as indulgent perfection. Nominally it was slightly fried lamb shoulder, which is what it was, but it had this almost too crunchy crust and then just the fattiest, most delicious parts of the lamb (including collagen, fat and such tendedr meat). It probably set me back a few thousand calories despite the tiny size, but it was too good to pass up.
The dinners were more notable, starting with the Sunday night (as Saturday Night was basically a tasting menu that I will cover separately) at Taberno Botero, one of the more well regarded, fancier Taberna's (think of them as Spanish Izakayas) in Toledo - a place where I was lucky to snag one of the tables in the bar area as their upstairs restaurant was fully booked. They serve all the same rations downstairs and I enjoyed the hell out of some wonderful things, from a Manchego Flower fried with partride terrine (wonderful), to a pig ear tostada, and then the best was a oxtail dumpling plate with morel mushroom cream. It was audacious, it was wonderful, it was a place I wish I came with a half dozen people so we could try the entire menu.
Saturday dinner at Adolfo was nearly as good - a Michelin Guide spot that serves a fairly timid eight course tasting menu for 88 euros. The food was immaculate, from two brilliantly cooked prawn creations with such great sauces (a beautiful almond cream being the star on one of them) to a wonderful piece of venison to end it. The other star of Adolfo is their wine cellar which you get a tour of at the beginning which has some ten rooms in nooks and crannies with wines of all places and price points. I went for a relatively cheap bottle, whcih of course Adolfo lets you take home the remainings of. Will cover each course later, but it was a great meal.
Ok, let's get to the night stuff. I had shortlisted a few places, with another qeustion mark as to late night EDM because Toledo doesn't have many spots and most were closed for the summer. We'll get to how that wonderfully resolved itself later, but let's quickly hit the other spots. The first was a great craft brewery called Cerveceria Abadia, which was also a stunning space of two levels, with crazy bathrooms that was this little semi outdoor space with little tepee pods for each stall. The beer itself was good, but weirdly out of the six taps only two were theirs - with three from another craft brewery. Anyway, the decor, and limited but great collection of tapas of which I sampled two, were great.
Similarly cool was Taberna de Livingstone, which is a wonderful bar with foosball, pool tables, a little dance floor, music videso being projected, and the owners being a husband and wife both in their sixties who took it all in. It was just an amazing vibe and an amazing place - the husband loving that I was ordering "Johnnies" (red label and soda) and a place that had Guiness on tap. I could've spent the night at Livingstone, but I did want to take one last risk on the EDM side.
See, two blocks away from Livingstone sits Circulo del Arte, which is an art and culture space by day and makeshift EDM club by night housed in the old church like building. Beautifull setting, great idea, but on its website it showed no new shows until September. However, it sat a minute away from Livngstone, so I wandered over, and even when outside it didn't seem like much was going on inside, but I step in and what do I see but a DJ with a fairly simple sound system standing on the altar in front of a floodlight space behind him - immaculate. It was fairly empty, arriving at around 1:45, but Livingstone (and msot other places) close aroudn 2:30, so aruond then it got fairly crowded and it was just amazing. That was a perfect way to end the one main night in Toledo. Technically there are a few other EDM spots open during the non-summer but I can't imagine any being as beautiful a setting as this one.
The other great way to end a night in Spain is sipping Mahous outside in a square with floodlight buildings on top of you, and that is what I did to end Sunday, getting a couple last few at Junipero, a graet Taberna in the shadow of the Alcazar and the main square (which is really a triangle). It was hot during hte day, but lovely 75 or so at night and that setting, while not as hauntingly beautiful as the Circulo del Arte, was a great spot to imbibe life as well and end my time in Toledo, a place that is about as good a weekend getaway as I could have imagined.
