Terraza Carmona Restaurant and bar, Vera

On Saturday’s we often go to the market at Vera, a large town 10 minutes away.  After the hustle and bustle of shopping and lugging all our goodies back to the car, we pop into Terraza Carmona for a drink and a tapa – it is a hotel but with a fantastic restaurant and bar.  The bar is miles long with lots of tapas to choose from along with a fabulous choice of fresh prawns and all kinds of fish and seafood.  Cheap it ain’t if you want to eat in the restaurant but fabulous it is.  If you are just snacking and having the house wine or beer, it is a bargain though and you can stay for a couple of hours with no problem at all.

Terraza Carmona tapas bar

They also have the famous jamon from acorn fed piggies which as far as I am concerned is one of the most delicious things you can eat in the world.  A plate enough for four of you is around 20 quid so well worth ordering along with some bread and manchego cheese.  It is very very Spanish and over the weekends the bar is always busy – we always do the non Spanish thing and go reasonably early (around 8 o’clock) if we are going in the evening as otherwise it is hard to get a table if there are more than two of you.  It is lively and mostly frequented by well to do Spaniards, along with hoards of children who are always welcome at all hours of the evening.

Terraza Carmona restaurant

The restaurant is very much more sedate and very classy.  The menu is extensive and varied and also very funnily written – you kind of need to see it to know what I mean!  The kid is absolutely delicious so long as you manage not to picture what it once looked like, as are all the meat dishes.  There are lots of fish choices too – always order a salad as Spanish people obviously think “what is the point of having vegetables, we get those at the market”.  And so you may well get a tablespoon of frozen veg on your plate, along with good potatoes or chips though.  It is something I will never get used to but they seem unwilling to change in this region.   (This isn’t true in most cities in Spain).

Carmona is an absolute must for any visitor – just go for drinks and tapas if you are on a budget or treat yourself to a big fat Sunday lunch – you are guaranteed to enjoy either.

Terraza Carmona telephone number: 950 390 760