Restaurante El Tintero, El Palo, Malaga

If you live or are visiting Malaga and love freshly cooked seafood give Restaurante El Tintero a try! It is a really well known restaurant located in the El Palo district of Malaga. We paid a visit last Sunday lunchtime for a friend’s birthday and had a great time.

El Tintero seats possibly 1500 people at any one time and is really bustling and noisy, so if you have a headache or had a few too many the night before and feel a bit hungover, best leave it until you feel a bit better!

What you will find is some of the best cooked seafood anywhere, some 30 waiters constantly walking around with plates of all types of fish including boquerones frita (fried white bait), calamares, prawns pil pil, paella, fully cooked lobsters, sardines and much much more. Breads and ensalada mixtas are also available to compliment.

Jugs of beer, bottles of wine and soft drinks are all available so there is something for everyone.

This Malaga restaurant buzzes and the real plus point aside from the great food, is that there is no messing about, a waiter will not come and take your food order and then a long wait ensues, as I mentioned before they are constantly walking about, shouting at the top of their voices what they have on the plates!

The food just keeps coming!

Anything you fancy, shove your hand in the air and they bring it over to you, don’t bother calling out as you won’t be heard! Just repeat that process until you have had your fill, the food just keeps coming.

Very popular with the Spanish, when we arrived at 2pm on Sunday, admittedly not the best time to find a table in Malaga, the place was nearly full, so there might be a short wait for a table, but people are coming and going all the time so you shouldn’t have to wait long.

Our table was made up of 8 people, to be honest this is not really the place for a quite meal for two, much better in a group, midweek may be quieter and more appealing to couples, but the hubbub might be lacking.

Beware the Lobster

We had some great boquerones, sardines, squid, a couple of paella’s, rosada frita, mussels, prawns pil pil and bread, they also have a bbq in the corner that cooks meat, we went for pinchitos de pollo (chicken on skewers) but it was not cooked very well and nowhere near as good as the fish. Someone then stuck their hand up for the whole lobster!! It was ok, but we thought over priced for what it was, as they price on weight.

Every plate you have is kept on the table and at the end of the meal the plates are counted up and the bill is scribbled down on the paper table cloth! All plates are priced at 7,50€ except for said lobster which came in at 21€, ouch! Another good reason to go in a large group as the bill was divided up between us coming in at 19€ per person including all the drinks, all in all for the amount of food and drink consumed it worked out good value.

Authentic Spanish dining

So, El Tintero in Malaga is definitely worth a visit, if you want an authentic Spanish dining experience with loads of buzzing noise, bustle and some of the best fresh Mediterranean seafood it is well worth a looksee.

After your meal, take a stroll along the seafront where you will find some really nice cafe bars and some of the quaintest beachfront houses. If you continue walking far enough, staying on the seafront toward Malaga centre you will come into a place called Pedregalejo. Drop into the back streets in Pedregalejo and you are transported into a world of little narrow streets and more little houses, quite a sight! I will write more on Pedregalejo another time.

El Palo is located on the eastern side of Malaga city centre right on the seafront, buses from the centre will transport you out there, we drove and it was a bit of a nightmare finding somewhere to park.

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