La Oreja de Van Gogh

On Monday, the Boy and I decided to try the comida corrida, a set meal that many restaurants serve starting at around two in the afternoon, at La Oreja de Van Gogh, a restaurant recommended by our guidebook. I was very much underwhelmed by the whole experience.

Situated in the lovely Plazuela de San Fernando, the setting of the restaurant was very nice. Almost nice enough so that I could overlook the dirty, stained tablecloths. Which, really, not a big deal. It didn’t add to the experience, but it didn’t really detract either.

We were first served our drink: agua refrescas – limonada in this case. This was probably the highlight of the meal. The limonada was cold and very flavorful, though a tad too sour for my taste.

the Boy and the Limonada

Next came the sopa del dia, which, at best, was okay. It tasted exactly the way it looks, like canned soup with cut-up spaghetti in it. A little bit too salty, but alright.

sopa del dia

By the way, there was no way to really take an attractive picture of this soup.

Appetizers(?) were next. The Boy ordered verduras a la mantequilla (vegetables with butter), and I had spaguetti al burro (…I don’t know). I didn’t try the veggies, but the Boy said that they were…okay. Bland, but okay. They looked like pretty straightforward steamed veggies. The spaguetti, on the other hand, was kind of interesting. The noodles were covered in white cream sauce, which was faintly (and weirdly) sweet. The cheese sprinkled on top tasted like canned parm. Finally, it was garnished with four rolled-up slices of ham. Strange, but intriguing.

Finally, we had the main dish: carne de puerco en salsa verda (lit: pork in green sauce).

carne de puerco en salsa verde

This was possibly the saltiest thing I have ever eaten in my entire life. It was so salty, you couldn’t taste the pork or the sauce or anything else. Blech. The tortilla chip garnish (dipped in beans while carefully avoiding the evil, salty sauce of doom) was the only part of this dish that I really enoyed. That and maybe that slice of tomato on the side (I didn’t eat the cucumbers).

So that’s it. Overall, a very disappointing experience. I don’t think we’ll be going back there anytime during the rest of our trip.