El Baifo Gastrobar is located on a small back street very near Charco de San Ginés in Arrecife. In fact, unless you were parking at the Multicines Atlántida, you’d never pass by it. The entrance is on the corner between Calle Emilio Ley and Calle Aquilino Fernández. The old sign “La Despensita. Café y Migas” is still hanging above the new gastrobar sign. I’ll have to find out more it about it and the connection with the Gourmet Store of the current establishment. But today, I wanted to concentrate on their Menú del día.
They call it Menú ejecutivo, executive menu, and it’s a weekly affair, Monday to Friday, served from 1:30h to 16:30h. It offers 2 courses, with 4 options each, and either dessert or coffee. The price is €11 and drinks are not included but you get a nice little bread roll.
This is this week’s menu:
First course:
Stew or soup of the day
Prawn salad
Salad with tomato, fresh cheese, onion and tuna flakes
Cheese board and Iberian pork loin
Second course:
Chicken tacos with tortilla chips and guacamole
Cuttlefish with potatoes
El Baifo rolls (5 fried goat meat rolls)
Pork tenderloin with plum and dried apricot sauce. Served with rice.
On arrival I was greeted by the server behind the bar and I announced I was there for the weekly menu. He told me to choose any seat I liked and he took my drink order shortly afterwards.
The place is big, with a warehouse feel to it, full of old gadgets, signs, tins and coffee sacks. All tables and chairs are mismatched and add to the mesmerising mixture of chaos and wonder.
Some aspects might add to the charm of the place, like the bottom of the walls that needed a lick of paint making it look rustic. Some others might put you off a bit, like rips on the fake break paper wall. I hope like me, you give this place a chance. In my humble opinion, it’s a diamond in the rough.
The place wasn’t very busy at all, despite of having arrived after 2pm. It got slightly livelier later on with what was obviously mainly executive workers from around the area.
I chose a small table near the door for a bit of a draft – mid October and still looking for a bit of cooler air! The legs were the cast iron stand of an old sewing machine which I loved. I had already checked the menu prior to arriving and I had an idea of what I wanted. The server told me that the soup of the day was vegetables and he answered a couple of questions I hadabout some of the dishes. He pointed out that the prawn salad was served warm, as some people expected it to be cold.
I ended up ordering that and the El Baifo rolls. The prawn salad was more like mash potatoes than Russian salad, if you get my drift. It was served with some chopped spring onions and a lovely crunchy and flat breadstick. The mash was creamy and tasty and the prawns meaty.
Baifo is the Canarian for kid, a young goat. The rolls were like Vietnamese rolls, very crispy and they were served with an interesting sauce on the side, a mixture between almogrote (Canarian cheese paste) and mojo rojo.
Portions don’t look huge but they were certainly filling. I actually regretted eating the bread roll as I had no room for dessert. There were two options, both homemade – not your usual piece of fruit or commercial ice cream. I had a cortado instead.
I had sparlking water to drink with my meal as I was driving but they have a selection of wine, beers and soft drinks, of course.
I ask if they do the menu as take away and they do, even half a menu if you like, which I availed of as I definitely wanted to try the pork tenderloin. I even got an extra bread roll to go with it! I had that at home for dinner in the evening. And let me tell you, it was lovely. The pork medallions were so tender and most of the white rice had soaked up the tasty sauce, it was nice and fluffy.
I paid just under €20 for one menu and a half which I think it’s great value. I am already looking forward to see what next week’s menu will be.
El Baifo Gastrobar & Gourmet Store is on Calle Emilio Ley, 4 in Arrecife.
You can find out their weekly menu on their social media:
https://www.facebook.com/elbaifogastrobar/
https://www.instagram.com/elbaifogastrobar/
