If you are one of those people who can't stand sitting at the table and having to take out your phone to scan a QR code, you are going to love the approach that this family-owned inn in Huelva has with respect to the menus. In fact, they do not have a menu or blackboards or any type of list of dishes. Here you order by entering the kitchen and asking what was cooked that day. It is the Mesón El Tamborilero and it has been operating this way since 1971.
It may sound strange in times of signature menus and online reservations in advance, but in this historic inn the absence of a menu is not a strategy with which to differentiate itself from the competition but rather tradition. However, that experience, as simple as it is radical, is precisely what has turned the Drummer into a local emblem and a hidden gem to be discovered on the national scene.
Rosendo, the soul of the inn
Behind the stove is Rosendo, who opened the restaurant when he was less than 30 years old and today, half a century later, he is still the soul of the place. He cooks in the mornings and with his own way of understanding cooking that remains intact in all his dishes. Of course, he now runs it with his four children, the second generation of a business that has managed to remain true to itself.
Junta of Andalusia
Located in a strategic point for those who come to visit El Rocío, the vicinity of Matalascañas or the Doñana National Park, El Tamborilero has been a mandatory stop for decades for travelers looking for traditional cuisine, products and a familiar treatment that is no longer abundant.
Goodbye to QR, here you enter the kitchen to choose
The most important moment occurs when the waiter notifies the diner and it is time to get up to choose. With a mask on, each customer enters the kitchen and listens, one by one, to the dishes that have been prepared that day. No rush. It is common to have salmorejo, white garlic, salads and a lot of spooning: choquitos with potatoes, beans with clams, vegetable stews, ratatouille with fried egg…
Also fish in traditional sauce: cod or hake with tomato, tuna in almond cream. Including some almost disappeared recipes such as boneless stuffed sea bass. While green peppers stuffed with loin and ham, stuffed eggplants gratin with bechamel or chicken thighs come out of the oven. Of course, everything is homemade and made on the day.
Junta of Andalusia
Generous quantities and prices that are no longer seen
El Tamborilero serves breakfast and lunch until mid-afternoon, and the portions are as generous as they are exquisite. Although if there is something that has finished conquering those who discover it, it is the price: the dishes range from 7 euros to 12 euros, which is the most expensive. A rarity in times of excessive inflation.
The experience is completed with a careful selection of wines since the Tamborilero team also manages the Almonte Wine Museum, and this is evident in a winery with about 80 references of which you can order about 20 by the glass.
@mesoneltamborilero
For their part, the desserts follow the same logic as the rest of the cuisine: homemade and without industrial artifices. Cheese, walnut, almond, coconut or chocolate cakes that put the end to a meal that does not need to be modernized to remain relevant.
At a time when the hospitality industry seems to be obsessed with innovation and gastronomic trends, El Tamborilero shows that sometimes the greatest uniqueness is not changing anything.
Cover photo | Mesón El Tamborilero
