Casa Miguel in Tierra de Cine

Casa Miguel is on San José's main street, at numbers 43 and 45, a step from the village beach. It has served Mediterranean cooking since the early 2000s, with market fruit and vegetables, extra virgin olive oil and fish bought each morning at the fish market. The dining room has a second life as an exhibition: display cases and walls recall more than sixty years of film shoots in the province of Almería, from westerns to big adventure productions. Hence the house's second name, Tierra de Cine ("Film Land").

Rice dishes by portion and fish by weight

The speciality is rice dishes, ordered by portion with a minimum of two: vegetable, seafood or mixed paella, meat paella, black rice, rice with octopus and the arroz a la marinera, soupy and made to order with the seafood of the day, which is what the house recommends. To start there are chopped tomato salads, whether raf, kumato or red depending on the season, with anchovies or tuna belly, Níjar cherry tomatoes, gazpacho and ajoblanco in season, grilled octopus leg or fried broad beans with ham and egg.

The fish of the day changes with the fish market: red snapper, bream, red mullet, monkfish, sole, gilt-head bream or sea bass, in pieces of 300 to 350 grams; if the piece weighs more, they tell you beforehand. There is monkfish a la marinera with prawns and clams for two, fried ray, squid, anchovies or sardines, portions of red prawn from Garrucha, clams or cuttlefish in sauce, and griddled meats. To order in advance they prepare two Almería dishes: gurullos with cuttlefish or rabbit and migas. The website does not publish prices; the house is in a mid-range price bracket.

Daily menu, Tuesday to Friday

From Tuesday to Friday there is a daily menu with first course, second course and dessert, except in high season, long weekends and public holidays. At weekends you eat à la carte. For children there are burgers, nuggets and combination plates with chips and egg.

Closed Monday, except in summer

Out of season it opens Tuesday to Saturday from 11:00 to 16:30 and from 19:30 to 23:00, and on Sunday only at midday, from 11:00 to 16:30. On Monday it is closed. In high season it opens every day. Book on 950 380 329, especially for dinner in summer or if you want rice for a group, and order the gurullos or migas well ahead.

From diving to the table

Casa Miguel is a short walk from San José's diving centre, where the introductory scuba dive leaves from, and it is a logical stop on the way back from Los Genoveses beach or Mónsul. To sleep in the village, La Posada de Paco is on Avenida de San José.