Restaurante Universo

El Universo is on avenida de los Arañones, the main street of Canfranc Estación, a few steps from the international station. It is three things in one place: a restaurant, a bar with tapas and a shop selling bread and homemade pastries. It opens every day from 6:00, and extends its hours on holidays, so it works as well for breakfast before the pistes as for lunch or a paella to take away at the last minute.

Charcoal for the ternasco and the longaniza

The cooking is Aragonese and Mediterranean, and what sets it apart is the charcoal grill: lamb, entrecôte and Aragonese longaniza and chorizo. The menu continues with starters, salads, fish, homemade pizzas, paellas, gazpacho and homemade desserts, and has a section of light dishes. In the morning there is toast, almuerzos, bocadillos and sandwiches.

The €28.50 menu

The set menu costs €28.50; the website does not detail which dishes are included, so ask when you book. For children there is a children's menu. Groups of 20 people or more have menus from €20 per person, with coffee and VAT included.

Whole roasts to order

If you are in a group or staying in an apartment, El Universo roasts whole chickens, ternasco and suckling pig to order, and prepares paellas and menus to take away: the takeaway kitchen does not close until 23:00. For snow days they make bocadillos and picnics, and for groups and coaches, breakfasts and buffets by quotation.

Dining room, bar and terrace

There is an indoor dining room for sitting down to eat, the café bar for tapas and a large terrace that opens from March to November. Bread and homemade pastries are on sale from 7:00. You book by phone for any of the three spaces, on 974 37 30 98; there is no online booking.

When it closes

It opens every day of the week, Sundays included. The only break of the year is the autumn holiday: from 20 October to 6 November, both days included. By mid-November it has reopened, in time for the ski season.

On a day in Canfranc

It fits at midday after the guided tour of the international station, which leaves from the town hall square, a few minutes' walk away. In winter, those skiing at Candanchú or Astún come down to eat or collect a bocadillo here in the morning: the ski Sunday at Candanchú ends with its grill. And on Saturdays when the Canfranero, the historic train from Zaragoza, runs, it is one of the stops of the Blue Train plan.