Restaurante El Duende

For dinner in Torla after a day in Ordesa, El Duende is one of the tables you should phone in the morning: it only takes bookings by telephone and holds the table for fifteen minutes. It occupies a stone house from 1831 on calle de la Iglesia, in the old town, and has been a restaurant since 2002.

The 1831 house on calle de la Iglesia

Inside it keeps the stone and the vaults, with a lounge with sofas and several small dining rooms. The house presents the street as one of the most charming corners of Torla.

Ox grill and suckling shoulder

The menu is mountain and charcoal cooking, with fish and a little seafood. Prices from the menu published on its website:

• Meats: roast suckling ternasco lamb shoulder with baked potatoes, whole, €18.75; grilled ternasco ribs, €17.70; 350 g ox entrecôte, €18.75; venison loin with red berry coulis, €18.75; beef fillet, €20.50; duck breast, €16.95; 650 g ox chop, €22.50, and the 850 g one for two, €35.50.
• Grilled fish: turbot with prawns and scarlet prawn, €17; monkfish with seafood sauce, €20.50; sole with prawn and scarlet prawn, €21.75.
• Starters: Navarra asparagus with acorn-fed ham, €16.75; Galician-style octopus, €18.25; fresh foie gras with tomato jam, €16.75; bluefin tuna carpaccio and prawns, €16.25; rice with lobster, scallops, prawns and scarlet prawns for two, €30.50.
• Salads, from €12.50 to €12.75, and to begin, Huelva prawns on the griddle or acorn-fed ham shavings with foie gras, at €20.50.

For dessert, the house fritters with ice cream and hot chocolate, coulant, cheesecake with raspberry, crème brûlée cake or artisan sheep's yoghurt with rosemary honey. The website does not publish dessert prices. On its website it also advertises a menu for two, the Tierra, without detailing what it includes: ask when you book.

Bookings by phone only

The website gives lunch from 13:30 to 15:30 and dinner from 20:00 to 23:00, with no closing day. Bookings are made by telephone only, on 974 486 032, and the table is held for fifteen minutes. In high season, when the bus from Torla to the Pradera is running, call before going up into the valley. Out of season, confirm that it is open that day.

From the car park to the table, on foot

It is a few minutes' walk from the Torla car park, from where the Ordesa bus leaves. When you come back from your route, leave the car there and walk down into the old town. It is the lunch of the Sunday in Ordesa with the Estrecho waterfalls and of the autumn Sunday with the Cola de Caballo.