Parador de Ciudad Rodrigo Restaurant

The Parador restaurant is inside the castle of Enrique II, at the western end of Ciudad Rodrigo, above the gorge that drops to the Águeda valley. You eat under stone arcades, in a medieval-style dining room from which you can see the charro countryside. It is open to everyone, not just guests, and serves lunch and dinner every day.

What to order: farinato and covered eggs

The cooking is traditional charro, brought up to date, with two star products of the Salamanca dehesas: Iberian pork and morucha beef. The dishes customers order most, according to the Parador itself, are the farmyard eggs covered with Iberian ham and potatoes, the farinato with a yolk cooked at low temperature and patatas meneás, the roast leg of lamb and the grilled morucha tenderloin. The specialities the house highlights are the covered eggs with ham, the cod loin and the Iberian cured meats, with acorn-fed ham from Guijuelo.

Farinato is Ciudad Rodrigo's sausage: bread, lard and paprika, which is fried and eaten with egg. If you are only going to try one local thing, make it that.

Price and menu

The menu can be viewed on the Paradores website, which does not publish prices as text. The level is that of a Parador: high for the area.

Opening hours

• Breakfast: from 8:00 to 11:00.
• Lunch: from 13:30 to 15:45; last booking at 15:30.
• Dinner: from 20:30 to 22:30; the last table is booked at 22:00.
• Café: from 11:00 to 22:30, and on Friday and Saturday until 23:00.

Book on the Paradores website, on 923 46 01 50 or at [email protected].

The castle before dessert

Before or after eating, go up the keep, 17 metres a side, and stroll in the gardens above the river; the castle of Enrique II has its own visit. For the rest of the day, the Plaza Mayor and the old town are ten minutes' walk away, and the wall walk passes beside the castle.