José María Restaurant

José María is a family roast house at Calle Cronista Lecea 11, a few steps from Segovia's Plaza Mayor, open since 1982. At the entrance there is a mesón-bar for tapas, and behind it eight dining rooms that the house calls singular spaces, treated to absorb noise, with two kitchens and four roasting ovens. Its hallmark is the suckling pig, which it raises on its own farm.

Suckling pig raised in-house

Since December 2018 the restaurant has had its own farm, where it controls every stage of the rearing: the sows are fed naturally and the piglets on mother's milk alone, as the Cochinillo de Segovia guarantee mark requires. The Segovian recipe is the simplest possible, water and salt, so everything depends on the produce. The house recommends accompanying it with Pago de Carraovejas Autor, a house red chosen for the suckling pig.

Several menus for different paces

• “La cocina de José María”, the main menu, with local, seasonal produce.
• Tasting menu, with seasonal dishes and wines from Pago de Carraovejas and from Ossian, a Segovian verdejo from pre-phylloxera vines.
• Gastrobar, with classic sharing plates.
• Children's menu, and desserts from its own bakery.

The website does not publish menu prices: ask when you book.

The kitchen that never closes

Here you can eat at any hour: the “always-open kitchen” serves from 12:00 to 22:30 Sunday to Thursday and until 23:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, with no midday break. The bar is open from 10:00 until 23:30, or until 0:30 at weekends. It is a solution if you are coming back late from the Alcázar or want to eat at four.

Form or phone

By phone, on 921 461 111 or 921 466 017, or with the form on its website; they reply to confirm. To eat without a reservation, try the bar. The house also sells suckling pig to take home and organises weddings and events.

Around it

You step out onto the Plaza Mayor and have the cathedral in front of you. The Alcázar is ten minutes away along Calle Daoíz, and the Aqueduct down Calle Real. If you are staying nearby, the Hotel Infanta Isabel is on the same square.