El Retorno Restaurant

What it is

El Retorno is the restaurant of chef Pedro Rodríguez, who, according to the Michelin Guide, returned to his roots in Consuegra after many years cooking in Madrid. It is inside the building of the La Vida de Antes Rural Hotel, although with a separate entrance, at Calle Reina María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena 2, in the centre of the village.

It is a small dining room, with a maximum of 25 seats according to the municipal tourism listing, in a carefully kept space that mixes old and modern. The house itself defines its cooking as traditional but evolving, fused with other culinary cultures, with seasonal produce and a vegetable garden of its own that they call "100% km 0".

What you eat

The Michelin Guide, which includes it in its selection in the high price range (€€€), mentions dishes such as breadcrumb migas with egg, grass pea porridge served in artisan country bread, wild boar cheek and marinated venison sirloin: La Mancha and game recipes taken to a contemporary technique.

According to the same guide, it works with set menus: the Meridión, at lunchtime only on weekdays, and the Journey of Flavours, in a short and a long version, every day. The menus are served to the whole table and always with prior booking. Neither the guide nor the restaurant's website publishes prices: ask when you book.

Hours and booking

The restaurant's website gives lunches from 13:30 to 15:30 every day except Wednesday, and dinners only on Friday and Saturday, from 20:30 to 21:30; the municipal tourism listing extends those slots to 16:00 and 23:00, so take the website's times as the arrival window. It is closed all day Wednesday, and the municipal listing also notes a closure from 17 to 27 February and that on the eve of public holidays and on holidays the hours may change.

You must always book, on 601 308 878 or at [email protected]. With 25 seats, at weekends and on festival days it fills up quickly.

Before or after

It is the place to end the windmill day. Go up in the morning to the windmills on Calderico hill and La Muela castle, and come down for lunch without taking the car: the restaurant is in the old town, a few minutes from the Plaza de España. If you want to extend the experience, sleeping at La Vida de Antes, in the same building, puts Saturday dinner a few steps from your room.