Era Lucana

Era Lucana is a family restaurant serving Aranese and mountain cooking at Avenida Alcalde Calbeto Barra 10 in Vielha, on the main road that crosses the capital. It is run by Margarita and Emilio, who started in 1989 and opened this restaurant in 2001. They make home-prepared dishes of the valley, with homemade stocks and slow stews, plus some more modern ones, and there is a menu for every budget: it is one of the places in Vielha you can go to with children or as a couple.

Three ways to eat

• Set lunch, €27, with bread, dessert and a drink (red, white or rosé wine, or water). It is served at midday only. First courses include things like Catalan-style broad beans, sautéed gnocchi, roast vegetable timbale with crispy pork belly, or olla aranesa; main courses include homemade cannelloni, Pyrenean lamb, tuna tataki, monkfish tail or seafood paella; desserts are crema catalana, tarts or ice cream.
• Aneto menu, €37, for lunch or dinner, with the more elaborate mountain cooking: onion soup or olla aranesa to start, and entrecôte, braised oxtail, pork rib chunks, cod or creamy lobster rice for the main. This menu has included venison civet, oven-roasted young lamb and cod a la llauna.
• À la carte, with no prices on the website: Iberian ham, foie micuit, picanha carpaccio, rice dishes such as the one with beef rib, the creamy lobster one or the hare and mushroom one, grilled sirloin, shoulder of kid, grilled octopus or a T-bone steak served on a slate. The desserts are homemade: coulant, filled crêpe, torrija, profiteroles.

The cellar has more than forty wines from almost every appellation in the peninsula.

A €10 menu and a private room for birthdays

The children's menu costs €10 with a first course, a main and a dessert: pizza, homemade soup, chicken, cannelloni. The restaurant says it adapts portions to the child's age. For a birthday lunch or a large family meal, the big private room seats 18; there is another small one for six.

Dining room, private rooms and the summer terrace

The main dining room has large windows onto the mountains. In summer a terrace with views opens, and you can bring your dog; the rest of the year it is closed, and the website does not say that animals are allowed inside. They also prepare takeaway food, ordered on the website or by phone and collected at the restaurant.

Opening hours and booking

It opens Tuesday to Sunday, from 13:00 to 15:30 and from 20:00 to 22:30; Monday does not appear in its hours. You can book online or on 973 64 17 98. At Christmas and New Year it serves special menus; the website announces them each season.

To walk lunch off, the centre of Vielha and the church of Sant Miquèu are a few minutes' walk away, and the horse rides to Vilac leave from the stables on the França road, also in Vielha.