El Sordo Restaurant

El Sordo opened in 1917 on calle Alharbona, in the upper part of Ricote, and is still in the same family: it was founded by Jesús Ortega Buendía and Marina Tomás Buendía, today Jesús Ortega is in the kitchen and the fourth generation, Sebastián and Abensabin Ortega Gómez, already works in the house. It is a place for eating without hurry, with a menu of more than a hundred dishes dominated by game, embers and spoon dishes.

Game and the oven, best ordered ahead

What is most associated with the house (roast kid and suckling pig, small-game gazpachos) appears on the menu as to order only. If you come for them, ask for them when you book. Prices on the published menu: suckling pig or kid at €44 a kilo, or by the portion from €33 (kid leg or rib rack) and €39 (suckling pig or shoulder); game gazpachos, €25 a portion. Also ask whether you need to order the dessert you want, because the menu marks some that way, among them bienmesabe, the house almond sweet (€7.50).

What is there every day

Without ordering ahead, the menu has aged Galician beef chuletón (€100 a kilo), young beef entrecôte, lamb and Murcian chato grilled (€26 a portion), venison loin with Fondillón (€31), red-legged partridge en escabeche (€30) and spoon dishes such as fabada with fresh beans or pochas with pig's ear, cooked over wood (€20 each). To start there are single bites: the sordito, tuna with yuzu, the pheasant empanadilla or the Asurbanipal meatball. These bites cost €3 to €8 each, and the homemade desserts €4.70 to €9.70.

The €60 tasting menu

To try a bit of everything without thinking, there is a €60 tasting menu without drinks: yuzu tuna, salmon with guacamole, the Julen Guerrero, a sordito, the Asurbanipal meatball, the pheasant empanadilla, Tudela artichokes, fabada or Murcian chato chop, dessert, bread and olives. The house also has a wine cellar with its own page on its website.

Booking at El Sordo: phone and confirmation

It opens Thursday and Sunday at lunchtime, from 12:30 to 17:00, and Friday and Saturday at lunchtime and in the evening, from 20:30 to midnight. It is closed from Monday to Wednesday. Booking is by phone only, on 968 69 71 50, and you must confirm the same day before 12:00: otherwise the table may be released. After the booked time, they hold it for half an hour.

The website gives no details about the dining rooms, the terrace or parking: if you are coming with a pushchair, a wheelchair or a large group, ask when you call.

The walk first, the village afterwards

The Senda de los Moriscos, about 8 km through the orchards and the sierra, starts at its door: do it in the morning and sit down to lunch at two. If you are coming from the spa, the thermal Sunday in Archena with lunch in Ricote passes through here and ends with a stroll around the old town of Ricote.