El Cullerot

A table with La Seu opposite

At number 10 Plaza del Mercat, with the façade of the Collegiate Church right in front, El Cullerot opens. It presents itself as a Mediterranean restaurant of local produce, and half of what is ordered here is rice cooked to order. Besides the dining room it has a private room with a terrace over the square, for groups and celebrations of up to 40 people. By its location, it is the natural lunch for anyone spending the morning between the Collegiate Church and the Borgia pope's birthplace.

The baked rice and the others

Xàtiva baked rice, the city's dish, costs €16 per person. The other rice dishes are ordered soupy, dry or as fideuà, for a minimum of two: vegetable (€14.50), secreto pork and mushrooms (€15), black (€15.50), cuttlefish with artichokes or senyoret-style (€16), and octopus or duck and foie gras (€19). For large groups the house lets you choose only two rice dishes per table.

To start, the house esgarraet (€14.50), the truffled Russian salad (€9.50), the house patatas bravas (€9.50), confit artichokes with foie gras sauce (€16.50), butter-bean hummus with crispy ribs or a sauté of mushrooms with spring garlic. The house croquetón costs €4.50 each and has a coeliac version.

Without rice: grill, fish and vegan options

If you are not having rice, there is grilled salt cod with escalivada (€17.50), grilled squid with romesco, octopus with panadera potatoes, monkfish cannelloni with seafood and, among the meats, pluma with sweet-potato parmentier (€19.50), stewed meatballs with mushrooms, a 300 or 500 g entrecôte (€25 and €38) or a chuletón with potatoes and Padrón peppers to share (€52). For those who eat neither meat nor fish, the menu marks three vegan options: the artichokes without foie gras, the esgarraet made with escalivada and a vegan burger. Allergens are marked on each dish.

For dessert, local sweets, the pumpkin and almond arnadí (€6.50) and the moixavena (€6), or cheesecake, torrija and coulant, from €6 to €7.

Thursday to Sunday, and dinner only two nights

It opens on Thursday from 13:00 to 17:00, Friday and Saturday from 13:00 to 18:00 and from 20:00 to midnight, and Sunday from 12:00 to 17:00. It is closed Monday to Wednesday. Book with the button on their website or on 624 42 99 84. If you want to have dinner here, you can only do so on Friday or Saturday.

It is the lunch of the Sunday with La Seu, the castle and baked rice and of the summer Saturday with the Cova Negra trail and a swim at the Gorgo. Afterwards, the climb to the castle starts a few streets away.