The gastronomic offer of Cordoba is no different that classical Spanish food offer in other cities that we visited. There is abundance of small tapas bars where lunch or dinner is served and there are quite a number of upscale restaurants offering a different intake on the traditional Southern Spanish ingredients.

We have tasted all!

Not afraid of the local bars we dined in – style wise – non appealing bars and had great food. And in those fensy smensy and had great food again. Debeli even had a visit to the Michelin 3 star restaurant but that description will be left to his interpretation.

Cordovan cuisine is largely based on use of different vegetables such as tomatoes or artichokes and aubergines, used in a thousand and one ways in Cordovan cuisine, like artichokes or the famous aubergines with honey, salty sweet relic of the Arabic past influence.

The tomato became very popular in 1800 and turned salmorejo (cold tomato creamy soup) to the main character of the cordovan cuisine, to that point where a plaque with a original recipe still stands in one of the streets.

In terms of meat the most popular is the notorious flamenquín, a rolled pork fillet filled with Serrano ham, breaded and fried. Those from Croatia will not be impressed by its performance as it is quite similar to Zagrebački odrezak but the size does matter and it is unimaginable. One portion is quite enough for two persons or at least two dinners 😊

In the land of bulls and toros, no wonder oxtail is another characteristic dish. We had the chance to try it in the Patio Romano restaurant. Quite classic design and name referring Italian restaurant but the only with the oxtail on the menu that even M liked it.

There is nothing unusual about the oxtail. It not like you would get a real furry body part like I imagined, it just a muscle meat scraped from it, nothing different than other meat from an ox. A bit more chevy in comparison to the veal.

The most biggest surprise on our gastronomic journey was a lunch at Vertigo restaurant. Not in the vicinity of our accommodation so I was reluctant to walk ”just” to get there, but the interior took my breath away and the food as well. The colorful and fantastic dragon creatures inspired interior with immense detailed and aesthetically pleasing decorations did not shine over the food, but the opposite. Although not traditional restaurant the ingredients were local and prepared with in the Asian influence, especially Japanese with herbs and flavors.

I mean, even the cocktail drink glass was a monkey head mug. How cool was that!?

According to my opinion Vertigo definitely justifies the Micheling guide recommendation and it should be on ones list when visiting Cordoba.

For us, the gastro experience at Vertigo was something new and exciting and definitely worth the walk. Not from the restaurant with oversized belly, but…you get the grip.