Spain used to have loads of places like this – catering mainly to a lunchtime trade of local workers who couldn’t get home for a cooked “main meal of the day” and siesta. But changing customs and car ownership have put paid to many of them.
As indicated by its name, the restaurant is in an old mill (and photos of the original workings are on the wall). Get here bang on 1 o’clock when it opens or you may have wait or be asked to share a table We got there at ten past and shared with a couple of decorators dressed in their overalls and with paint in their hair (yes, it’s that sort of place). And you’ll need to take your restaurant Spanish with you however modest. The menu, such as it is, is on the blackboard and offered three starters (two salads and a soup) and three mains (ribs, sole & lasagne). There’s no translation to English, of course, and the concession to you being a foreigner is that you’ll be spoken to in Castilian not Catalan. Bread, olives, water and wine are all included in the €8 price and are already on the table.
Caesar salad was much as you’d expect, except perhaps you don’t expect it to be quite so garlicky. Chicken salad – the finely chopped meat mixed with mayo – with some radicchio and tomato was tasty. Lasagne was small dish of pasta and flavoursome sauce – straight from the oven and with a warning about how hot it was. Desserts were fruit or a variety of “tartas” – chocolate for me, strawberry the other side of the table. Bought in “catering” desserts for sure – but what do you expect at this price.
We finished with coffee which added another €2 to the total bill. Thoroughly enjoyed lunch – not least for the opportunity to be somewhere away for the touristy side of the area. Es Moli will become spoiled if it’s overrun by tourists and the locals will resent it, so please don’t go. You didn’t really want a good cheap lunch of home cooking, did you?