El Churrasco

El Churrasco has been on Calle Romero since 1976 and is the restaurant that made the 'churrasco de lomo' — grilled Iberian pork loin served with two house sauces (a green parsley-garlic and a red pepper-and-tomato) — the signature dish of Córdoba's taberna scene. The restaurant occupies a converted 16th-century private residence with three traditional patios and a central indoor dining room with open charcoal grill visible from most tables.

The kitchen's identity is built on fire. The pork loin, the lamb chops, the entrecôte, and the daily fish are all cooked over charcoal from Iberian holm-oak — the same wood that smokes the hams cured in the Sierra de Córdoba, and the wood that gives the meat the distinct flavour profile that locals can recognise blindfolded. The menu also includes the full Cordoban traditional range: salmorejo, rabo de toro, flamenquín, mazamorra, and the Andalusian fried-fish classics.

The wine list is sensible rather than ambitious — Montilla-Moriles finos by the glass, a fair range of Ribera del Duero and Rioja reds, a few house-label sherries. Prices are significantly lower than at Casa Pepe or Bodegas Campos, making the restaurant a favourite for group dinners.

Solo diners are welcomed at the small bar near the charcoal grill, where a glass of fino and three tapas (one always the grilled pork loin) is the classic order. Groups of 6 to 12 are well accommodated in the central indoor dining room; larger groups should book the upstairs patio.

El Churrasco is Córdoba's team-dinner restaurant. The grill is the centrepiece of the room — watching plates move from charcoal to table is half the entertainment — the menu is honest, the wine is affordable, and the bill for a group of eight with wine comes to under €55 a head. The indoor central dining room, with the grill visible, is where to seat the team.