O Dezaseis

O Dezaseis has run out of the same stone-cellar building on Rúa San Paio de Antealtares since 1988 — a side street that most first-time visitors walk past without noticing, two minutes from the cathedral square. The room is a sequence of barrel-vaulted dining spaces seating thirty-five each, the walls carry old Galician advertising enamels, and the lunch trade is the tell: this is where the city's cathedral clergy, the judges, and the law faculty all eat on weekdays.

The menu is traditional Galician without apology. Empanada gallega, pulpo a feira, lacón con grelos, caldo gallego, arroz con bogavante, a full bench of grilled seafood and meats. The wine list is deep in Galician whites and includes a Rioja Reserva shelf that the clergy clearly approves of. The bread programme is Galician-proper — four breads, four purposes, no negotiation.

Value is the restaurant's calling card. The menú del día at lunch is one of the best meals under thirty euros in Spain; dinner à la carte rarely pushes past sixty per person with wine. The room fills by 2.30pm on any weekday and does not empty until after 4. Service is old-school Galician — efficient, proud, a little dry in the way that good Galician service always is.

The private rooms in the back seat twelve to twenty-two and are the reason most Santiago families book here for birthdays, christenings and communions. The kitchen will handle a set menu for any private event without fuss; the wine list is generous; the cheese trolley at the end of the meal is genuinely worth the extra course. It is the civic dining room of Santiago.

O Dezaseis is a team-dinner room in the most traditional Galician register. The private barrel-vaulted rooms seat twelve to twenty, the menu is built for shared ordering, the pace of a long Galician lunch or dinner suits a celebration, and the bill never becomes the problem. It is also the correct choice for a business lunch with older Galician counterparties who will feel more at home here than at either of the Michelin stars.