Valencia Eats: Menú del día at Rojas Clemente

Jun 5

Jun 5 Valencia Eats: Menú del día at Rojas Clemente

Rojas Clemente is one of my favorite places to go for lunch in Valencia. The menú del día is €11.50, the portions are huge, everything is homemade including the desserts, the service is personable (the owner guy always says hi to me!), and the dishes come out quickly. I don't love everything they make (the mains are sometimes reheated in the microwave, helping with the service speed but hurting the quality), but all in all it's a place want to return to again and again.

This is a starter, although it could be a meal all by itself. It's hands down one of the best things I've ever eaten in Spain: a savory tart made with hake fish. It would never occur to me to make a tart like this, but it was silky, savory, melt-in-your mouth good every bite of the way. Rojas Clemente changes their quiche/savory tart regularly, so unfortunately one never knows what's on offer.

On another visit, it was this spinach tart. Other choices for the starter usually include soup, salad, and a rice dish like paella, which you can also opt to have as your main course.

The mains are pretty straightforward, usually fish, chicken, and that rice dish. Here's a grilled chicken with some veggies and fries on the side. The fries, as usual in Spain, are rather soggy.

Here's a fried fish main course.

All of their desserts are homemade, and they have quite a good, rotating selection of cakes, and other items such as this torrija, which is like french toast. Also available in chocolate version.

Here is their homemade hazelnut ice cream. It was a bit of a miss. I think it's made from condensed milk, so it was rather gooey and had a heavy mouthfeel.

One more thing that I love about Rojas Clemente: it has a great old-school greasy spoon charm to it, but they are one of the only restaurants in all of Spain (it seems) that updates their website regularly with their menu of the day. And you know if they don't have the menu of the day posted, then they're closed for that day. Check it out: www.rojasclemente.es