Cabo Raiz

Cabo Raiz is the extremely trendy little Italian bar nestled between the Blue Rock and Rogue´s Gallery in the old town and it has taken me until now to visit. It is primarily a bar but they have a small supply of Italian tapas or you can also request a meal a day or two in advance and Luca the owner will create anything you desire. The bar is decorated in the style of a winding cave and has lots of little nooks and crannies. They have a lovely wine display and a huge chiller cabinet with lots of lovely hams, cheeses and delicatessen type goodies in one of the little “rooms” at the back. It´s all decorated in a very trendy style (for Corralejo anyway!).

Barfly and I had intended to go there for dinner for a while so I booked a table for four on Tuesday for last night (Thursday). Thursday morning she texts me to say Sue won´t be able to make it – we are now three. 8.00 p.m. that evening another text – Barfly having to work late – won´t be able to make it. We are now down to two. Anyway, Debs (my dinner partner for 12 days) and I get there at 10 and I send another text to Barfly – she thinks she can get there in half an hour. Up until now I have been updating Luca on the numbers of our party and he is more than relaxed (maybe he should join the NoPasaNada club). We say we´ll hang on but could we have some nuts or something to pick at with our wine until Mel arrives. Luca promptly arrives with a small dish of little mini bruscettas decorated with mushrooms and tuna – a step up from a bowl of peanuts!

Barfly now arrives (knackered and unmade-up – not like our Mel I have to say) but happy to have got here. We instruct the ever-patient Luca that he can now start preparing our meal. The bar is slowly filling up with the young, trendy Italian (and European) clientele that the bar has been attracting since it opened a few months ago. Not being bright, trendy, young things, we are sitting at a table towards the back. No one else seemed to be eating this evening but you don´t feel awkward at all as there are so many little places to hide that everyone seems to do their own thing. I think Luca was, in fact, pleased to be doing something that requires his imagination and exercises his artistic flair. I had asked him to prepare some antipasti and then just a pasta dish for our meal.

Our first dish was a mixture of skinless red peppers and baby chanterelle(?) mushrooms with torn basil leaves in a dressing of chilli oil – lovely. Mel found the dish a little oily. I had no complaints. We had a basket of assorted breads from which I chose to dunk into the dressing. Our next course was buffalo mozzerella with tomatoes and basil – typical Italian dish – but very well presented and very tasty. Our main pasta dish arrived and I immediately thought how small the dish seemed (I´ve always been a quantity not quality kinda girl!) but after a couple of mouthfuls we commented on the richness of the dish. It was stuffed tortellini with an abundant supply of porcini mushrooms and I think we all left some on our plates! In fact, Rogelio has got a lovely Italian supper tomorrow night on the back of our “para llevars” - he does very well out of my gastronomic visits around town. All the dishes were presented very artistically and we were looked after by Luca and his (very trendy Italian) staff with great enthusiasm and care. We were offered a drink on the house but all declined through either sheer tiredness or being so full.

Being so close to the bar I will definitely go there again for either a small tapas or another meal or even just a drink or two in very relaxed surroundings. I did notice the music (also very trendy) was a little on the loud side and when the Gypsy Kings came on they seemed to turn the volume up even more! Am I just getting old? The atmosphere was still very chilled out though. I would like possibly to have a party of six people or so and sit in the small private dining room type annexe and really exercise Luca´s culinary capabilities further. He produces extremely original and imaginative dishes and I feel prefers to cook more than merely serve bottles of beer!