Spanish dining experience

We recently went out for an authentic Spanish dinner with a couple of families we've gotten to know since moving to Spain. My husband had been to this restaurant before, with a crowd of fellow military folks, but the boys and I had not previously dined at this particular establishment, therefore we had no idea what to expect. I'd been told the food was good, but that was it.

Driving to the restaurant was interesting. First of all, we drove away from town, seemingly headed toward nowhere. We finally reached the turn-off, although I don't know how one would know it was a turn-off. It's so dark on the roads here! Anyway, we ended up on this dirt road with LOTS of deep holes. Good thing we drove our SUV rather than our car, or else we might have buried the car to the axle. It had rained and the holes were filled with water, and of course the dirt road was really quite muddy. Lovely!

We found the restaurant... Las Tinajas (pronounced "lahs tin-ah-hahs") and this is what it looked like from the outside... Yes, you KNOW I took my camera!


This is one section of the first room we entered, but they didn't seat us in here.

Instead, they seated us in the adjoining room...


You know me... I was intrigued by the table decor.


The flowers in the vases appeared to be made of burlap. Interesting!


There weren't any candles inside these decorative "thingies" on the tables, but I assumed that was their intended purpose.


At the front of the room was a huge meat case. I've seen meat cases in grocery stores and delis, but never out in the open in a full-fledged restaurant. I didn't linger at the meat counter as it's wasn't a particulary appetizing sight for me. Sorry.


Here's one view of the kitchen area behind the meat counter.


We could watch our food being grilled.


We sampled a myriad of appetizers, which could have actually served as my meal. No Spanish dining experience is complete unless you've had olives. They're an appetizer on every table in every eating establishment. No kidding.


Ham (Jamón) is another very popular appetizer here in Spain. This has the appearance of uncooked bacon, doesn't it? It's fairly tasty, although I'm more fond of the next appetizer I'm going to show you.


I LOVED the garlic shrimp (ajo camarón)! I could have eaten the whole bowl, but we were sharing, so I minded my manners. Note to self: Order MORE garlic shrimp next time!


These are fried calamari and they were very good too.


I almost forgot about these delicious little pieces of heaven. These are potatoes (patatas) with some sort of creamy sauce on top and they were FAN-tabulous! Bring on the carbs! Can you feel your arteries hardening just looking at these foods?


This is what I had for the main entree, as if I needed anything else to eat. It's skewered chicken (brocheta de pollo), prepared on the grill with pieces of peppers and onions. Mmmm!


Potatoes were served with my meal. That's just what I needed too... MORE carbs because I hadn't already had enough. Hey, I'm not complaining though. They were tasty!


Here's our whole gang, enjoying the night out to dinner together.


We were served these tiny drinks along with the lollipops. I'm not sure if this is typical at this restaurant. The lollipops must have been put on the tray for the benefit of the kids. The tiny drinks, which looked like shots, were a VERY sweet peach-tasting drink. I don't think it was peach schnapps though because I couldn't taste any alcohol. It remains a mystery to me as I never found out for sure. Maybe next time...