This month was my third visit to Picoteo Restaurant in Fuengirola, and I finally got around to writing this short review.
Picoteo is situated in what I call the ‘Post Office Square’ as it’s the location of the very dated main post office building. The square is usually buzzing with life, with lots of restaurants and full terraces even outside of the main summer season.
Picoteo is a well-established restaurant that has been operating here for years, and specializes in modern Mediterranean cuisine. The ambience reminds me a bit of a cute French cafe, with stylish chairs, quirky decor and always lovely music playing in the background.
For this visit, I tried to book a table on very short notice, and after nobody picked up the restaurant phone, I was pleasantly surprised that they actually called me back and offered a table within an hour.
I visited on what could be considered a low season, just a few days before Christmas.
Let me tell you all about it!
The Menu
Picoteo stands out with its original and creative menu, something you don’t see very often especially in Fuengirola. Yes, it also comes with a price tag – it’s more expensive than the rest of the restaurants in the area.
They offer seafood and raw bar, with lots of ceviche and carpaccio options, a few Asian dishes and a small selection of cuts & cheese.
I really appreciated their salad section with some delicious and novelty options.
The menu extends to lots of meat and fish options, with a couple of pasta and rice dishes to choose from. A well-balanced menu that even for someone who doesn’t eat meat has plenty to choose from.
The desserts are on the pricey side at 8 – 14 euros, but are too big for one to eat, so perfect for sharing (see photos at the end of the post).
The Restaurant
Small things make a big difference and I always appreciate them when I eat out.
Things like proper linen tablecloths, no plastic bottles for water, cute coloured water glasses and proper sourdough bread instead of the usual store-bought baguettes. Picoteo delivers on all of these and much more.
The restaurant offers comfortable cosy chairs (unlike the plastic options in all the other restaurants nearby) and the inside of the restaurant is beautifully decorated with immaculate attention to detail.
The tableware they use is high quality, unique and very creative (for example my dessert was served on what looked like a log of wood).
In the summer, the terrace is covered with large umbrellas and in the winter they have outdoor heaters, so you can enjoy the outdoor seating all year round.
(article continues after the pictures)
The Food
As I said earlier, this was my third time eating here.
On the first two occasions, I chose the same dish – truffle potato mash with grilled scallops and asparagus, it was delicious each time.
On my last visit, I wanted to try something new, so I opted for the roasted avocado salad with feta cheese, tzatziki sauce and kalamata olives (well there was only one olive, not more as the name suggests).
The dish was covered by a lot of red onion, which almost put me off, but it was actually very delicious – the flavours were really well balanced and the dressing in the salad was superb. One of the best salads I’ve had in a long time.
Beautifully crafted dish and also beautifully presented. One might only argue that for the main course, you would be still hungry after having only this (I ended up eating mine with some bravas).
My husband had the new Thai fried rice with chicken and king prawns.
I had a taste it myself and had to agree with him that the rice was extremely salty, I think the chef got carried away with the soy sauce and then added salt on top of that. The rest of the ingredients were beautifully cooked, but the flavour was ruined by the too salty rice.
We also ordered a portion of bravas potatoes, which were actually skin on roasted potatoes, cooked to crips perfection and came with a selection of two sauces. Such a nice change from deep fried patatas bravas you would normally get elsewhere.
For desserts, we had a chocolate brownie cake with vanilla ice cream – huge portion and the ice cream especially was super delicious. It came with hot chocolate sauce.
I wanted to try something new so I picked the hot white chocolate sponge cake with ice cream – I was warned it will take up to 25 minutes to make, but it actually arrived in 15 mins or so.
It looked like a basic sponge cake but when you dig in, the cream comes out from the middle.
To me it looked and tasted like raw cake dough, I’m not sure if that was the intention or if the cake was undercooked, so I ended up eating just the cooked part and the ice cream.
The Service
For such a small restaurant, I have to admit the service was rather slow, and when they did attend, some of the waiters felt like they’re in a constant rush, which is a shame.
We were seated pretty fast, but it took ages for them to clean our table and we had to get their attention every time we wanted to top up a glass of wine or order something else.
Everyone was very friendly and accommodating, and they all spoke very good English, always a plus!
Overal Impressions
I’m very likely to return to Picoteo because I love their menu and the flavours were spot on (at least for me). Even though not everything was perfect, it’s still one of my favourite spots in Fuengirola not just because of the food, but also the atmosphere.
I will keep updating this review as I continue visiting, and should anything change I will happily report and edit it in here =)
Picoteo Restaurant in Fuengirola
Menu: check online here
Reservations: 952 467 542 / Mobile. 629 903 619
Opening hours: 12pm to 12am every day
Location: Calle Larga, Nº4, 29640, Fuengirola (Málaga)
I hope you found this useful?
If you’ve visited Picoteo yourself I would love to hear how you liked it – feel free to leave a comment below.
