Toledo and the tourists
A friend from Toledo was lamenting the poor quality of his city's culinary offerings. I don't think that's surprising. The influx of tourists who throng Toledo's streets daily, almost all of them day trips from Madrid, has a lot to do with this problem. This overcrowding fosters cheap, low-quality dining.
That's why pizza, burger, and tapas franchises are the ones that are packed. It's difficult to open restaurants with gastronomic ambitions under these circumstances. Despite everything, there are exceptions. The most important is Iván Cerdeño, located on the outskirts of the city, in a beautiful country estate overlooking Toledo. Cerdeño, and I'm not the only one who says so, is one of the strongest contenders for a third Michelin star. He would be the first chef from Castilla-La Mancha to achieve it. He has more than enough merit. To his excellent locally sourced cuisine, his refined, elegant, and flavorful dishes, he adds a top-notch front-of-house team, under the crucial direction of Annika García-Escudero, Iván's wife, and the work of the Asturian sommelier Maikel Rodríguez Cortina, who came to Toledo from Aponiente.
Besides Iván Cerdeño, there are two restaurants, both in the historic center, that are doing a good job of upholding the city's culinary standards. One bears the name of its owner, Víctor Sánchez Beato, the chef who, fifteen years ago, revitalized Toledo's stagnant culinary scene with his first restaurant, Locum.
For the past three years, he's been based at the Hotel El Greco, pursuing a daring venture: serving a tasting menu to fifteen people simultaneously at a bar. A challenge anywhere, but even more so in Toledo. However, the experiment is paying off. Dishes like his reinterpretations of cocido (a traditional Spanish stew) or partridge Toledo-style showcase the veteran chef's appealing approach. His other restaurant is called La Clandestina, a eatery with a serious cuisine that skillfully reinterprets traditional Manchego recipes. And at particularly reasonable prices. Simply their sheep's milk croquettes, their morteruelo cannelloni, or the tempura cod with vegetable stew are reason enough to visit.
