Bar Cañete is primarily counter seating, some facing the open kitchen, and a couple tables in front and back. They offer a menu of plates to share and a couple of specials for the day. The staff were helpful in choosing what to try, if we only wanted to try a few plates. They also helped pick one of the many wines by the glass to go with the food. Everything was good but not as spectacular as the reviews had made me think it would be. Nevertheless it was a nice experience and the chef was observant enough to note that we had already ordered shrimp and so she left it out of the sweetbreads order, so as to not duplicate.
We started with their tomato bread, which was tasty, while waiting for the artichokes. The fried artichokes were served room temperature, obviously having been fried some time back. The slices were so thin that the artichoke taste was lost and mostly you got a fried flour taste. They were a disappointment.
Next was a bowl of their daily special garlic soup. For 16.50 euros I thought it was a bit pricey. It was thick, garlicky and had a poached egg inside which mixed in to give a bit of richness. It would have suited me better to have the egg cooked enough to set the white – but better runny than too hard.
The garlic shrimp were very tasty and light. They smelled divine while being cooked and the shrimp tasted fresh and good. They were a winner but at 19.90, one of the more expensive options on the menu.
We finished with the veal sweetbreads which were very nice. As I said before they didn’t repeat the shrimp and that was a plus by me. The sauce was dark and rich and the sweetbreads cooked nicely. I’d give them a thumbs up.
