Sobrino de Botín

User Review:

• Ernest Hemingway made this restaurant famous. In the final two pages of his novel The Sun Also Rises, Jake invites Brett to Botín for the Segovian specialty of roast suckling pig, washed down with Rioja Alta.

  As you enter, you step back to 1725, the year the restaurant was founded. You'll see an open kitchen with a charcoal hearth, hanging copper pots, an 18th-century tile oven for roasting the suckling pig, and a big pot of soup whose aroma wafts across the tables. Painter Francisco Goya was once a dishwasher here. Your host, Antonio, never loses his cool -- even when he has 18 guests standing in line waiting for tables.

  The two house specialties are roast suckling pig and roast Segovian lamb. From the a la carte menu, you might try the fish-based "quarter-of-an-hour" soup. Good main dishes include baked Cantabrian hake and filet mignon with potatoes. The dessert list features strawberries (in season) with whipped cream. You can accompany your meal with Valdepeñas or Aragón wine, although most guests order sangria.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010