Soul-satifying mountain cuisine
Restaurante Parra is one of the best restaurants in Manzanares El Real, a small town about an hour outside of Madrid that is popular among day-trippers looking to explore the waterfalls and chasms of the La Pedriza park or visit the immaculate New Castle of Manzanares el Real. We had spent a long morning out hiking in the cold and we wanted to find a rustic, cozy restaurant where we could refuel with some hot, satisfying mountain food. Restaurante Parra proved to be the perfect choice.
We settled down and ordered a bottle of hearty red wine and an order of grilled sweetbreads for a started. The sweetbreads were unctuous, flavorful, and drizzled with paprika-spiked olive oil that gave them a unique flavor. Then, my wife got a roasted leg of lamb (“lechazo” as it’s known locally) and I got a hefty sirloin steak made with local Guadarrama beef. The beef literally melted in my mouth and the lechazo had that irresistible mix of smoky, crispy skin and juicy, fatty meat. In short, we had found the meal we were looking for.
