Mesón Cortijo de Pepe

Mesón Cortijo de Pepe sits on Plaza del Socorro, Ronda's main town square, and serves as the most accessible and consistently recommended traditional restaurant in this dramatic hilltop city. Ronda is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Spain, perched above the El Tajo gorge in the Serranía de Ronda mountains of Málaga province, and the cooking at Cortijo de Pepe reflects the mountain hinterland: hearty, protein-rich dishes built for the agricultural workers and huntsmen of the sierra rather than the coastal Andalusian tradition. Rabo de toro (braised oxtail) is the dish most associated with the house — slow-cooked until the meat falls from the bone in a sauce darkened with local wine, tomato, and aromatics. Berza rondeña is the city's signature stew: white beans, chickpeas, pork products, and winter vegetables in a deeply flavoured broth. Migas — fried breadcrumbs with chorizo, bacon, and paprika — is the mountain breakfast-turned-dinner dish that appears across the menu as a starter or side. The dining room is spacious and decorated in the traditional cortijo style: terracotta tiles, whitewashed walls, wooden beams, and the kind of unpretentious décor that communicates reliability rather than ambition. A strong local wine list includes bottles from the nearby Serranía de Ronda DO, a small appellation producing some increasingly serious red wines from mountain vineyards.