Restaurante La Catedral

Restaurante La Catedral takes its name from its location on Plaza de Africa, the historic square where Ceuta's Cathedral of the Assumption stands. The restaurant has long been one of the city's most reliable addresses for traditional Spanish cooking, offering a menú del día at lunch that functions as a practical and affordable introduction to Ceutí gastronomy. The three-course set lunch — typically around €13–15 including wine, water, and bread — cycles through classic preparations: a starter of ensalada mixta, gazpacho, or espinacas con garbanzos followed by a fish or meat main and a simple dessert of flan, fruit, or yoghurt. À la carte, the kitchen comes into its own with paella de mariscos — a wide, short-grained rice dish coloured with saffron and laden with clams, mussels, prawns, and cuttlefish, built on a sofrito of tomato and local pepper and finished in the oven until the socarrat (toasted bottom crust) develops correctly. Atún rojo encebollado, Strait bluefin tuna slowly cooked with caramelised onions in fino sherry, is the other signature worth seeking: the result is deeply flavoured, the tuna yielding and moist rather than dry as it becomes when overcooked. The dining room faces the square and is simply furnished with an unpretentious character that matches the honest cooking. Evening service is slightly more formal than lunch, when the menú del día is replaced by full à la carte. Reservations are advisable for dinner, particularly on weekends when the square is busy with evening strollers.