There’s something quite reassuring about a restaurant that doesn’t feel the need to be open 365 days a year.
Guachinche Suso El Pintor in Santa Úrsula follows the traditional guachinche model, opening for only part of the year and closing when the homemade wine runs out.
So if you like your Tenerife food with a bit of tradition and a glass of local wine, it’s worth knowing about.
Traditional Canarian food
The menu isn’t huge, but that’s hardly a criticism when the dishes are the sort of traditional food people actually go to a guachinche for.
Food creators @guachinchesmodernos visited during the current season and said they return every year, usually ordering many of the same dishes.
They started with potas in sauce, served with chips, followed by cod, which can be ordered with or without sauce and comes with boiled potatoes.
The potatoes clearly made an impression, with the visitors commenting that you can tell they’re local and particularly good.
They also tried roast goat and a generous serving of fried rabbit, both classic choices for a traditional Tenerife meal.
For dessert, there was pineapple dessert, which arrived looking rather like a flan.
It’s the wine that decides when they close
One of the defining features of Suso El Pintor is its own home-produced wine.
And this is where the traditional guachinche idea comes in.
The restaurant stays open while its own wine lasts. Once the wine from the harvest has run out, the doors close until the next season.
As the people behind @guachinchesmodernos point out, for them an authentic guachinche isn’t simply somewhere that happens to serve homemade wine. It’s somewhere that closes when the harvest runs out.
Which makes a certain amount of sense. You can’t exactly nip down the supermarket and pick up another year’s supply of your own vineyard.
Where is Guachinche Suso El Pintor?
You’ll find it at Calle Guanches, 75, Santa Úrsula.
It has a 4-star rating on Google.
Opening hours are currently:
- Tuesday to Saturday: 1pm to 5pm
- Sunday and Monday: Closed
The opening season depends on how much wine is available, so this isn’t the sort of place where you can necessarily turn up any month of the year and expect the doors to be open.
But that’s also part of the charm.
A proper seasonal guachinche, traditional Canarian food and wine from the local harvest.
Sometimes doing things the old-fashioned way isn’t such a bad idea.