Los Mellizos - Saint Tropez, Benalmádena

The unique selling point of the Los Mellizos chain of seafood restaurants is that the business grew on the back of their wholesale business. So much so, that the first restaurant is actually attached to the wholesale unit in an industrial estate in Arroyo de la Miel. Clearly this gives their associated restaurants priority access to the freshest and best produce available, and more often than not this theory certainly transfers its way onto the plate.

I had the good fortune to make my first visit to a Los Mellizos on business about 15 years ago, and the lubina a la sal (seabass in salt) that I had then, along with prior visits to Rick Stein's in Padstow were responsible for really accelerating my fondness for seafood.

It's a fondness that I have to say was slightly tinged one month after that initial visit, when my manager questioned my expense claim for the lubina, on account of it being too frivolous. In my view this was a completely unmerited act given that the cost of the meal was well within the limits stated in the company expenses policy. There is certainly no accounting for taste, particularly given that said manager's idea of haute cuisine was to ask for an egg on his margarita from Pizza Express.  Every time I now walk past a Los Mellizos restaurant, I have to admit to feeling rather depressed as I recall this sorry and unfortunate expenses incident, and the fact that the human race could bear such avarice.

Now, I am telling you this because C.G. Jung reckons that catharsis is the first step in releasing and thus providing relief from deep and repressed emotions. So by his reckoning, now that I have shared this fact with the world via this blog, the next time I walk past a Los Mellizos, all I will remember is the moist loveliness of that lubina a la sal, and not that miserable oik of a manager.

Anyhow, onto the review of the restaurant. Today we were visiting Los Mellizos - Saint Tropez.
It's not my favourite Los Mellizos restaurant to be honest, mainly because it gets crazily busy due to its proximity to the beach and the endless seaviews on offer. It also must be noted too that it isn't officially a chiringuito as such, as it sits on the promenade and not actually on the beach itself.

First of all, congratulations must go to whomever came up with the name for this Los Mellizos restaurant. After the rather unimaginative names of the other restaurants in the chain, namely -  "Pescaderia" in Arroyo, "Casa Juan" in Torremolinos, and then "Malaga", and "Marbella" (for the obvious reasons), well how apposite of the creative team of Los Mellizos to come up with "Saint Tropez" for this one in Benalmadena. It's a 10 out of 10 for observation for spotting that Saint Tropez is the skin care product of choice for the hordes of visitors from the South of England who frequent this part of Benalmadena in some numbers. They are obviously onto a massive cross selling or affiliate marketing opportunity there. To be honest Los Mollizos St Tropez doesn't really need any additional marketing as its always pretty busy, and I was so thankful that I'd reserved a table beforehand, this avoiding the sizeable queue in place on this particular Sunday afternoon.

We ordered the langoustines and alioi, mar y tierra (lightly battered vegetables and prawns), and a ration of paella that were all on the "offers" menu at €5 or €6. These were really good value, the paella in particular was fantastic. If you speak to any Valencian, they will tell you you should always paella freshly made, whereas this plate was served from a massive pan, and by rights should be stale or overcooked. It wasn't though as the rice and the generous amount of seafood were cooked spot on. This could have been a fluke, but for €5 it represented awesome value. The house salad was fine, but we had to dress it ourselves which is always a bit of a pet hate of mine. We order a dorada espalda (sea bream) off the specials menu at €20, and it wasn't quite the bargain I'd hoped for, but ok none the less.
We had a bottle of Vina Esmerelda to drink at €11 for something you can buy for €7, and a few other beverages too.

Here are some very poor photos of the experience.

The bill came to €67.40 which included two very agreeable and complimentary hierbas to conclude matters. Really good value, and enjoyable lunch was had by all.
The service was as hectic as ever, and you have to fight for attention, but in a way this adds to the buzz and fun of the place, particularly after the first tinto verano (summer wine) or two has been imbibed.

Overall 7/10
Food Value for Money 8/10
Wine Value for Money 6/10

So, this concluded my first week of my extended break and as such an appropriate time to reflect on the objectives I set at the start of this blog (which I outlined here): http://www.elchiringuiri.com/2017/05/introducing-el-chiringuiri.html

#1: Now given that I haven't actually visited an actual chiringuito yet, my nom de plume could be considered to be somewhat misleading. I can promise a significant improvement here though, as the blonde is now on board, and she will insist that many lunches are spent overlooking the Med whilst sat in a building that is on the actual beach and not the other side of the promenade. It makes all the difference (apparently)

#2: I've also failed to report much action on the wine front, but things will increase/improve here too for pretty much the same reason.

#4: The beard is going through that itchy/scratchy phase too. Not sure if its a keeper.

#3: However all is not lost, as some good progress has been made here. I'll let you know the outcome for definite though, after the next time I walk past a Los Mellizos restaurant.