Restaurante Rocamar is a small restaurant in Garachico, ten minutes from San Marcos, with a deliberately short menu. There is one specific reason it is in this guide: the rabbit. Aike rates it as the best on the island, and that is not a claim he makes about anything else.
Order the conejo
Conejo is rabbit, and it is one of the dishes that actually defines Canarian cooking rather than merely appearing on the menu. The classic preparation is conejo en salmorejo — the rabbit marinated for a day or more in garlic, paprika, white wine, vinegar, thyme and bay, then cooked slowly in the same marinade until it falls apart.
Worth knowing: Canarian salmorejo is not the Andalusian one. In Córdoba, salmorejo is a cold tomato and bread soup. Here it is a marinade for meat, and the two share nothing but a name. If you have had the soup and are expecting it, you will be surprised.
Rabbit is farmed and eaten across the islands and appears on most traditional menus. It is lean, dark and takes strong flavours well, which is why the marinade is as assertive as it is.
Why a short menu is a good sign
A concise menu in a small restaurant on this coast usually means the kitchen is cooking what it bought that morning rather than maintaining a long list from the freezer. Fewer dishes, made more often, by the same people.
It also means the decision is largely made for you, which after a week of reading laminated tourist menus in four languages is a relief.
Garachico, briefly
The town was the leading port of the Canary Islands until the Trevejo volcano erupted above it in May 1706 and seven lava flows filled its harbour. The trade never came back. What remains is a small, unusually well-preserved old town and a coastline of black volcanic rock pools.
Restaurants like Rocamar are what a town looks like three hundred years after it stopped being important: small, local, and not trying to impress anyone in particular.
Getting there
Ten minutes by car. Check the hours before you leave — small traditional restaurants here close in the afternoon and change their days without warning.