Eating in La Gomera is a treat by itself. During our visit to this beautiful island, we got to try out some awesome restaurants. There are several specialties that the island is known for and we got to try those too. Join us as we eat our way through the island and visit different restaurants and stores. What does La Gomera have to offer when it comes to food?

Eating in La Gomera – try these things

The island has some of the same specialties as the other Canary Islands have. One example is the Mojo (a spicy sauce with garlic). And La Gomera also offers some really mean Almogrote and not to forget – the original Palm Honey is made here. Here is a list of our favorite restaurants and the things that you should not miss out on while being on the island. If we are missing something traditional on our list, please let us know so that we can update the list.

No, sorry – if you are looking for amazingly plated food that will look picture perfect on Instagram, you will be disappointed. The food in La Gomera is super good but it does not photograph well. A lot of soups and pastes and stews don’t look great on photos but we can promise you that they are really tasty.

Almogrote – Cheese paste with garlic

This is one thing that needs to be eaten in restaurants. We bought some with us in a gift shop and it tasted nothing like the once that we were served in restaurants. Sure, you can buy it but we recommend that you buy the cheese in La Gomera and then you make it yourself. Almogrote is a paste that you spread on bread. To make the paste, you will need to use a mortar and pestle. Well, if you have a strong blender that can mix the cheese, you can use that too.

We recommend that you always order Almogrote in each restaurant that you visit. You will be surprised that the same dish tastes different every time. We found a recipe for Almogrote so that you can make it yourself.

Almogrote – ingredients

• 500 grams of hard cured cheese.
• 1 chili pepper or chili powder if you can’t find fresh chili.
• 4 tablespoons of pepper.
• 1,5 glasses of olive oil.
• 10 garlic cloves.
• 300 grams of tomatoes (ripe).

This is how you do Almogrote

Mix or mortar all the ingredients together. It’s easier if you first cut the cheese in smaller pieces. Mix it until it becomes a paste. Serve it with bread and a glass of wine. If you want a stronger taste of your cheese paste, leave out the tomatoes. So what does Almogrote taste like? Somewhat like a cheesy tomatoey paste with a kick. We both loved it when we ate it in restaurants. However, we didn’t like the once that we bought in stores. While eating in La Gomera, we ended up trying Almogrote every day!

Gofio – Great to mix into dishes

Gofio is a mixture of roasted corn flour and barley. It’s a sort of Canarian flour made from roasted grains (typically wheat or certain varieties of corn) or other starchy plants (for example beans) and a little salt. It is not only served as an accompaniment to most dishes but also sprinkled into coffee and wine by the people living in La Gomera.

We got to eat Gofio several times during our stay on the island. It’s a really good accessory to food but it’s not that good to eat just the gofio. Probably because it’s like flour. You can buy Gofio in most stores and mix it into most of the dishes that you make. In La Gomera, they use it in almost everything – chocolate, on bread, energy bars and much more. For the islands best Gofio cookies you need to visit Idelina that sells her cookies in the Garajonaj National Park. Read more about it in our previous post.

Papas arrugadas – Canarian Potatoes

This is something special for all of the Canary Islands and not only La Gomera. Papas arrugadas is usually served with a chili pepper garlic sauce, called mojo rojo, or as an accompaniment to meat dishes. The dish is made from small potatoes that are boiled in saltwater. I always liked potatoes and these salty treats are awesome with mojo added to them.

What makes them so special is that they are boiled in saltwater taken from the sea. We liked them in all kinds of dishes and we have also said that we will try to boil our fresh potatoes in saltwater taken from the ocean. We will be back with a verdict.

Palm Honey – a special thing for La Gomera

A visit to La Gomera must include a tasting of the famous Palm Honey. No, it’s not honey that is made out of bees. It’s called palm honey but it’s really palm sap from special palm trees. They harvest the palms and then boil the sap for lots of hours. The result is a syrup that is really sweet.

If you get a chance, try to find a place where you can try the fresh sap. This is not an easy task since it gets ruined really fast and needs to be in a freezer. However, the taste of the fresh sap is somewhat like coconut water. You can visit the Palm honey museum and learn more about harvesting and everything about how they make the palm honey. Read more about our visit to the Casa de la Miel here.

La Gomeran wine

Did you know that “traditional” La Gomera wine is a lot stronger than what we are used to? Unfortunately, most places offer regular wine from La Gomera and not the stronger version. Winemaking in La Gomera started already in 1531. In 2012, they started to study the grapes and today they produce some really high-quality wine. There are about 200 acres of vineyards and about 150 people work with wine production. In all, there are 19 bodegas and 13 of them sell their wines in their bodegas.

You can get great local wine in all of the restaurants around the island. If you want to be part of something more special and learn more about the wine, make sure to be at the visitor center each Friday. On Fridays, there is a new bodega each week that presents their wine. The winemaking is really important and helps to keep the fires in check on the island. Read more about the visitor center and their wine tastings here.

Restaurants to visit while in La Gomera

During our days in La Gomera, we got to try out some really good restaurants. They all had one thing in common – they serve local specialties and they focus on sustainable tourism. Some do it better than others but at least they are all trying. By serving fresh fish and seasonal vegetables, we ended up eating a lot of fish. La Gomeran food is good even if it doesn’t always present itself in a nice way on the plate. A lot of focus in their cooking is to have fresh herbs and spices in their dishes. Eating in La Gomera is a delight that we enjoyed.

Here are the restaurants and places that we visited during our trip to La Gomera. Eating in La Gomera when it’s best!

Try out a Gourmet tasting at the PEG Los Telares

PEG Los Telares is an Ethnographical Park but it is also a shop and a place that offers gourmet tastings of their locally produced products. Here, you will be able to drink local wine and eat goat cheese, figs, Gofio with honey and other treats. You will not get full here, this is a tasting and not a complete dinner.

They also have a gift shop and there they have several of their organic products that you can try out. Try their Almogrote, palm honey and Mojo. This is a great place to stock up on the gifts that you want to bring back home or buy some spices for your own kitchen. Read more about our visit to PEG Los Telares Here.

Restaurant Las Chacaras in Hermigua

Our first evening in La Gomera, we got to try out this awesome restaurant. Las Chácaras is located in Hermigua and it is a popular place for the locals. César was there to take care of us. Unfortunately (in this case), we had one in our party that spoke Spanish. Due to that, I didn’t get all the information on what we were being served.

I do know that we started out with Almogrote and a cheese platter. After that, we got a salad that was mixed with vegetables and fruits. The balsamico on the salad was incredible. Then we got to try grilled goat cheese. I love, love, love cheese and this was incredible. The saltiness from the cheese and some sort of honey sauce in the perfect combination. The next dish was some kind of soup (didn’t get the name of that one). Well, first if it was a soup and then César added Gofio and the soup turned into a stew. They were both equally good. Ok, the soup (and stew) didn’t photograph well but the taste was great!

Sharing dishes at Las Chacaras

We were four people in the restaurant. Since this was our first evening on the island, we let César choose what to eat. After the soup that turned into a stew, it was time for fish. And after the fish, it was time for goats meat and Papas arrugadas. When we were all really satisfied with all the food it was still time for dessert.

The desert was made out of Gofiomousse with popcorn. It was a totally different dish but we all liked it! The whole experience was great and César was such a gracious host. The only thing I was missing, was to get all the dishes names in English. I hade a hard time to get it translated and I’m not sure how good the translation was. But we all agreed that this restaurant is great. The name “Las Chacacas” translates something like castanets. This family place is well worth a visit. And we liked to share all the dishes with our newfound friends.

Address: Calle Cabo 2, Carretera General, 38829 Hermigua, La Gomera.
Opening hours: Monday – Saturday 12:00 – 16:00 and 19:00 – 23:00. Sundays are closed.
Phone number for reservations: +34 922 88 10 39

Restaurant Gastro Tasca Estadio

A really nice restaurant in Hermiuga. Here we got to start our meal with a lentil soup. No, like most traditional food in La Gomera, it doesn’t look that good but the taste was perfect. After the warming soup, we got to try the rabbit. It was ok but I wish that there had been some more sauce or something that went with the rabbit. The rabbit came with a little bit of gravy. Another thing that I was missing was vegetables.

After the rabbit, we got fish with onions and mussels. And finally, we got dessert. As always they serve a lot of food in La Gomera and restaurant Gastro Tasca Estadio is no exception. If you enjoy a lot of food, you will be eating in La Gomera like crazy!

Address: Ctra. General, 129, 38820 Hermigua.
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 06:00 – 10:00. Saturdays and Sundays 10:00 – 22:00.
Phone number for reservations: +34 922 88 00 24

La Casa Creativa / Bar Terraza Pedro

If you are lucky you will meet Carmen during your visit to this Tapas place. Carmen is the owner of this place and you can feel hear warmth an friendliness from far away. Here, we ended ut eating the best seafood salad and the Almogrote was really good. We decided to sit outside but first, we went inside and looked at the display of foods so that we would know what to choose.

We ended up ordering several different tapas dishes and we all enjoyed them really much. This was also the one and only time where we didn’t get completely stuffed during a restaurant visit but that was because we ordered the tapas (small dishes). This is one of our favorite restaurants of all that we tried on the island.

Address: Ctra. General, 156, 38820 Hermigua.
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 09:00 – 23:00. Saturdays and Sundays closed.
Phone number for reservations: +34 922 88 09 91

Restaurante La Vieja Escuela

This restaurant serves food that is traditional to La Gomera. We started out with a soup that was really good (even if it didn’t look so tasty). After the soup, we were served white fish with Papas Arugadas and it tasted like a real home-cooked meal. One thing that we noticed was that there was so much food that it would be impossible to eat it all. Apparently, the locals always serve so much food because it’s not supposed to be finished.

If you would eat all the food that they are serving, it means that they didn’t give you enough food and that’s not ok. I get the point but at the same time, it feels like a lot of food gets wasted. And after eating all that food – in came the dessert. If I remember it correctly none of us was able to finish the dessert even if it was good. Eating in La Gomera is awesome!

Address: Calle Poeta Trujillo Armas, 2, 38830 Agulo.
Opening hours: Monday – Saturday 11:00 – 21.00.
Phone number: +34 922 14 60 04.

Hotel Bar Sonia

This restaurant is located in Vallehermoso and some of the people that joined the press trip got to stay at the hotel too. This place is like walking into someone’s home. And the food tastes like it’s homemade. Here we ate a really good soup. I went bold here and added some Gofio into it and it became more like a stew.

And then the food just kept coming. We got a stew with Canarian potatoes and a fresh salad. This restaurant is also a bar and it seemed like it was a popular place for the locals. The vegetarian option was a pasta dish and it had a lot of flavors. When looking at the reviews of this place – everyone says that the food is good and that the people working here are awesome. We can’t do anything else but agree with the rest of the reviews.

Address: Plaza de Chipude, s/n, 38840 Vallehermoso.
Phone number: +34 922 80 41 58

Restaurante Abisinia in Valle Gran Rey

A restaurant in the popular town of Valle Gran Rey. Restaurante Abisinia serves some really great dishes. This was our first time where we got a great steak during our trip to La Gomera. Mine was served with a pepper sauce and Mini chose one with mushroom sauce. Both of them were great!

With the steak, we were served both potatoes and rice. I didn’t think that I would like the combo – I mean don’t you choose between one or the other? Apparently not because this combo was good! We also got the cutest dessert ever! Talk about creativity – they wrote their restaurant’s name in chocolate! Abisinia was one of the best places that we visited while eating in La Gomera.

Address: Calle La, Calle Cuesta de Abisinia, 38870 Valle Gran Rey.
Opening hours: Monday – Saturday 17:00 – 23.00. Sundays are closed.
Phone number: +34 922 80 58 93.

Hotel Gran Rey

This was the only place that we visited that served an all you can eat buffet. There was so much to choose from that it was impossible to try it all. They had a huge selection with vegetarian alternatives and that’s awesome. Hotel Gran Rey is, like the name says, also a hotel where you can spend some time. For people that want to be close to the beach, this is a good option.

I do think that their restaurant has a “regular” menu too but the buffet was tasty so there’s no need to eat anything else. The size of the buffet was so big that you can eat it for one week straight and still not try it all. We recommend that you check this place out when you are eating in La Gomera.

Address: Av. Marítima, 1, 38870 Valle Gran Rey.
Phone number: +34 922 80 58 59.

You might also like to read our guide to La Gomera.