Built on the site of Café Alameda, where Federico García Lorca and Manuel de Falla met to argue. The literary plaque outside is the only one of its kind in Granada.
Quick Facts
| ADDRESS | Plaza del Campillo 9, 18009 Granada |
| NEIGHBOURHOOD | Realejo–San Matías, on Plaza del Campillo |
| HOURS | Mon, Tue, Thu–Sun 12:30–16:00 and 20:00–23:30; closed Wed |
| PRICE | €35–40 per person; rabo de toro €26.50 |
| RESERVATIONS | +34 958 22 33 64 / restaurantechikito.com |
| CUISINE | Traditional Granadino |
| GOOD FOR | Long traditional lunch, literary pilgrimage, group dinner |
| NOTABLE | Site of the old Café Alameda — the meeting place of Federico García Lorca, Manuel de Falla and the ‘Rinconcillo’ literary circle in the 1920s |
The plaque on the door
On the corner of Plaza del Campillo, above the entrance to Chikito, there is a plaque — not the kind Granada hangs casually. It commemorates the Café Alameda, the literary salon that occupied this exact ground floor in the 1920s. Federico García Lorca, Manuel de Falla, the painter Manuel Ángeles Ortiz, and the rest of the Rinconcillo group met here regularly. Chikito has run its kitchen on the same spot since 1972 and the staff still tell the story to whoever asks.
What to order
This is traditional Granadino cooking, and the menu has not changed substantially in decades. The rabo de toro — oxtail braised in red wine until the meat slides off the bone — is the signature dish; ask any Granadino what to order at Chikito and this is the answer. The habitas con jamón (broad beans with Iberian ham), the tortilla Sacromonte (with offal — distinctively Granadino), and the bacalao Chikito (the house cod preparation) are the other essentials.
The room
Wood-panelled walls. White tablecloths. Photographs of Lorca, of the original Café Alameda, of generations of staff. Two interior dining rooms and a covered terrace on the plaza outside. The terrace is the seat in summer; the inner rooms in winter. Service is professional in the older sense — formal, warm, attentive without being modern.
Honest verdict
Not a destination restaurant for novelty, and not trying to be. It is the traditional Granadino lunch — done at a higher standard than most of its competition, in a room with a literary history that is genuine, on a plaza that is one of the city’s prettiest. Order the rabo de toro. Drink Rioja. Take two hours.
Practical
How to book: Online or by phone — recommended for weekends and bullfight Sundays.
How to get there: 10-minute walk from the cathedral, 5 minutes from Puerta Real.
If you only have one visit: Thursday lunch, terrace seat, rabo de toro, Rioja crianza.
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