Sunday 2 March 2008

Bar Universo en Vigo


Bar Universo, a relaxing place to unwind and soothe away the strains of the day... just remember the old adage 'never judge a book by it's cover'. However in this instance the cover continues inside, but they do reasonable cheap food.

My wife had decided to take me to an old bar/cafe, where her Dad used to take her when she was just a little girl during the early seventies. He would then leave her there for an hour or so, whilst he went to a secret location nearby to join other like minded individuals and talk freely about socialism, democracy and everything that was wrong with Franco's regime.

The place is still run by the same people, an elderly couple, perhaps now in their early seventies (it would have been impolite to have asked). The inside of the establishment, obviously hadn't seen a lick of paint in many a year, if it had have it would would have ruined the ambiance you felt of being whisked away to another time. Pictures of Celta Vigo football team a yellow/brown colour from the years of cigarette smoke line the walls, a cigarette machine from a time well before euros and of course the obligatory TV perched high in a corner, at or very near full volume. Our only company for lunch was a truck driver and his son from Andulucia and the our elderly hosts husband eating a huge plate of cocido (galician stew).

For starters we had salad and calamares, the salad was as fresh as you would have found in any restaurant (fresher probably) and the same could be said for the calamares. For mains my wife had bacalao (cod) with boiled potatoes, while I had steak with fries, both dishes were well cooked. You have to realise that this place is not a restaurant and all food served is as you would expect when eating at home, large helpings! Desert was tarta de abuela for me and a cheesecake for my wife.
We also had two cervezas, two glasses of wine, two coffees and a bottle of cafe liquor plonked on our table to help ourselves to. All this for only €12.

Although this place doesn't entice, it does have other hidden qualities!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hola. me encanta ver estas buenas criticas del bar universo, mi madre era la antigüa propietaria, un bar con mucha historia. ¿eres de nueva zelanda? un saludo a ti y a tu novia. ivanchugz@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

hola. me encanta ver estos comentarios sobre el bar universo. pase los ultimos 12 años en el atendiendo y conociendo a gente fantastica, ahora lo cerramos, no me arrepiento por que la verdad es un trabajo bastante duro, pero tengo que reconocer que pase muy buenos momentos y conocí a mucha gente. un saludo. seguramente nos conocemos, ivanchugz@hotmail.com