Miles Collins

The View from La Califa in Vejer…

I’ve never really harboured any desires to own a restaurant of my own, I’ve had numerous offers over the years but the reality is quite different from the romantic notion. There are a number of factors which should be considered before opening a restaurant and one of the most important ones is location.

Very few restaurants which require some travelling to really amount to anything, there are the ‘destination’ restaurants, those with two and three Michelin stars set in a beautiful location but these are the exception rather than the rule. During my recent trip to Southern Spain I was taken to a restaurant which had ‘location’ written all over it.

La Califa in the town of Vejer in the Cadiz province is something of a revelation, not only is it set bang smack in the town centre the interior is something straight out of Conde Nast Traveller magazine. Distinctly Moroccan in its design with white washed walls, coloured lamps, lemon trees, hanging baskets and restaurant tables set within old stone walled cellars it makes you wish you owned the place.

My friends and I took afternoon tea on the rooftop terrace, Moroccan mint tea, unsweetened and served in a traditional Moroccan tea pot with engraved glasses. We sat in the afternoon sun, relaxed after a walk around the old town and took in the view….

From here you can see the old town spread out across the landscape, go down one flight of stairs and you look into a courtyard full of flowers with fresh lemons dangling an arms length from the windows. On the ground floor the restaurant flows from indoors to an outside terrace with Moroccan pots, pictures and a lazy house cat for pampering.

A perfect place to sit, drink tea and watch the world go by.