Restaurante O Grelo
Named after the bitter turnip greens that define Galician winter cooking, O Grelo is the kind of no-nonsense restaurant that locals actually eat in — checked tablecloths, generous pours of house Mencía and a menu that changes with the season rather than the tourist calendar.
What to Order
Start with caldo gallego — the thick, smoky broth of white beans, grelo greens and cured pork that has sustained Galicians through Atlantic winters for centuries. Here it arrives in a wide clay bowl, steaming and deeply savoury, with a hunk of corn bread on the side.
For mains, the pulpo á feira (octopus with olive oil, paprika and coarse salt on a wooden board) rivals anything you'd find in the dedicated pulperías of O Carballiño. The lacón con grelos — salt-cured pork shoulder with braised greens — is the dish to order if you visit between November and April when grelo is at its peak.
Wine and the Ribeira Sacra Connection
Monforte sits at the commercial heart of the Ribeira Sacra DO, and O Grelo's wine list reflects that geography with an unusually deep selection of local Mencía — the dark, violet-scented red grown on vertiginous slate terraces above the Sil and Miño canyons. Ask the owner to recommend a small producer; he invariably obliges.
Dessert means tarta de Santiago or filloas con nata — thin pancakes with whipped cream. Neither will disappoint. A full lunch for two with wine rarely exceeds €35.
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