Espigones

Espigones cooks its espetos and its salmonete over a grill built into a boat hull pulled up on the sand at Pedregalejo.

Why go

The salmonete goes on that fire freshly caught, and so do the sardines.1 The indoor kitchen is small and does the wet work: garlic prawns in the pan, clams steamed open.1 The terrace is a few steps from the water and the plates that land on it are sea bass, concha fina and calamari.1

Málagueños will tell you the fish is better in the months with no R in them, which means May through August.1 Espetos are worth ordering the rest of the year too, with a caña, in the middle of an afternoon with nothing after it.

The promenade outside is a building site. The city started work in October 2025 on a ten-month contract worth 5.7 million euros, and it now expects to finish late in 2026.4 Miguelito el Cariñoso, open on this stretch since 1975, has shut for the duration and says it means to come back.3

Order this / avoid

Order: the espetos. Sardines go on a skewer and char over the boat grill on the sand.1
Order: the salmonete off the same fire.1
Order: the garlic prawns and the steamed clams out of the indoor kitchen.1
Order: a concha fina, raw, with lemon, while you decide about the rest.1
Avoid: building a whole evening's walk around the seafront here. The paving is up and the machinery is working.4

What locals & experts say

Ignacio Luque, Academia Gastronómica de Málaga: As merenderos, and so a little simpler, but with great quality of cooking where local produce is concerned, the two reference chiringuitos in Málaga city right now are Espigones and Las Palmeras, both in Pedregalejo.2
Rafael Gutiérrez, who runs Los Cuñaos on the same promenade, to El Debate (June 2026): This is nonstop dust and a lot of noise. And the works keep being put back, we cannot see the end of it, it is going to eat the whole summer.3

Good to know

Booking: walk in. It is a chiringuito.
Where: on the Paseo Marítimo El Pedregal in Pedregalejo, the old fishing quarter east of the centre.

Verdict

could-visit — The fire here is a boat pulled up on the sand, and the sardines and the salmonete go over it on skewers a few steps from where you sit. Inside, a kitchen the size of a galley does garlic prawns and steams clams. Ignacio Luque puts this and Las Palmeras above every other chiringuito in the city. Come knowing the promenade outside is torn up and will be into late 2026, and that one neighbour has already pulled the shutters down.