Taró Restaurante

Pachu Barrera knife-cuts Málaga salchichón into a tartare with egg yolk, mustard, cane honey and raisins, and he built it out of the sandwiches his mother used to make him.

Why go

Barrera opened Taró in December 2021 on Calle Tomás Echeverría, in Huelin, the working quarter by the sea west of the centre, among its taverns and pubs.2 6 A taró is a Málaga weather word, and the house explains it: a very thick and persistent fog that, without warning, floods our city on the hottest days of summer.1

Barrera was born in Málaga, trained at the Escuela de Hostelería La Rosaleda and cooked at Tragabuches and La Moraga, both Dani García's, and at Manolo de la Osa's Las Rejas in Cuenca.3 4 He also runs La Caverna, a tapas tavern a few streets away in the same quarter, and he describes the cooking there as roguish and of quality.3 On the vocation, he says: You are born with this inside you.3

Come to Taró for the frying. Barrera's standing line is At Taró we don't do beach-bar frying.5 That plate took the Málaga episode of laSexta's Batalla de Restaurantes in February 2025, and Alberto Chicote scored it 7.5 out of 10, the highest mark he has given on the programme.4

Order this / avoid

Order: the tartar de salchichón (a cured, peppered pork sausage, cut by hand). Fernando Calero Gil calls it the house dish: a strange combination that ends up in perfect balance.1
Order: the fritura, the Andalusian fried-fish plate: monkfish cubes, fresh anchovies, small whiting, and octopus given a low-temperature cook before it goes into the oil. The fish comes from the lonjas (fish markets) down the road.5
Order: the chacinas, the province's cured pork, sent out as three: butifarra from Benaoján, Ronda blood sausage in lard with apple, and pork belly stuffed with morcón. Calero Gil was surprised by the quality of them.1
Order: the chivo lechal malagueño, the local milk-fed kid. Calero Gil ate it in 2023: The flavor is powerful but the texture tender; it comes with a couscous that freshens the whole.1
Order: the croquetas de gambas al pil pil, which in Málaga means garlic prawns. The filling is spectacular. Tasty and very creamy without being liquid. The coating is the part he wanted finer.1
Avoid: the chocolate coulant with white chocolate and mango ice cream, the one dessert Calero Gil marked down in 2023: Weaker, a chocolate coulant filled with white chocolate and mango ice cream.1
Drink: a Málaga bottle off the short list, picked from the glass cabinet in the room, with Cortijo de los Aguilares on it.1

What locals & experts say

Gastroactitud (2023): Fernando Calero Gil ate there in November 2023, and I haven't found an account of a meal here since: You eat very well at Pachu Barrera's Taró (Málaga), which was born barely two years ago. His reservation about the ajoblanco, the cold almond and garlic soup, served here with pistachio ice cream and anchovy trimmings: The combination works, although the ajoblanco could be finer.1
On the ensaladilla, two answers: Calero Gil in November 2023: The Russian salad moves you less, somewhat bland, despite the good mayonnaise crowning it. By 2025 Guía Repsol was naming it among the house picks and it took third place in the city's seventh ensaladilla championship.1 2 3
Alberto Chicote (2025): on the food that won the programme: It has a lot of the taste of the sea. Pachu shows his love and his taste for cooking. The same report notes that a rival's frying scored higher and that the win went to Barrera's approach.4
Guía Macarfi (read 2026): An atypical restaurant right in the Huelin quarter that joins traditional product with avant-garde culinary techniques. Surrounded by taverns and pubs. Booking is essential to enjoy the dining room.6
Award: Guía Repsol Solete, 2025.2

Good to know

Price: 35 to 50 euros a head, read off Gastroactitud's card in September 2026.1
Timing: shut Tuesday, lunch and dinner.1
Booking: essential if you want the dining room rather than the terrace. The phone is 952 06 69 12.6 2
The room: small and modern, with an open kitchen and a terrace that looks at the sea.1 2
Also: the kitchen does gluten-free and vegan dishes, the room is accessible, and children and pets are welcome.2
Where: Calle Tomás Echeverría 15, in Huelin, by the Automobile Museum.2

Verdict

should-visit — Pachu Barrera cooks Málaga's own dishes in a small modern room in Huelin, among the quarter's taverns, and the fried fish is the argument: monkfish cubes, anchovies, small whiting and octopus given a low-temperature cook before it is fried. He trained at Tragabuches and Las Rejas, opened here in December 2021, and won laSexta's Batalla de Restaurantes in February 2025 on his approach to exactly that plate. Thirty-five to fifty euros a head, shut Tuesday, and the dining room needs booking. The one full review of the kitchen is from 2023.

Taró Restaurante.