Quintin Jardine's blog

There are five restaurants in St Marti d’Empuries, where the Primavera Blackstone mysteries are based. Every one of them is very good. Four out of the five serve top-class pizza and pasta alongside more traditional menus, and every weekend from now till  the end of the high summer season, you will have to queue for a table at each of  those. One does not, and there is no queue outside. This is bad in one respect, for the wealth and morale of Can Roura’s owner and chef, Joan Malé, and good in another, for it means I can usually find a table every time I go there, which is often. Eileen and I ate there last night, with our friends John and Pat, who had never been there before but will go back. It’s easy to introduce friends to Joan’s place, for you know that he will never let you down. I have eaten in Michelin star restaurants in Scotland and Spain; Can Roura is up there with any of them and better than some and its prices are almost embarrassingly reasonable.

I will not be happy until I have to queue there for a table on a Friday or Saturday, but that can’t happen without the summer denizens of L’Escala-Empuries and its surrounding camp-sites fighting against their inexplicable pizza addiction hysteria and exploring the alternative. This is my challenge to them; yes, eat in Meson del Conde, eat in La Terrassa d’Empuries, eat in L’Esculapi , and eat in Can Coll. You’ll be well fed in every one of them. But make sure you eat also in Can Roura; I guarantee that you’ll want to go back.