El Capricho

There are restaurants you visit and restaurants you return to. El Capricho is, after one quiet Sunday in Jiménez de Jamuz, very much the second kind.

The room is exactly what you want it to be: village cave dining room you have to drive to find. We were seated near the back, given menus we hardly needed, and brought a small bowl of olives without being asked.

We started with house-cured beef carpaccio, which set the tone — generous, unfussy, and confident enough not to crowd what was coming. With it we ordered a quiet Brunello from the back of the list, and were glad of both.

Then the main event: chuletón of retired oxen, the dish that puts El Capricho on every short list. Was it the very best steak I have ever eaten? No. Was it among the dozen I think about most? Yes. The signature touch — José Gordón's animals, raised to old age — is not a gimmick; it is the reason to come.

For sides we asked for potato gratin with a dark crust and buttered haricots verts. Both arrived hot, both arrived early, both were exactly large enough to overdo it. We overdid it.

Dessert was a wedge of chocolate cake to share, fork divided, mostly because the waiter raised an eyebrow when we hesitated. He was right to.

It is not cheap. It is, in this case, worth it.