Fodor's Expert Review Manolo Caracol

Owned by Spanish chef Manolo Madueño, this restaurant-cum-art gallery in a restored colonial building is dedicated to the joy of dining, with a different prix-fixe menu consisting of 8 to 10 items offered each night. All you need to do is choose your beverage—perhaps a beer or a Spanish wine—and wait for the succession of succulent surprises that the waiters will deliver shortly after you scrape each plate clean. Meals tend to be strong on seafood, but there are always a couple of meat dishes. Manolo's is for people who like to eat big, so if you're a light eater, or are on a budget, you should head elsewhere. With its eclectic shrine to the Virgin Mary, and ancient, whitewashed walls hung with modern art, it's a charming spot to spend a few hours, which is how long dinner will take, especially when Manolo is there working the crowd. It gets noisy on weekend nights, when it can be hard to carry on a conversation, and it can get awfully hot at the tables near the cooking area, which is in the central back part of the dining area.