Guachinches, bochinches and beyond: where to eat home-cooked food on each Canary Island
In Tenerife everyone knows what a guachinche is: a house that opens up to sell its own-harvest wine and, alongside it, a few traditional home-cooked dishes. But the guachinche is a Tenerife thing, and when you hop to another island the name changes, even if the idea is the same. In Gran Canaria they call it a bochinche; in Lanzarote, the place for home cooking is the village teleclub; in Fuerteventura, La Palma, La Gomera or El Hierro you find casas de comida and bodegones with their own character. This is the guide to that real food, island by island, with real places where you can find it.
Home cooking, island by island
The recipe repeats everywhere: local produce, home cooking, own-harvest wine and a table where no one is in a hurry. What changes is the name and a nuance or two.
Tenerife: the guachinche
The original. The guachinche was born in the northern midlands, in wine country, when families opened their homes to sell their wine along with simple food. Today they are regulated: they serve their own wine and a short menu, often seasonal. If you want the full route by area, you'll find it in the area-by-area guide to Tenerife's guachinches, from the Valle de La Orotava down to the south.
Gran Canaria: the bochinche
In Gran Canaria, the guachinche's cousin is called a bochinche, with a somewhat more conservative tradition and, often, a slightly broader menu. Among the vineyards in Santa Brígida sits Bochinche Los Lirios, with the house wine right at the foot of the vines; and in the Vega de San Mateo, Bochinche La Montaña keeps up the garbanzas, the cheese and the char-grilled meat of always.
Our own photo.
Lanzarote: the teleclub
Lanzarote has its own curious formula: the teleclubs. They started as village social centres and today are neighbourhood bar-restaurants where you eat home-cooked and cheap. The Teleclub de Tao is one of the best loved, with Lanzarote dishes like caldo de mijo (millet broth), generous portions and, often, no written menu: you ask what there is. They open at midday and close early, so go early.
Fuerteventura: casas de comida majoreras
In Fuerteventura the word guachinche is sometimes used too, but their thing is the casas de comida serving majorero cooking: queso majorero, goat meat, puchero. In Pájara, Casa Isaitas is an essential stop, with its charming patio; and in Villaverde, El Horno serves inland Fuerteventura, the one of goats and cheese, far from the beach.
La Palma: bodegones with their own wine
In La Palma the tradition lives on in the bodegones and casas de comida. The most singular is Bodegon Tamanca, in Las Manchas, where you eat inside a cave carved into the rock, with wine from its own bodega. And in the north, in Barlovento, El Asador del Campesino is a casa de comidas that is always full, with Canarian dishes at very affordable prices.
La Gomera: the mountain casa de comidas
La Gomera has no guachinches, but it does have a gem: in the hamlet of Las Hayas, next to Garajonay, Casa Efigenia has spent more than half a century serving traditional Gomeran cooking, home-made and naturally vegetarian, made with whatever the land gives. Potaje, cheese with its sauces, gofio escaldón, almogrote. A classic for slowing down.
El Hierro: home cooking, herreño style
On the smallest island, the food of always has a name of its own: Restaurante La Pasada, in Guarazoca (Valverde), has been a reference since the year 2000. Stuffed pineapple, grilled limpets, fried herreño cheese, meats and fresh fish, with island wine. They don't take reservations and it fills up fast, so you know the drill: early.
La Graciosa and the smaller islands
On La Graciosa there are no guachinches or bochinches: what rules is the fresh fish straight off the boat, in the small restaurants of Caleta del Sebo. Another way, just as authentic, to eat local in the Canaries.
What to expect in a guachinche or a bochinche
So the first time doesn't catch you off guard, a couple of things that come up on almost every island:
Season and hours. Many traditional places open only when there's house wine, or run mainly at midday and close early.
Cash and no booking. Quite a few take cash only and don't take reservations: it's first come, first served, and weekends fill up.
Short menu, shared table. Don't expect a huge menu: the good stuff is the classics, well made, to share.
The own-harvest wine. In guachinches and bochinches, the own-harvest wine is where it all starts. Try it.
Our own photo.
Did you know? According to the Academia Canaria de la Lengua, “bochinche” is actually the older, more conservative form, and “guachinche” — the word that caught on in Tenerife — comes from it. In other words, the Gran Canaria bochinche is not a copy of the guachinche: if anything, it's the other way around.
Eat where the locals eat
Whatever the name (guachinche, bochinche, teleclub, casa de comidas or bodegón), the idea is the same across the Canaries: local produce, home cooking and an unhurried table. On islas24 you'll find the listing for each place, with its location and hours, so you can find yours whichever island you're on. Real Canarian food is almost always at the end of a dirt track, whatever it's called.
