The square the tourist trails miss
Plaza de San Miguel Bajo sits in the upper Albayzin, past the point where most visitors turn back. Whitewashed walls on three sides, a small church, and the particular quiet of a neighbourhood that has been here since the Moorish city. El Ají occupies one corner of the square, with outdoor tables that look across to where the Alhambra appears through a gap in the roofline on clear evenings.
The restaurant draws a mixed crowd: neighbourhood regulars who live up the hill, visitors who found it by wandering rather than searching, and the occasional table of locals celebrating something. The welcome is warm without being performative.
The food
The kitchen works with modern Spanish technique applied to seasonal market ingredients. This is not fusion or novelty; it is the kind of cooking where the method changes but the ingredients stay rooted in the region. Fresh fish dishes rotate with what came in. Vegetables get proper treatment. Contemporary takes on Granada classics appear on the menu without announcing themselves.
The outdoor setting elevates everything. Eating in the Albayzin, at a table on a square that has barely changed in 400 years, with good food and reasonable prices, is exactly the combination that makes Granada different from anywhere else in Andalusia.
Practical notes
El Ají opens daily from 13:00 through 23:00, which makes it unusually flexible for the neighbourhood. Reservations for outdoor terrace seating are advisable in summer, particularly for the 19:30 slot when the square catches the last of the afternoon light. The walk up from Plaza Nueva takes about 15 minutes through the Albayzin's narrow lanes — worth it for the location alone.