Restaurant in Lugo, Spain
Michelin-noted rice dishes, mid-range prices.
Os Cachivaches is Lugo's most credentialled mid-range restaurant, holding Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 and a 4.6 Google rating from over 3,000 reviews. The extensive à la carte leads with standout rice dishes and a dessert course worth planning around. Book for a relaxed weekend lunch or a low-key celebration without the formality or cost of a starred room.
Os Cachivaches is the right call for anyone spending time in Lugo who wants a proper sit-down meal that goes beyond the city's pintxos circuit without pushing into fine-dining price territory. It works particularly well for couples, small groups, and anyone marking a low-key occasion: a birthday dinner, a reunion meal, or a weekend lunch that deserves more than a bar stool. The residential setting near the university keeps things relaxed rather than performative, and the dual format — an informal tapas bar with high tables up front, plus two dedicated dining rooms , means you can calibrate the formality of your visit before you even sit down.
If you are visiting Lugo on a weekend and want a lunch that runs long and feels unhurried, this is a strong candidate. The atmosphere reads as animated without being loud: a neighbourhood room that fills with regulars, not tourists, and moves at the pace of Galician Sunday lunch rather than a timed cover. For a special occasion, the dining rooms give you the breathing room to make it feel like an event.
The menu at Os Cachivaches is extensive rather than edited, which is either a feature or a friction point depending on your preferences. The rice dishes are the standout section , the creamy rice with marine plankton, cited in the Michelin recognition notes, is the dish most worth ordering if you are trying to understand what this kitchen does at its leading. Galician rice cookery sits in a different register from Valencian paella: slower, richer, more oceanic in character, and the plankton version leans into that marine depth deliberately.
The dessert course is not an afterthought here. The brioche torrija with vanilla ice cream and the cheesecake are both flagged in the venue's Michelin notes as reasons to leave room. If you are the kind of diner who skips dessert by default, reconsider. The torrija in particular , a Spanish bread pudding preparation, typically enriched and pan-fried , is the sort of thing that shifts the calculus on whether the meal was worth it.
Price bracket sits at €€, which for Lugo means you are in approachable mid-range territory: a full meal with drinks is unlikely to feel punishing. Compared to the Michelin-starred rooms in northern Spain, Os Cachivaches offers Michelin-recognised quality (two consecutive Michelin Plate awards, 2024 and 2025) at a fraction of the commitment , in price, booking difficulty, and formality.
Os Cachivaches holds a Google rating of 4.6 from 3,128 reviews, which is a meaningful signal at that volume: this is not a restaurant riding early hype. The Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 indicates consistent kitchen performance rather than a one-year spike. A Michelin Plate does not carry the weight of a star, but it does represent a formal editorial judgment that the cooking merits attention , and in a city the size of Lugo, that distinction matters. For comparison, see our coverage of Paprica and Prebe by Bret, two other Lugo rooms worth considering depending on your format preference.
Reservations: Booking is rated easy , walk-in may be possible at the bar, but for the dining rooms, especially on weekends, a reservation is advisable. Dress: Smart-casual fits the neighbourhood tone; there is no dress code pressure here. Budget: €€ price range; mid-range for Lugo, accessible for the quality level. Groups: Two dining rooms make this manageable for small groups; larger parties should contact the venue directly to confirm capacity. Solo dining: The tapas bar with high tables is a practical solo option if a full dining room table feels oversized.
Lugo's old town and Roman walls are the obvious anchor for any visit, and Os Cachivaches sits close enough to the university district to be walkable from the centre without being in the thick of the tourist circuit. For a fuller picture of what the city offers across categories, see our full Lugo restaurants guide, Lugo hotels guide, Lugo bars guide, Lugo wineries guide, and Lugo experiences guide.
If your trip extends into the broader Spanish dining calendar and you are weighing whether to chase a higher-end room, consider how Os Cachivaches fits into the wider spectrum: for Galician traditional cooking at Michelin-plate level and €€ pricing, it is difficult to fault the value proposition. For creative tasting menus in northern Spain, the category is covered by rooms like Arzak in San Sebastián, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, and Mugaritz in Errenteria , all operating in a different format, price tier, and booking difficulty entirely.
For traditional cuisine peers outside Galicia worth benchmarking against, Cave à Vin & à Manger - Maison Saint-Crescent in Narbonne and Coto de Quevedo Evolución in Torre de Juan Abad offer useful regional comparisons in the same cuisine type.
Book Os Cachivaches if you want Michelin-noted cooking at mid-range prices in a room that feels local rather than staged. The rice dishes and desserts are the reasons to come; the relaxed dual format means it works as a long weekend lunch or a celebratory dinner without requiring either formality or a significant financial commitment. In Lugo's restaurant set, it occupies a clear position: the most credentialled room at this price point in the city.
Os Cachivaches operates an extensive à la carte rather than a fixed tasting menu format, so the value question is about what you order rather than a set price commitment. The rice dishes , particularly the creamy rice with marine plankton , and the dessert course represent the kitchen's strongest work according to Michelin's own notes. At €€ pricing, building a meal around those highlights delivers strong value relative to Michelin Plate-level rooms in larger Spanish cities.
Smart-casual is the right call. The venue sits in a residential district near Lugo's university, and the room's energy is neighbourhood rather than formal. You will not feel underdressed in clean, neat clothes, and there is no indication of a dress code. Lugo runs less formal than Madrid or San Sebastián dining rooms in general.
Booking is rated as easy, which means you are unlikely to need weeks of lead time the way you would at a starred room. That said, weekend lunch and dinner slots , especially for the dining rooms rather than the bar , are worth reserving a few days in advance. If your dates are flexible, midweek visits carry even less booking pressure.
Yes, with caveats. Two separate dining rooms give the venue flexibility for small-to-mid-size groups, and the bar area handles informal gatherings well. For larger parties or specific seating configurations, contact the venue directly before assuming availability , group logistics are not confirmed in the available data, and it is worth clarifying in advance rather than arriving and discovering constraints.
Paprica is worth considering if you want a more contemporary framing of local ingredients. Prebe by Bret suits anyone whose priority is farm-to-table sourcing over a broad à la carte. Neither carries the same volume of Google reviews or Michelin recognition as Os Cachivaches at this point, which gives Os Cachivaches a credibility edge if you are deciding based on track record rather than format. See our full Lugo restaurants guide for a broader set of options.
Yes, particularly for occasions that want quality and atmosphere without the ceremony of a starred room. The two dining rooms provide enough separation from the bar's more casual energy to make a birthday or anniversary dinner feel considered. The dessert course , the brioche torrija with vanilla ice cream specifically , lands as the kind of finish that marks a meal as an event. At €€, it is an accessible choice for a celebration that does not need to be expensive to feel special.
At €€ pricing with two consecutive Michelin Plate awards and a 4.6 Google rating across more than 3,000 reviews, the value case is strong. You are getting formally recognised kitchen quality at mid-range prices, which is not the norm across Spain's dining scene. For comparison, reaching equivalent Michelin recognition levels at Arzak or Azurmendi costs significantly more and requires advance planning. Os Cachivaches is worth it if traditional Galician cooking is your target; it is not the right room if you are chasing creative tasting-menu formats.
The tapas bar with high tables at the front of the venue makes solo dining practical and unselfconscious. You can eat well from the à la carte without occupying a full dining room table, and the informal bar format suits a single diner who wants to eat at their own pace. The broader dining rooms work for solo diners too, but the bar is the more natural fit if you are on your own.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Os Cachivaches | Traditional Cuisine | €€ | This restaurant is run by two siblings in a residential district close to the university. It features a tapas bar with high tables for informal eating plus two dining rooms where guests can choose from an extensive à la carte which impresses thanks to its array of rice dishes (we particularly recommend the creamy rice with marine plankton). Make sure you also leave space for the exquisite desserts, especially the brioche “torrija” with vanilla ice cream, and the delicious cheesecake.; Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | Easy | — |
| Quique Dacosta | Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| El Celler de Can Roca | Progressive Spanish, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Arzak | Modern Basque, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Azurmendi | Progressive, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Aponiente | Progressive - Seafood, Creative | €€€€ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Os Cachivaches runs an extensive à la carte rather than a fixed tasting menu, so the format here is your call. The rice dishes — particularly the creamy rice with marine plankton — and desserts like the brioche torrija are the standout reasons to visit. At €€ pricing with a Michelin Plate in 2024 and 2025, the à la carte delivers strong value without locking you into a set progression.
Os Cachivaches has two dining rooms alongside an informal tapas bar with high tables, so the setting is relaxed rather than formal. There is no indication of a dress code from the available data. Neat casual is a reasonable baseline — the kind of thing you'd wear to a neighbourhood restaurant you care about, not a special-occasion destination that signals its own importance.
Booking is rated easy, but the dining rooms fill on weekends, so reserve a few days ahead to be safe. Walk-in at the tapas bar is a realistic option for a more informal visit. With a 4.6 Google rating across 3,128 reviews, this is a genuinely popular local restaurant, not a sleeper — don't assume you'll walk straight into a table on a Friday or Saturday night.
Two separate dining rooms give the restaurant more flexibility than a single-room operation, making it a workable option for groups. Reserving ahead is advisable for any party, and larger groups should check the venue's official channels to confirm capacity and setup. The tapas bar with high tables also provides a lower-commitment option for smaller groups who want to keep things informal.
Os Cachivaches sits at the more accessible end of Galicia's dining scene — €€ pricing, Michelin Plate recognition, and a local rather than destination-restaurant feel. If you want to stay in Lugo's pintxos circuit for something quicker and cheaper, the old town has solid options. For full Michelin-star cooking in Galicia, you'd be looking further afield; Os Cachivaches is the right call when you want a proper meal at a fair price without travelling out of the city.
Yes, with the right expectations. The Michelin Plate 2024–25, the dessert menu (notably the brioche torrija and cheesecake), and the two dining rooms make it a credible choice for a birthday dinner or low-key celebration in Lugo. It is not a white-tablecloth, special-occasion-only room, which is part of the appeal — you get quality cooking in a setting that feels like a real restaurant rather than a performance.
At €€, it is one of the stronger value propositions in Lugo. Michelin Plate recognition in consecutive years, a 4.6 rating from over 3,000 reviews, and a menu that includes rice dishes and desserts the Michelin guide itself calls out — that combination at mid-range prices is hard to argue with. If you want to spend less, the tapas bar format lets you eat more lightly without committing to a full à la carte sitting.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
