Firstly there is no Taberna San Mateo, it closed after the earthquake 5 years ago and moved to Calle Corredera and is called Casa Roberto as the Chef Roberto told us. Secondly they have not changed their TripAdvisor heading and their business cards still show the old name and address!!! No web site. Very confusing, still the restaurant was very busy Friday lunch so perhaps they think they are well enough supported by what we took to be locals.
Please persevere and you will be rewarded with excellent food at a reasonable price. Not for this restaurant the usual ordinary Spanish fare of standard starters and meat or fish grilled with chips and tinned veg a varied choice menu with a good slant on the dishes; we all enjoyed the food , very clean, good service and at 115€ for 3 course lunch for 4 with 2 bottles of wine very good value.
Worth the effort to get there.

The Sam Mateo apparently has not been open since the earthquake of 2011. The premises suffered badly. We rang the contact telephone number obtained from this website and booked an evening meal. We were lold that the restaurant was now called Casa Roberto. We later discovered that they were in new premises. Apart from the initial confusion, I cannot praise the restaurant highly enough. The food was excellent. Service very good and not too pricey. Very Spanish. The staff called a taxi for us and as the restaurant is located in a pedestrianised part of town a member of staff accompanied us to where the taxi would pick us up.

We drove in to Lorca quite late and tired from a day's driving from Barcelona with a few stops along the way. Lo and behold, as the wheels of our rental car left pavement and started gliding along on polished stonework, we realized we had just entered a gem of a spanish town. The old churches, buildings, houses - some of them damaged by an earthquake in 2011 - were full of spirit and life. We didn't know it at the time but preparations for Semana Santa were ongoing so kids and their parents were in the streets 'til late at night. As we were walking up a street, we happened upon Taberna San Mateo. Shall we? We're hungry and the presence of older locals is always a good sign.

We had barely stepped in that Roberto, the owner, heard us talking in french from the (very close) kitchen. He chatted quickly and told he would be over to see us once he got these orders ready. Meanwhile, we were seated by a very affable and efficient gentleman who took orders for drinks. While we were trying to decide, Roberto took 5 minutes out from his busy kitchen to come talk with us. Of Spanish descent, he grew up nonetheless in France with a wonderful french accent from the South. Of course his Spanish was flawless. He proceeded to invite us to try the fresh catch of the day. He made a wonderful plate that we could share and we, of course, polished the whole thing with glee. It was delicious and copious. The wine was good as well but the digestif, a local liqueur that I'm desperate to remember was amazing and topped a great night. Roberto came back to talk once the night had quieted down in his restaurant and gave an intense history lesson of Lorca and it's surroundings. He pointed us off to the local churches where the Blue (Azul) vs White (Blanco) preparations were ongoing so we got to see beautiful churches brimming with people tending to their Virgin Mary displays late at night. A great night.

Roberto made us promise to come by in the morning to meet the tourism folk that work across the street from his restaurant. We made it for a walk-about and a final goodbye but couldn't stay any longer - Granada was waiting for us.

Two things we regret about our visit to Lorca: 1) Not staying longer (less than 24 hours) and 2) not writing this review any sooner (we were there in March 2015).

Go in, say hi to Roberto and take plenty of time to enjoy!

Hasta luego!

Driving from Granada to Alicante we left the freeway and enter into Librilla and found this restaurant open for lunch, the service was excellent and the food delicious..
We met the chef and we ask for recommendations and we were not disappointed.
Highly recommended.

Visited this small but amazing Bar Restaurante during a visit to Lorca - having heard a lot about it, we were delighted to get one of two tables left for lunch. It has a wonderfully cozy and intimate feel to it and clearly very popular so reservations would be sensible. Service was faultless - Paco was very helpful in giving us ideas in selecting our dishes and suggesting that we share these. This seemed to be what all the other diners were doing so we followed suit having the lomo de bacalao then entrecot, both of which were superb. When we asked if certain dishes were suitable for coeliacs, the waiter brought the chef to the table who was able to tell us what contained gluten and what didn't. Overall, for the ambience, service and quality, it is very reasonably priced and we have no hesitation in recommending.