La Era was initially conceived and created by Lanzarote’s favourite son Cesar Manrique and his co-collaborator Luis Ibanez in the early 1970’s.
Their idea was to create a restaurant that both preserved and promoted the very best of traditional Canarian food.
In order to realise this, they first restored a beautiful old 16th century farmhouse — bringing it’s original central patio-garden back to life and creating individualized dining salons (named after local volcanoes) out of the rooms surrounding it.
It gives some idea of how fertile this area was prior to the volcanic eruptions of the 1730’s as the farmhouse was built at a time when Lanzarote was known as the breadbasket of the Canaries.
Wheat and barley were in cultivation in the fields around Yaiza and as a result original features, such as an old grain storehouse, are still in evidence.
The menu at La Era is extensive, especially when it comes to traditional meat dishes. It often surprises visitors to the island that these can be more popular locally than fish.
Interestingly — perhaps ironically — carnivorous Canarians may have inherited this dietary preference from their distant predecessors, The Guanche, who were reputedly such poor fishermen that they relied instead on hunting goat and rabbit.