Spanish restaurants abroad that cook over fire tend to use the same handful of words: asador, parrilla, brasa, Josper, txuleton. If you know what they mean, you can read the menu quickly and avoid the common surprise of a steak that arrives far bigger, or rarer, than you expected.
This post is about ordering. Our dish pages for chuletón, secreto ibérico and presa ibérica cover what each cut is and where it comes from.
The words on the menu
- Asador: From the verb asar, to roast. In a restaurant name it signals a place built around roasted and grilled meat and fish.
- Parrilla / a la parrilla: A grill, or cooked on one.
- Brasa / a la brasa: Brasa means embers, so a la brasa means cooked over hot coals or wood embers.
- Josper: A Spanish brand of charcoal cooking equipment, best known for its charcoal ovens. Seeing it on a menu tells you charcoal is involved; ask whether the dish comes from the oven or the grill.
- Txuleton / chuletón: The Basque and Spanish names for a big bone-in rib steak.
Ordering a txuleton
A txuleton is usually ordered to share. It is cut thick, on the bone, and our dish page notes it is typically carved off the bone for the table. A few habits help:
- Ask how big it is and how it is priced. Large steaks are often sold by weight, and the menu price may be per kilo or per 100 g rather than per plate.
- Decide how much to order from the weight and how hungry the table is, and build the rest of the meal around it.
- Expect it to come seared outside and rare inside, seasoned with coarse salt. That is how the dish is traditionally served. If you want it cooked more, say so when you order and ask what the kitchen recommends.
- If the menu mentions dry-ageing or a number of days, that tells you how long the beef has been aged before cooking. Ask if you are unsure what it changes.
Ordering Iberian pork from the grill
Secreto, presa and pluma are cuts from the Iberian pig that often appear on Spanish grill menus. Our dish pages describe secreto as served pink and presa as served medium. If you prefer pork cooked through, say so when you order.
They are usually sliced before serving, which makes them easy to share.
What to ask the server
- What does the steak weigh, and how is it priced?
- How does the kitchen usually cook this cut?
- Is it cooked on the grill, over embers, or in a charcoal oven?
- How many people does it feed?
Where to try it
These venues mention fire cooking or these cuts in their own listings:
- Sagardi Amsterdam: says it dry-ages its txuleton steaks in its own meat cellar and cooks on a Basque grill.
- Txula Steak in New York: built around an imported Spanish oven, serving 60-day-aged txuleton ribeyes alongside Ibérico pork and Spanish lamb.
- Pata Negra Asador Tapas & Steak in Budapest: a Spanish grillhouse opened in 2017, cooking meat and fish in a charcoal oven, with Iberian pork and Basque chuletón on the menu.
- Pura Brasa Bangkok: says most of its dishes are cooked in Josper charcoal ovens.
- Fuego in Kołobrzeg, Poland: built around a Josper Basque grill it says was made for the restaurant in Spain, used for grilled fish, gambas and meat.
