Canarian cooking is simple and full of flavour. This list follows the traditional dishes presented by Gran Canaria’s official tourism website, so you know what to look for on a menu.
Start here
- Papas arrugadas con mojo. Small potatoes cooked in their skins in very salty water, ideally seawater, and served with a sauce.
- Mojo. Two sauces: the mojo picón (red), made with pepper, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, cumin, salt and paprika, and the milder mojo verde, based on parsley and coriander.
- Queso asado. Slices of Canarian cheese, often smoked, roasted with olive oil and served with red or green mojo. The dish is said to have originated on La Palma.
Main dishes
- Ropa vieja, a shredded meat dish.
- Sancocho, a boiled fish stew.
- Rancho canario, an island-style stew, and puchero, a boiled meat and vegetable dish.
- Potaje de berros (watercress stew), caldo de cilantro (coriander broth) and caldo de pescado (fish broth).
- Conejo en salmorejo (rabbit in sauce), carne de cabra compuesta (goat meat), pata asada (roast leg) and vieja sancochada (boiled parrotfish).
- Carajacas, fried offal.
Gofio
Gofio is flour made from toasted ground grains, normally maize or wheat. It was a staple food of the archipelago’s first inhabitants, and in Gran Canaria it has been made with maize since the 16th century. You will find it in gofio escaldado and pella de gofio.
Desserts
The official list includes bienmesabe canario, truchas de batata, huevos mole, tortitas de plátano and tortitas de carnaval.
Where to eat
We don’t name restaurants here because we only recommend places once we have checked them ourselves. We will add verified suggestions to this guide.
Where to stay
Moon Dunes is a renovated one-bedroom apartment in Playa del Inglés with a full kitchen, two minutes’ walk from the Yumbo Centre. See the apartment.
Last checked: 6 October 2026.