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Yesterday the Hotel The Ritz-Carlton Abama in Guía de Isora, Tenerife, hosted the presentation gala of the 2018 edition of the Michelin guide Spain and Portugal. Aponiente and ABaC are the brand-new triestrellados, something that raises from nine to eleven the restaurants in the country that hold the highest award granted by the “red bible”.
Addresses, formats and prices of Spanish establishments where you can live a TOP gastronomic experience.
Aponiente
Angel León, the chef of the sea, has spent the last ten years swimming against the current and making the sea edible, in all its blue hues. First one star fell, then two. The third, the one that yesterday raised his restaurant Aponiente, came along with a fourth, the Alevante restaurant, a León project at the Hotel Meliá Sancti Petri in Chiclana de la Frontera.
Located in an old tidal mill in El Puerto de Santa María, Aponiente It should be a stop for any gourmet looking for surprises and a coherent gastronomic discourse. You can choose between two menus: Calm sea (175 euros) and Swell (205 euros). The pairing with wines, 90 and 70 euros respectively. And for dessert, Marine Light, a magic that the crew of the chef del mar is able to reproduce as many times as necessary thanks to a freeze-dried and rehydrated Asian crustacean. A off-chart experience and very exclusive that has a cost of 60 euros.
ABac
Jury of one of the most watched cooking shows on television, Jordi Cruz is, above all, chef of ABaC.
This restaurant, which also makes its debut in the Olympus of TOP establishments, is located in the exclusive Barcelona hotel that bears the same name. Roasted onion juice with smoked scamorza cheese spheres, walnuts and orange peels, smoked steak tartar, seasoned veal snow, cooked egg yolk, mustard veil and crunchy pepper bread and iced spiced chocolate infusion, cocoa rocks and vanilla, butter and citrus peels are some of the dishes that can be enjoyed at ABaC (served on Versace dinnerware).
Average prices for a meal range from 140 to 170 euros, drinks aside.
Arzak
It is not a restaurant, it is a legend. Captained by Juan Mari y Elena Arzak, respectively third and fourth generation of the family that is dedicated to the kitchen, this San Sebastian establishment is pure passion under a layer of elegance.
Arzak It was the second Spanish restaurant to hold 3 Michelin stars. This happened in 1989. Thirty years later, he is still in the same place and has also managed to establish himself in the media lista 50Best, in which it is ranked number 30. Here you can choose between paper (the average price of each dish is 60 euros) and tasting menu (210 euros plus VAT, drinks apart).
Diverxo
Extreme, aggressive, baroque, fun. The kitchen of David Muñoz It is the exact reflection of the young chef from Madrid that comes out. The 2014 edition of the guide awarded it 3 stars, after just six years since the opening of its first location.
Now Diverxo It is located in the NH Collection Eurobuilding hotel on Madrid’s Padre Damián street, in a setting designed by Muñoz himself with Lázaro Rosa Violán. A space dominated by flying pigs, the symbol of a kitchen where everything is possible. No limits, according to their motto. You can choose between two tasting menus that can vary and differ by price and number of dishes: 195 euros (ten savory dishes plus four desserts) and 250 euros (fifteen savory dishes plus five desserts).
Martin Berasategui
Martin Berasategui He is the Spanish chef with the most Michelin stars: eight, no less. Three for the Lasarte restaurant, in Barcelona, two for MB in Tenerife and three for his mother house, which bears his name and is located in Lasarte, Oria.
Caramelized smoked eel millefeuille, foie gras, spring onion and green apple, warm oyster lightly pickled with cucumber and K5 granita, spicy apple or caviar gelée with asparagus pickle with Añana salt and its cream are some of the dishes that make up Part of Great tasting menu, whose price is 225 euros. You can also choose to order à la carte.
Quique Dacosta
Other ‘3 star’ with first and last name. In the kitchen of Quique Dacosta the luxuries of the Mediterranean, both from the sea and from the land, shine even more.
The menu for this season 2017, DNA Quest, promises to bring to light local products and little-known or forgotten techniques, without giving up creativity and avant-garde. Its price: 210 euros per person. Those who wish, may accompany the sequence of dishes with wines for 99 euros more.
Sant Pau
The leader Carme ruscalleda He has seven Michelin stars in his hands: three for his mother house, Sant Pau, in Sant Pol de Mar; two for Moments, a restaurant he leads together with his son Raül Balam and that it is located in the exclusive Madarin Oriental hotel in Barcelona; and two for Sant Pau Tokio, in the Japanese capital.
This season’s tasting menu, inspired by the world of spices, costs 186 euros per person. There is also the menu option: the average price of each dish is 49 euros (desserts, 19 euros). To enjoy in the living room or in the garden. With an eye on the sea.
Akelaŕe
From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Located in San Sebastián, Akelaŕe It is another legend of the Spanish restoration. Your chef, Pedro Subijana it is, along with Juan Mari Arzak, Martín Berasategui and Carme Ruscalleda, one of the “dads” of techno-emotional cuisine, who laid the foundations for a Spanish gastronomic avant-garde that would later take off with Ferran Adrià.
Kokotxa suflada and white garlic pil-pil, lobster salad with cider vinegar and “Umami” sea bass are some of the dishes that bear the signature of this Donostiarran chef. There is a menu and also three tasting menus Aranori, Bekarki y The classics of Akelaŕand. All three cost 195 euros plus VAT, Drinks not included. If one night is not enough to try everything, you can extend your stay at the hotel which, in addition to having one of the best Spanish restaurants, has a Spa and Wellness area.
azurmendi
Located in the countryside, 19 km from Bilbao, azurmendi occupies a glass building designed to, at the same time, let yourself be enveloped by nature and pay homage to it. This restaurant, captained by the chef Eneko AtxaIt has its own garden and is designed to take advantage of natural resources – rain, sun, wind – to minimize environmental impact.
There two tasting menus, one composed of Azurmendi classics (Erroak, the roots) and another of new creations (Adarrak, the branches). Both cost 180 euros per person. His latest project, Eneko, which will buy you headquarters with Azurmendi and has only been running for a few months, yesterday won his first Michelin star.
Lasarte
Warm red prawn on a seabed, fennel and coral emulsion, squid tartare with liquid egg yolk, onion and kaffir consommé, grilled pigeon, minced citrus capers, black olive, smoked carrot and galangal sauce, curd cream with white truffle, pear and hazelnut.
Under the seal of Martin Berasategui and the command of Paolo Casagrande, your chef, Lasarte It has been wearing 3 stars since the last 2017 edition of the red guide. It is located in the luxurious Hotel Monument, on Paseo de Gracia and has both a menu and tasting menus: one of 185 euros and another of 210.
El Celler de Can Roca
Three brothers, thirty years of experience, 3 Michelin stars and number 3 on the 50Best list.
Anyone would say that 3 is his lucky number. Although the 1 fits him like a glove. The Celler de Can Roca It is not only one of the best restaurants in Spain, but in the world. It is also one of the restaurants with the longest waiting list: to be able to eat or dine in this little piece of gastronomic heaven, you have to wait a year.
Reservations are accepted eleven months in advance and the term opens every month, at midnight on the first day of the month.