Lienzo restaurant was the best meal we had during our gastronomic stay in Valencia this spring.

Initially, Lienzo was not even on our list of restaurants of choice for that trip, but after learning that unfortunately Salita, Sucede and Toshi were currently closed, courtesy of Covid-19, we decided to book at Lienzo as a plan B. And good grace, were we happy we did! The experience was wonderful!

Lienzo is the restaurant of Maria Jose Martinez and her husband Juan José Soria who is the Maître d' and sommelier. The irony is that Maria Jose Martinez was previously the chef de partie at El Poblet restaurant and after three years there, she decided to go and open her own restaurant.

We went to Lienzo the day after we lunched at El Poblet and from our humble experience, her cooking was as good as (or dare we say even better than) that of Louis Valls at El Poblet. The Pinceladas menu was a real gem, starting with the three snacks: White shrimps tartar and lime foam, Corn dacsa soufflé, esperiega apple foam and roast beef and Pinion nougat, pinion caramel and baby pinion leaf were a knockout.

Her technique and skills were condensed in these small plates which were subtle and delicious. Her cooking was precise and minimalist. The rest of the menu was a display of her talent, like the confit beans all i pebre, eel and salmorra pepper gel, a sophisticated and extremely well executed dish.

For the wine, we let ourselves be guided by the expert advice of Juan José Soria and opted for a glass of Recaredo 2017 Brut Nature and an excellent Valencian white wine, Cullerot 2019. The service by Juan José Soria was warm, smiling and kind.

Lienzo restaurant absolutely was the highlight of our gastronomic stay in Valencia, even if, incredibly enough, it was the only one without a Michelin star. We strongly hope that the Red guide will right this wrong next year. Maria Jose Martinez and her team definitely deserve it.

Lienzo

 Plaça de Tetuan, 18, Bajo Derecha,

46003 Valencia, Spain
Telephone : +34 963 52 10 81

www.restaurantelienzo.com

To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we chose El Poblet restaurant. To be totally honest, it was not our first choice but we were so happy to have a gastronomic and Michelin starred restaurant open and available for lunch that we rushed to book our table.

El Poblet was Quique Dacosta’s original restaurant in Dénia and he then had the good idea to recreate it in Valencia, with Luis Valls at the helm.

Luis Valls interprets his mentor cooking through his own vision by incorporating local products into innovative and creative cooking.

For our lunch, we selected the “Territori” menu, a menu created around the products and terroir of Valencia and its communities.

The menu consisted of seven dishes with the usual amuse-bouche and mignardises.

The meal was well executed and perfectly displayed the technical skills of Luis Valls. His cooking emphasized on the local products, the flavors and the textures of each dish were remarkable.

The wine list was digital (courtesy of Covid-19) and, as expected, had a beautiful selection of Spanish wines, from which we chose a 2015 Raventos I Blanc De la Finca for the whole meal, and for digestive a wonderful Culla Vella 1980,  an unique liquor made in Valencia.

The service in English by Anna Botella and her team was flawless.

In our opinion, two or three Michelin-star restaurants are expected to provide a perfect experience from the moment you set foot inside to the moment you leave, and above all else, the meal must be excellent from the first to the last bite. Unfortunately, it was not the case for our experience at El Poblet as the desserts were disappointing, definitely not on par with the rest of the meal. We did not fail to mention this directly to the chef, Luis Valls, who thanked us for our honesty.

El Poblet

Carrer de Correus, 8, 46002 València

Valencia, Spain

Téléphone : +34 961 11 11 06

www.elpobletrestaurante.com

To celebrate our anniversary we had to travel to Valencia (Spain) where hotels and restaurants reopened since March 1st 2021.

We decided to stay at Hospes Palau de la Mar, a five-star hotel with the best reputation in Valencia, conveniently located close to the historical center and right next to the Jardin Del Turia. The hotel itself sits in a 19th century building; it has an elegant entrance and nice patio.

Our room was well designed with a king size bed and a big bathroom, with a marble bathtub and an Italian shower.

But as usual, as the French saying goes: the devil is in the details... No coffee machine, only one small garbage bin in the bathroom for the whole room, a lighting system strangely conceived (you can only turn off all the bed lights at once, not just one side or the other), the bathtub once full of water was so slippery that you could not seat up in it, and last but not least, the service was next to non-existent for a five-star hotel.

The Covid crisis does not excuse everything, five-star hotels should provide everything that goes with their rank and maybe look a little closer to the level of excellence five-star hotels offer in other countries, namely in Asia.

The luxury hotel industry in Europe needs to level up their game if they want to stand a chance in the post-Covid world.

In the end, do we recommend Hospes Palau de la Mar? Actually we do because, overall, the hotel has some good qualities: its location, the building, a nice spa with a small swimming pool, sauna and Turkish bath, a gym and a restaurant called Ampar.

Hospes Palau de la Mar

Navarro Reverter, 14

46004 Valencia, Spain Tel : +34 963 16 28 84

Hotel Sant Joan de Binissaida is located in the small town of Es Castell on Menorca island.  It’s branded a luxury agro-rural hotel with 12 rooms and a gastronomy cuisine.

Our family of three stayed in the Bach room (n°9) with a private terrace and countryside view. The room was ideal for a family our size.

The place is very beautiful with its pathways and manicured gardens, and best of all its 25-meter long swimming pool plus a kids area with a babyfoot table.

It has a gastronomy restaurant with a menu designed by the chef of the restaurant Ses Forquilles in Mahon. However the lunch price was a bit expensive for our taste. It is better to eat at Ses Forquilles.

We also found the pricing for the rooms extremely high for what it is. We got better rooms for half that price in other places in Spain or Portugal.

The service at the hotel is very helpful, service-oriented, charming and kind.

Menorca is a very beautiful island: it’s preserved and well maintained with nice beaches and incredible good food, it makes a perfect destination for short or long holidays for all.

Hotel Sant Joan de Binissaida

Bistro Guggenheim à Bilbao est un des pionniers à fusionner art et gastronomie. C’est probablement l’une des meilleures tables de musée au monde avec Modern au MoMA.

Josean Martínez Alija nous fait découvrir sa cuisine de bistrot de la manière la plus informelle qui soit, mais en même temps, les plats et les produits sont soigneusement sélectionnés et possèdent plein de personnalité. Le tout servi dans un espace avant-gardiste et innovant où les touches de Frank Gehry sont omniprésentes.

Le bistrot propose un menu à un tarif défiant toute concurrence : 25,40 euros entrée + plat + dessert + une bouteille d’eau minérale + un verre de vin rouge ou de vin blanc de Rioja ou de Rueda.

Nous commençons par le gaspacho de tomates et pastèques avec grosses crevettes marinées, un pur délice surtout lorsqu'il fait chaud à l’extérieur ! Les plats de calamar et de thon sont parfaitement cuits et relevés par des saveurs bien méditerranéennes. Pour les desserts, nous avons sélectionné le pain perdu trempé et les fraises broyées qui sont exquis, extrêmement fins et légers.

Le service est jeune, sympathique et multilingue.

Nerua est l’autre offre gastronomique du Guggenheim proposé par Josean Martínez Alija. Nous nous sommes promis de revenir à Bilbao et au Guggenheim pour goûter à la haute cuisine de ce chef talentueux  qu’est Monsieur Alija.

Bistro Guggenheim

Adresse : C/ Abandoibarra 2, 48001, Bilbao, Vizcaya, Espagne

Horaires d'ouverture :

Fermé aujourd'hui · Horaires