Michelin Restaurants in Valencia, from the Chef’s Table

How Valencia’s fine-dining scene works

Valencia has quietly become one of Spain’s most interesting cities for fine dining. In recent years it has hosted the Michelin Guide gala for Spain, and its province now has a number of starred kitchens, from the city center to the coast and the interior. The Michelin restaurants in Valencia share a trait: they cook from a larder few cities can match, and most of their chefs grew up eating it.

The scene has three layers. In the city, a handful of chefs reinterpret Valencian classics, especially rice, in long tasting menus. Along the coast, kitchens build their menus around the catch, from the red prawns of Dénia to the fish landed in small ports. Inland, a few restaurants cook with game, mushrooms, truffles and the wines of the plateau. Many offer only a tasting menu, served at lunch and dinner, and close one or two days a week.

Valencia’s Michelin-starred restaurants

These are the Michelin restaurants in Valencia we book most often for our guests. All held a Michelin star at the time of writing; the guide is revised every year, so we check each one against the latest edition before we suggest it.

• Ricard Camarena Restaurant. Ricard Camarena’s flagship, in the Bombas Gens arts center in Marxalenes. A tasting menu led by the vegetables of the huerta, and for many the reference point of Valencian fine dining.
• El Poblet. Quique Dacosta’s restaurant in the city center, run by his team: rice, seafood and the ideas of the Dénia kitchen, without the drive.
• Riff. Bernd Knöller’s long-established restaurant in the Ensanche, cooking seasonal Mediterranean food in a calm room.
• La Salita. Begoña Rodrigo’s creative, vegetable-forward cooking in Ruzafa.
• Fierro. A tiny restaurant in Ruzafa where Carito Lourenço and Germán Carrizo bring Argentine roots to Valencian produce, for very few guests a night.
• Lienzo. María José Martínez’s contemporary Valencian cooking, near the Plaza de Tetuán.
• Kaymus. Nacho Romero’s modern Valencian cooking in the northern districts, with a particular feel for rice.
• Sucede. Miguel Ángel Mayor’s creative tasting menu in the old town.

At any of them, we reserve a table in the dining room and look after the details: the right night, the driver, dietary notes sent ahead. The right choice depends on what you love, your dates and how each kitchen is cooking that season. Your travel designer will propose one or two and explain why.

A day on the coast: Dénia and Jávea

Two of the most celebrated kitchens in the region are about an hour and a half south of the city, and they are the reason many food lovers travel to this coast.

• Quique Dacosta, in Dénia, is one of Spain’s most celebrated restaurants and holds the Michelin Guide’s highest distinction at the time of writing. Its menus are built on the landscape of the Marina Alta, from the red prawn to the rice. We pair it with a private day trip to Dénia: the castle and the fishermen’s quarter in the morning, lunch at the table.
• BonAmb, in Jávea, is Alberto Ferruz’s Michelin-starred kitchen, devoted to the produce of the Marina Alta and its sea. It fits into a private day trip to Jávea, after a morning on the cape and in the coves.

With a private driver, either one is a long, unhurried lunch with no need to watch the wine list on the way home.

What a chef’s table is

Our private chef’s table takes place at one of the city’s leading tasting-menu restaurants, chosen for the season and for you. A chef’s table puts you inside the restaurant’s working life. It is a table in or beside the kitchen, often for a single party, with a direct view of the pass, where each plate is finished and checked before it leaves. You see the rhythm of a service, hear the calls and watch the details that are invisible from the dining room.

The chef usually comes to the table during the evening to present some of the courses and talk about their sourcing. Some kitchens prepare an extra course or two for the table. It is a more personal, more relaxed way to experience a tasting menu, and it suits people who enjoy food as much for the craft as for the plate.

The Valencian produce on the menu

• Rice from the Albufera, grown half an hour from the city, the base of the region’s cooking.
• The huerta, the market gardens around Valencia: tomatoes, artichokes, beans, peppers and greens.
• Seafood from the Mediterranean: red prawns, cuttlefish, small clams, sea urchin in winter.
• Citrus, of course, used in desserts and in sauces.
• Tiger nut, the root behind horchata, which pastry chefs love to reinterpret.
• Salazones, salted and cured fish, a tradition of the coast.

How a tasting-menu evening unfolds

Early evening. Your driver collects you from your hotel. Dinner in Valencia starts late, rarely before half past eight.

Arrival. A glass of something sparkling and a first round of snacks, often in the kitchen itself, while the chef introduces the evening.

The menu. Between twelve and twenty small courses over three to four hours, depending on the kitchen. The sommelier pairs them with wines from the Valencian region, such as Utiel-Requena, Alicante and Valencia, and from the rest of Spain, or you can choose by the bottle.

The end. Coffee, a last conversation with the team, and your driver waiting at the door.

Who this is for

Couples celebrating something, and food lovers who have eaten in fine restaurants before and want to see one from the inside. Small groups of friends, for whom some kitchens can arrange a private room. It is a natural highlight of a Valencia honeymoon.

Adding it to a private journey

We usually place the chef’s table toward the end of a stay, after the Valencia food tour and a day in the rice fields, when you already know the ingredients you will meet on the plate. It sits well the evening after the wine tour in Utiel-Requena, when the wines on the pairing will be familiar. For more casual tables, see our guide to the best restaurants in Valencia.