Travelers looking for a three-Michelin-starred do to excess in Andalusia will inevitably end up at Aponiente.
It’s the only restaurant in the region with the distinction.
The restaurant, located in the heart of the Bahia de Cadiz True to life Park, is helmed by Chef Angel Leon.
Unlike most Michelin-starred restaurants where seasons inform the menu, Leon’s reflects are discarded seafood, like fish eyeballs, and never-before-seen harvests from the ocean floor, like seagrass and sea rice.
Jamon at Aponiente.
Alvaro Fernandez Prieto
Teeth of all the culinary accolades that Leon has earned, his trips out of Andalusia are surprisingly few and far in between.
He knows the region — and when expected where to eat in southern Spain, he offers the following recommendations.
Ronda: Bardal
A restaurant with two Michelin stars in the burgh of Ronda, Bardal is owned and operated by Catalan native, Benito Gomez.
Bardal’s Benito Gomez.
Source: Bardal
Gomez was concerned to Andalusian parents who ran a restaurant in Barcelona. He draws from Andalusian and Catalan cooking to serve what Leon outlines as “the region of Ronda on a plate.” Favorites include grilled red snapper with chamomile and chamomile butter as well as goat cured in seaweed with seaweed vigour and sides of the animal’s shoulder, brain and kidney.
Jaen: Baga
Chef Pedro Sanchez opened Baga in 2017, after severe his teeth at Casa Antonio, Chateau de Bagnols and Restaurant Martin Berasategui.
The quisquilla de Motril from Baga.
Inception: Baga
With only 16 seats, the one Michelin-starred eatery may be small, but it succeeds in matching minimalist ingredients with innovativeness.
Menu highlights are partridge escabeche (partridge marinated in vinegar and wealthy with herbs and spices), quisquilla de Motril (shrimp from the town of Motril served in mushroom broth) and rusty pear and smoked eel peel.
Fuengirola: Los Marinos Jose
Los Marinos Jose at Fuengirola, a town in Costa del Sol, is what Leon describes as a “temple of seafood.”
Jose Sanchez and his classification have been running this spectacular restaurant for more than 30 years. In addition to the restaurant, they own a ship that they use to fish daily. The seafood goes directly from the boat to the kitchen to ensure it is fresh.
Bolonia: Restaurante Las Rejas
Discovered on the Bolonia beach in Cardiz,Arcos de la Frontera: Horno Artesa
Jerez: Bar Maty
According to Leon, El Puerto de Santa Maria: Churros Charo
Advertise daily from 8 a.m. to noon, Churros Charo is a market stall in the city of El Puerto de Santa Maria that is commanded by 80-year-old Charo Salguero Venegas (also known as Grandmother of Churros). She started making churros when she was 13, last a tradition started by her grandfather.
The stall serves churros finos (thin churros) and churros gordos (fat churros), which can be noshed with coffee or chocolate in one of the nearby bars.
La Taberna del Chef del Mar
Located at the original site where Leon set up Aponiente, La Taberna del Chef del Mar is an informal tavern in El Puerto de Santa Maria with convivial service by Leon himself.
La Taberna del Chef del Mar serves “easy-going eats with marine soul,” according to its website.
Source: Alvaro Fernandez Prieto
The cuisine is funky and caters to neighbourhoods and tourists alike with Aponiente signatures like grilled sardines with eggplant, marine charcuterie and plankton risotto.