Quique Dacosta Denia 3 stars OAD no 7, number 20 worlds top 50
Meal divided into 3 acts
Act 1
1)outside in the garden with a welcome drink of your choosing. Hate to call them snacks / amuse bouche. They’re definitely bigger and more complex than I’ve had anywhere else. This is almond cake with kefir bread, black truffle on top, and a cheese made from almond milk to spoon over it, we were told we could eat all the cheese if we like, I was thinking it was a heavy way to start a tasting menu. Weakest of the 3 snacks in my opinion, overpowering almond flavour, and not enough from the truffle
2) shellfish ramen with chard, a fairly new creation I think. This was great
3)Quiques versión of the French classic pate en encrute, mille – feuille stuffed with pate, a pork glaze, and a dense sauce to pour over it. Excellent snack
Act 2
Inside for act 2 and his tribute to the sea
4) two types of nori sea weed bread, red tuna kombucha, mojama/ tartar with some type of gelatine, almonds, pipara mayonese. A small spoon of roe (tasted like sea urchin, 100‰ sea) and plant based abalone with emulsion of sea anemone (no idea what that is but excellent, as were all the snacks here
5)one of the top 3, maybe even no 1, fried croquette with an amazing creamy texture, and a smoked eggplant and capellanes (type of fish) dish, as usual, there was a lot more going on with this fish, than the description of these ingredients. Excellent
6)one of the new additions, I was worried about as didn’t look great, but turned out fine. A smoked brioche bread, made entirely with fish whiting, incredible texture, served with some mussels and teardrop peas. Good dish
7) it wouldn’t be Quique without his famous denia gamba, not on the menu, so given as a form of “surprise” I’ve had this before in his València restaurant, it’s normally served with te bledes a drink made from the prawn heads and shells, but this time it wasn’t, literally just served on its own. So depending how big a red denia prawn fan you are for this dish
8)another new dish I think, but maybe the weakest of them all, it was fine, just not very memorable – calamar with it’s ink inside,. It had a mousse like texture.
Act 3
Starts with a bread dish, a few Spanish restaurants have started including the bread as one of the dishes, as opposed to a compliment to the dishes , not sure how I feel about that. But in the general scheme of things we had more than enough food so I won’t complain, it was served with an olive oil that costs €130 a litre, they didn’t tell me that but I googled it myself 🙂
9)I knew given his history with foie and his Cuba libre dish from years ago this would be good. Smoked and roasted duck liver pate with pine cones, with a parsnip foam and chips. Outstanding
10) beef rice dish, with a cumin foam, mint, and chickpea. Good dish
11)final dish and another top 3 dish. Sang amn ceba(boiled blood fried with onion, almost a chocolate like texture) Duck and pickled onion, beat and pomegranate, outstanding dish, so much going on underneath the crispy beat topping. Outstanding and great final dish
Act 4 deserts
12)this has been there for a while now I think, the music box, with lychee cream , edible flowers, white chocolate, and other flavours and fruits going on there too. Excellent
13)cortex of carob, Quiques chocolate substitute, but just as good, excellent
14) almond polvoron (excellent super light) and a “saints bone” ice cream like texture, filled with caramel, excellent way to finish and his version of petit fours I guess.
Overall excellent experience 295€ for the only menu on offer, about the standard prices for 3 star in Spain, did the normal €150 wine pairing (there’s a second €200 premium choice) got 11 wines with that, starting from act 2..small pourings as you’d imagine, but 4 or 5 times I’d finished the wine before the plate, they came and topped me up again, without as much as me asking, or even looking in their direction.
I’ve only been to 2 three star restaurants,. But I agree this place deserves its much higher ranking than the other one I’ve been to.
by Life-Resort2218