Aponiente, 3*, El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain
Aponiente is seafood taken to the extreme — got to visit for the first time a while back and what they’re doing both in the restaurant and also outside of it through their own research is almost unbelievable.
Their tasting menu features 25 courses and all of them (including things like breads and desserts) feature seafood in some way. Going in, I was worried that it would be a bit overwhelming or that the flavors would be too powerful at times, but it really worked and you didn’t even feel like you were eating that much seafood! The meals moves at a bit of a quicker pace than most tasting menus of this length, but it doesn’t feel overly rushed and with 25 courses to get through, I can understand why they want to move quickly.
A few dish highlights:
- Little shrimp fritter with tiny shrimps on it — super light and crispy, but with a little bit of an onion flavor underneath
- Royal sea cucumber with adobo and shichimi pepper served on a fork, beautiful presentation, really interesting texture and nice spice
- Marine stew featuring a ton of their seafood charcuterie, things like sea bass chorizo, cuttlefish morcilla, sea bacon, etc.
- Sea silk with cinammon mochi, really interesting chew and I’ve never seen sea silk before so that was fun to learn about
- A katsuobushi and cocoa dessert, I’ve literally never seen katsuobushi used in a desert, they were caramelized so they were sweet and had a crunch and it blew my mind how good that dessert was
Overall, Aponiente is one of the most special places I’ve been and what they’re doing with seafood is unlike anywhere else in the world. A lot of people have said that they’re basically the El Bulli or Noma of seafood, that’s the level of impact they have and I can fully believe it so it’s 100% worth checking out.