| Truly stunning I was shocked, suprised and delighted to find this restaurant. We stopped there last year on the way to get our regular dose of pescado parillada in Los Abrigos one lunchtime and haven't looked back. Ambiance: the place has a modern / contemporary feel, but is cosy and very comfy. The restaurant is on the harbour in Los Abrigos with all the other restaurants and has a wooden-deck terrace and two dining rooms, of which one - godsend of godsends - is smoking. The chairs are very comfy and the views of the coast and sunset are great. The place is very well maintained - it hasn't apparently deteriorated in the year or so that I've been going. I love their taste in music (Cafe del Mar / Pompougnac / St Germain etc.) even if their taste in art is perhaps a bit stark! Service: the staff are great. Paolo and Peter are the two waiters there. It's nice to go to a restaurant and see the same staff each time. They clearly love what they do, know the food and wine, and make a good double-act. If it's not too busy they're always happy to take the time to chat if you want, but the service is never overbearing or in-your-face - they seem to know just when to leave you alone. They've even recommended other places to eat. The chatting drops off as the customers increase, but the standard of service never wavers. It's a shame the girls left when they stopped lunches; it was nice to get a bit of gossip in as well! One downside is that just occasionally, there's a delay in food if there's been a lot of people arriving at once, but good food takes time and you're never left for very long, and to be honest it's such a nice place to be that I only noticed because they apologised for the delay. Food: the food is contemporary, and very tasty, the kind of thing you couldn't cook for yourself at home. The prices are higher than most places, but in this case you get what you pay for - fresh ingredients freshly prepared with skill and attention to detail. Everything brought to the table is made in-house; they bake their own bread, make their own desserts, sauces, salad dressings etc. etc. One of my favourite dishes - the ostrich - has gone (it's from this restaurant that I found out about the ostrich farm) but now there's lamb on the menu so they're forgiven. The fish is fantastic, the soup divine, and the desserts stunning. The kitchen staff are clearly passionate about what they do. They got listed in the Michelin guide this year, and thoroughly deserve it. Overall: this is probably my favourite "real" restaurant in Tenerife, one of a very few. It's a temple to food, and a well decorated one - with fantastic toilets, by the way, if a little narcissistic :-). It's also the only place I've found that you can get a decent New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Or any New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc! It's not over-priced, but it's too pricey for every-day or even every week, but we try and go once a month or so. If you choose carefully you can eat there quite cheaply, but it's nice to go and have a blow-out once in a while. Note about the chef: at my last meal (April 2007 at time of writing) I discovered the chef has changed. Apparently the chef there now has been there since they opened, but used to be their second chef, and got promoted because the original chef wanted to leave the island. The style of food has changed a bit, but the quality hasn't; if anything I prefer what they're serving now, it's a bit more subtle. There are still echoes of the original head chef in a couple of the dishes - you can see that the current chef picked up some tricks. An oddity: It's happened to me twice now that I've gone along, had a good meal, gone along a few weeks later and had the same or similar meal cheaper. Their prices do change, and I'm not sure why! Thoroughly recommended. |