Malaga is, currently, one of the great gastronomic destinations in Spain. This is a statement that serves both the city and a province that in the last two decades has seen its offer leave the capital and the hot spots of the Costa del Sol to extend to Ronda, Antequera and other towns, forming a microcosm of surprising power and diversity.
The provincial capital has seen how this same effect was replicated, on a small scale, within its limits, overflowing the historic center first towards La Malagueta to continue towards Soho and continue beyond in recent years. It is in this process that we must understand the proposal of Mi Niña Lola Terrace, a recent restaurant that explores another location and another proposal, enriching the gastronomic panorama of the city and the province.
La Coracha was a traditional neighborhood of the city, next to La Malagueta, on the slopes of Gibralfaro. Demolished in the 90s of the last century, it gave way to an urban reform based on ramps and viewpoints that, bordering the second headquarters of the CAC, the Center for Contemporary Art of Malaga, ascend towards the citadel offering some of the best views of a otherwise essentially flat city.
Here, high up, overlooking the Mediterranean above the park, located on the upper terrace of this new complex, is the restaurant, almost unnoticed by anyone passing through the Tres Gracias roundabout, at its feet, but open, for anyone passing by. He sits at his tables, at an immense horizon.
It is in this place where the chef Pablo Rutllant, after passing through kitchens such as Martín Berasategui, Dani García or Diego Gallegos, where he worked for years, found the perfect space to shape with his mother , Lola Caña, to her personal proposal, a restaurant that collects between the lines the experience acquired in years of work in haute cuisine, but that does not rely on that format as its identity sign.
It seems that Rutllant decides, here, to go down a gear in that sense, to escape from a haute cuisine format according to the manual to offer a more relaxed experience, even in the design of the space, more open in some sense, closer, perhaps, to the spirit of a Málaga always marked by the Mediterranean, by the coming and going of people and goods, of towns and cultures.
The proposal of Mi Niña Lola Terrace seems to point in that direction: personal and technical, but open at the same time, willing to soak up other cuisines; born from the local substratum, but without setting more limits than those that a reasoned and tasty cuisine imposes; with a lot of cooking in the background, but stripped of all the formal attributes of a luxury that makes no sense here.
The menu begins with a brioche, made by the Ilustre bakery, one of the most recognized in the city, with 70 years of history, with Cádiz goat butter – powerful, with animal aromas, very elegant – and caviar, perhaps the only wink explicit to the imaginary of the most conventional haute cuisine.
The pipirrana, as it is presented on the menu, is a first example of that traveling cuisine, of nuances taken from here and there on a framework of local, uncomplexed essence, which characterizes the restaurant’s menu: the acidity and freshness of the original recipe are complemented here with tatemado avocado, a product that is no longer foreign although perhaps not traditional yet, toasted pine nuts and cilantro.
The dish is a wonderful starter, acidic, capable of cleansing the palate after the previous bite, fatty and iodized, but with much more than simply that aperitif effect: there is acidity, of course, but also spicy, roasted, resinous nuances, the unctuousness from avocado, the aromatic of herbs; There is a certain complexity and balance to shaping a salad that is not traditional, but that doesn’t look out of place here, either.
Maizal del Negro Mar: Argentinian-style empanada, made of corn dough dyed with ink, filled with a deep squid stew and topped with a sweet corn mayonnaise, a roasted corn powder with tagine and a touch of lime; one of the samples of the restaurant’s most informal cuisine, which does not mean less gourmet.
Return to eclecticism with payoyo leeks, candied and still textured, accompanied by thin slices of plum and salted salt roe and accompanied by creamy payoyo cheese.
And I return to the chef’s more relaxed menu with the rabotoro donut, a donut filled with stewed oxtail, a touch of white chocolate, grated parmesan and a juice from the stew itself flavored with amaretto, served already at the table. Surprisingly balanced despite the unorthodox set of ingredients. It is the stew that dominates, with the fluffy texture of the donut as a support, while the rest are elements that round out the whole: saline and umami touches, a certain unctuous sweetness and a very slight bitterness that make everything fit together.
Thai bisque soup, slightly spicy, in which red shrimp fried in butter, points of guasacaca – a thick sauce of Venezuelan origin made with avocado, cilantro, garlic and vinegar – and yuzu mayonnaise, cilantro and fresh mint are served. . Aromatic, deep and, once again, wrapped in aromas of fresh herbs. Impossible to label, but perhaps the dish that I will remember most on the menu.
We finished with the bacon taco, honeyed, glazed with a tonkatsu juice, sweet and sour and intense, and accompanied by mashed potatoes with chives. Even in this more classic ending, the cook brings an exotic element, a reference to another cuisine, that defines the dish. Would a classic glaze be better? Because? Let’s be honest: how many times have we tried glazes based on excessive reductions, almost bitter, or on the contrary poorly reduced, alcoholic at times, aggressive? Why not explore other possibilities, adding a certain freshness of ginger and vegetables to the intensity of the sauce? ?
We finished with a nice tiramisu, and with the feeling that Mi Niña Lola Terrace’s cuisine resists labels. Should we talk about traveling cuisine? I’m not sure. There are elements from other latitudes, obviously, but they appear integrated, in almost all cases, in local preparations. Or, when this is not the case, as in Thai bisque, they provide a local, root-based accent that turns them into something new. Although, on the other hand, do bisques exist in the Thai culinary tradition? What is here, what is there and what is academic merge, in Pablo Rutllant’s cuisine, in a much deeper way than it may seem at first.
We are not talking about a traveling cuisine, therefore, although it has nuances that go in that direction; We are not talking about informal cuisine, although there are bites designed to be eaten with the hands and to be shared. We are also not talking about academic, traditional cuisine or one that follows the most common trends in Andalusian haute cuisine of the moment. We are talking, in reality, about a cuisine that does not look to the sides, that follows its path, that interprets the memory of the Malaga palate and enriches it from its very personal point of view; of a complex cuisine, bordering on the baroque at times, that very rarely falls on the side of excess and that achieves a rare balance that must be highlighted.
That of Mi Niña Lola Terrace is a proposal from Malaga and unclassifiable at the same time, Mediterranean and open, plural; complex and with a rare elegance, informal and unapologetic. Whoever sits at their tables can design a menu that is more or less classic, more or less provocative, to their liking. In this, too, unnecessary rigidities are not imposed, but always with the common thread of the overflowing personality of the chef.
That of Rutllant and his team is, furthermore, a proposal that becomes a perfect complement to the enormous current Malaga gastronomic scene. For its location, for its views, for the warmth of the place, but also for its lack of corsets and prejudices. Another Malaga cuisine, capable of coexisting with formulas of very different styles, is possible. It is where La Coracha was, overlooking the sea. And it is worth getting to know it.
