Whether you are interested in exploring traditional or contemporary cuisine, whether you are in a beach bar or a starred restaurant, that territory where the Pontevedra estuary meets the Arousa estuary is the perfect destination.
The enormous hotel offer makes it easy and the good communications with Santiago, Vigo or Pontevedra, all less than 45 minutes away, make the area the ideal base camp to spend a few days on the Galician coast. Gastronomically speaking, the region also has a lot to offer, a varied offer that adapts to all audiences and at all times. These are our clues:
Culler de Pau, the first restaurant to have obtained two Michelin stars in the history of Galicia, is undoubtedly a reference in an area where if there is one thing, great restaurants abound.
Javier Olleros directs a unique gastronomic project that overlooks the orchards and the estuary, a place that reformulates the taste imagination of the area with a subtlety and personality that is not usually found. Culler de Pau is the place to go to glimpse one of the possible futures of Atlantic cuisine.
Sabino is one of those discreet restaurants whose name spreads by word of mouth among those who frequent the area; an already classic place installed in the heart of Sanxenxo, less than 50 meters from the Silgar beach.
Its offer is essentially marine, with an eclectic approach that travels from the most traditional to more current proposals with fish and shellfish always as a base. From steamed blond to oysters with jalapeño and yuzu marinade, from Bilbao-style sea bream to black rice with cuttlefish and cockles.
Tío Benito (Barrantes) is an unpretentious eatery, one of those with the atmosphere of a lifetime that one finds, from time to time, at the foot of the road, perfect for those who want to explore the interior of the region and get lost among vineyards . About 10 minutes from Sanxenxo, it is the place to try a good empanada, a good octopus, Barrantes wine in cuncas (earthenware cups, which were the traditional way of serving it) if desired, and excellent lamb.
Taberna A Curva could pass for one more restaurant than those that open onto the port and the Portonovo fish market, but what it houses inside is something very different. The menu, based on simple traditional portions, is well resolved and always appetizing: sardines, steamed mussels, squid, razor clams, but above all an extensive and well-selected wine list, which is out of the ordinary and makes it a an essential place in the area, frequented by chefs from all over Galicia on their days off.
D’Berto is no longer a secret. It is, in fact, one of the best positioned Galician restaurants in international rankings. And it is because of an offer that bets everything on the best local product and traditional cuisine.
Said like this, it could seem like another restaurant, one of many. But D’Berto plays in another league thanks to an exceptional product and decades of trade that make it one of the great Spanish seafood restaurants. A perfect menu for those who want to immerse themselves fully in the local product could start with a bivalve tasting -black scallop, clam, razor- a fish of the day, perhaps a San Martiño (San Pedro fish) or a grilled red pomfret and, to finish, its famous fried lobster.
Meloxeira Praia is probably the great Galician beach bar, one of those beach bars that have gradually grown to become a benchmark.
Informal atmosphere, a terrace facing the sunset, views of the Ons islands, a wonderful wine cellar and up-to-date local cuisine in which there is no shortage of good seafood rice dishes, grilled fish and some personal proposals such as oysters a la grilled with veal butter and lemon, shrimp ceviche with its grilled head or cockles with garlic and chilli.
Michael’s is a rarity in the area, cuisine with American roots run by Michael Poloni, a Californian who, after working in leading restaurants in the region -Beiramar, Culler de Pau- to soak up the local gastronomic tradition, opened with Julia, his partner, this place in the center of Sanxenxo to pay homage to his roots and vindicate the quality of a kitchen so often mistreated.
Italian-American proposals from his family cookbook, such as gnocchi with sweet corn and pecorino; American classics such as its already famous Texas Rib, a beef rib roasted and smoked for 15 hours in the restaurant, and some of its own dishes that explore the native product, such as octopus with lemon and leek vinaigrette, toasted bread and garlic cream.
Muiño de Rudiño (Ribadumia) is an authentic rareness, a mill from 1850 in the middle of one of the main wine areas of the Galician coast where an eclectic cuisine is offered with a pie in Italy and another in Galicia.
You arrive at Muiño to put yourself in the hands of Teo Ianotta, chef and soul of the project, who every day offers a blind gastronomic tour, based on that day’s market, in which a Galo Celta lasagna, an Italian crab, a bean stew with mussels or some fettuccine with spider crab. All in a place where wine culture is breathed, with a winery that has around 500 references and in which both Galicia and Italy have a special role.
