Alevante

The luxury Gran Meliá Sancti Petri hotel’s gourmet restaurant boasts a bright, elegant and minimalist design – the only thing adorning the walls of the dining room are the silhouettes of shoals of fish and curtains made from traditional hemp rope. Given that this is the offshoot of the extraordinary Aponiente restaurant in El Puerto de Santa María, guests can savour (via the Gran Menú Alevante), many of the dishes that have led to acclaimed chef’s Ángel León’s reputation as “El Chef del Mar”. The experience (overseen by chef Cristian Rodríguez) begins with enticing appetisers accompanied by wines from the Cádiz area in the bar at the entrance and continues in the dining room, where the best maritime fish and seafood (sea urchins, shrimp, mackerel, dogfish etc) take centre stage. The menu, which includes extraordinary dishes such as deep-fried pepper in a chilled soup, and the moray eel mochi, comes with the “Alevante Crew” book, as the common thread here is a journey by boat to discover the ingredients used.