MICHELIN Guide Spain & Portugal 2019 Selection

Coming to you live from Lisbon, Portugal at the Carlos Lopes Pavilion, Michelin has just announced the selection for the MICHELIN Guide Spain & Portugal 2019, with 30 new starred restaurants between the two countries.

Big news this year: Dani García's eponymous restaurant in the city of Marbella, in Malaga, was elevated from two to three stars in the 2019 selection. The guide's inspectors noted that Dani García has conquered the top echelon with his unique way of reformulating Andalusian cuisine in a contemporary way, ensuring that each development tells a different story based on products related to local traditions. They also fell in love with the game of contrasts true to his 'contradiction in the kitchen,' as well as the staging of a large part of his dishes. 

"For the first time, we have decided to celebrate the launch of the MICHELIN Guide in Portugal and this is no coincidence," says Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the MICHELIN Guides. "In recent years, talented young chefs have emerged, using their creativity to revisit traditional Portuguese dishes. They are able to transform high quality local products using their know-how and ingenuity." Gala attendees tasted dishes from seven-starred restaurants in the area—Belcanto, Fortaleza do Guincho, Alma, Eleven, Feitoria, Loco and Lab by Sergi Arola.

The big winners in the category of two stars in Spain are twins Sergio and Javier Torres's Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona, ​​where the cuisine is integrated into the culinary experience of the diners through a large open kitchen; El Molino de Urdániz in the Navarrese city of Urdaitz, where chef David Yárnoz maintains a creative proposal exalting the local products of Navarre; and the original restaurant Ricard Camarena de València, which is as surprising in its aesthetics—it is located in the ‘Bombas Gens Art Center’—as it is by its gastronomy, which follows a process of sourcing via local producers, in addition to the produce grown in its own garden.
 
In Portugal, restaurant Alma, located in the Lisbon's bohemian Ciado neighborhood, dazzles. Chef Henrique Sá Pessoa has captivated Michelin’s inspectors with very technical and nuanced fun.

New one-starred restaurants in the 2019 edition are restaurants with their own personality, such as Eneko Bilbao (Bilbao), Oria (Barcelona), eMe Be Garrote (Donostia/San Sebastián) and Terra restaurant in S'Agaró, in the province of Girona, which are under the leadership of gastronomic figures such as Eneko Atxa, Martín Berasategui or Paco Pérez. 
 
The notable increase in the number of starred restaurants in Madrid is another highlight of this edition. Diversity is one of the distinctive features of this city, a detail that is reflected in disparate but extremely unique eateries, such as those of Yugo, La Tasquería, Clos Madrid, Corral de la Morería Gastronómico and El Invernadero, a restaurant that has given an original touch to its vegetarian cuisine and has returned to the heart of the capital thanks to chef Rodrigo de la Calle.
 
The team of MICHELIN inspectors also draws attention to the Costa Blanca in the province of Alicante, a region focused on haute cuisine without cutting links with tradition. The beautiful and touristy town of Calp (Calpe) gains a position as a culinary destination with the incorporation of new one-starred restaurants Beat and Orobianco.
 
In Portugal, the new one-star restaurants are more scattered and, with the exception of Midori in Sintra (the first Japanese restaurant with a star in the country), are in extraordinary locations. This is the case of G Pousada in Bragança which, alongside the Gonçalves brothers, showcases the modern cuisine of the region of Tras-os-Montes; or A Cozinha in Guimarães, where chef Antonio Loureiro surprised with a modern kitchen that distills balance and sensitivity.

The following restaurants have also received a MICHELIN star: La Barra de Carles Abellán in Barcelona; ​​Etxanobe Atelier in Bilbao; Trivio in Cuenca; Bagá in Jaén; LÚ Cocina y Alma in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz); Pablo in León, which defends avant-garde cuisine based on local, natural and seasonal products; Ikaro in Logroño (La Rioja); El Xato from La Nucía (Alicante); A Tafona in Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña); El Molino de Alcuneza, a charming establishment located in a hamlet of Sigüenza (Guadalajara); and finally, the Cancook restaurant in Zaragoza, which is based on a modern and creative gastronomy, able to conquer and to entertain, but always with a perfect harmony between the products and respect of the seasonal flavors.

Congrats to all restaurants. View the newly-starred restaurants below.