Derya Demirci
Google
We visited the Real Balneario during a weekday, so we assumed it would be quiet but it was surprising to be one of two tables that night.
The setting is stunning, right in the beach and even though, the decor could be more modern, it's really personal and has a lot of charm. The setting itself has delightful views and if you are lucky enough to have a clear day, you will enjoy a lovely sunset as you enjoy a glass of champagne. Unfortunately the views of the people in the beach can't be unpleasant, but there's no real control of the restaurant on that.
Something the restaurant could definitely do is to improve its service. It was, slow and had small knowledge of their menu. It was unpleasant enough to be the only table in the restaurant (as the others left quite early), as to feel observed my the manager, that was standing a few feet away from us, in a very obvious way listening to our conversations. We have been to enough restaurants to appreciate non intrusive waiting, where we are served and observed, without noticing anything.
We began our dinner with a bottle of Kripta, a lovely Cava that was at cellar temperature, so it took nearly the whole dinner to cool down to be enjoyed properly. I would expect an aperitif to be served at the right temperature straight away, without having to wait one hour for it to cool down. This was the reason why we didn't enjoy another bottle of wine, as we just felt it was a waste of money to leave our sparkling wine cooling down, when we wanted it with our canapes! In any case, the wine list was unimpressive, a very obvious and boring selection of the typical wines you could normally find in restaurants like this. I was expecting more on this front, a more subtle and independent wine list, with some big names but as well some curiosities from Spain.
There were some items unavailable, that was a bit upsetting, as we already had planned what we would eat, but there was plenty of choice to order from. The food was fine, and for Asturias, that's a really poor standard. We started with canapes, a small assiette of marinated mackerel served on top of a crisp of squid ink (I think), this was unfortunate, as the anchovy was more on the sushi or ceviche side, so it made the cracker soggy and there was no texture contrast.
We were really looking forward to enjoying the clams, but this weren't available so we ordered the foie-gras and the pork belly with squid. The Foie was simple, with a low temperature cooked egg, which added a lovely texture, as expected it was delicious, although I found a bit of vein in it. The pork and squid was an interesting combination of flavors, nicely presented the jus was delicious and I found it really impressive, it had an unusual asiatic touch to it which made the acidity of the dish rise (perhaps yuzu?). Overall the starters weren't what we wanted, but we enjoyed them a lot, the presentations were carefully crafted and the results were really good. It was disappointing that the waiters didn't know many of the ingredients or the details of the dish, like the name of the flowers used to decorate.
For the main courses once again, we were let down by the available items, so we had the red mullet and the grouper. The red mullet was cooked perfectly, but the presentation was ridiculous, it had an useless layer of thick cut potatoes, trying to imitate the fish scales, but it just looked like the chef didn't finish the dish. The garnishes were fine, but unexciting although the sauce was delicious. The grouper was fine, well cooked, but apart of the sauce the rest was quite plain and there were not texture contrasts in the dish.
After such disappointing dinner we hoped that the desserts would be something to make up for the rest. We were wrong, the choices were really poor and it didn't feel like the dessert menu of michelin starred restaurant, rather like that of a "menu del dia" in your local "meson". We had one pain perdu to share, it was fine.
Overall an overpriced experience, there are more humble restaurants around Asturias that offer better value.
