Restaurant Aguaviva

I found this restaurant on Michelin’s website. It’s traditional Lanzarote food with some hints of modern Asian fusion. Although making a reservation meant I was looking online for their website or instagram but you really have to call and keeping calling until someone picks up. Amuse bouche - corn soup in a shot glass Bread (2.50 per bread) - you can pick from an assortment and we picked the olive bread rolls Starters: - sea bass carpaccio with sea urchin (the star of the evening) - rice crepe stuffed with veggies with deep fried fish on the side (Asian fusion) Mains: - cherne fish and prawn with sea urchin sauce and a side of aubergine and rice - Iberian pork steak with mushroom and mash potatoes Dessert - mango and passion fruit pastry - saffron cream and chocolate tart This was the best restaurant we tried in playa Honda. The customer service was actually very good and I was impressed by the cutlery being aligned with the dishes we ordered. Wine choices were lovely as well. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is that the Asian fusion rice crepe didn’t impress me. I think their traditional cuisine is much stronger and if they want to charge these high prices, it would serve them well to continue thinking about presentation or have bigger portions. In all honesty, I believe increasing their online presence via a website especially for reservations and lowering their prices would get more traffic to their restaurant especially from the local Canarians as we were alone in the restaurant for the evening. This is a place that deserves more people to notice its charm and enjoy the food.

Very cozy and playful, yet chic ambience and the food was absolutely delicious. We’ve been in Lanzarote for over two months now, visiting many, many restaurants, and this one was definitely one of our favourite evenings. Service was very attentive, too. (We ate the marinated sea bass [not pictured, ate it too fast], mackerel, mushrooms with prawns and oxtail stew. Chocolate mandarine mousse desert on top)

This is quite an incredible restaurant. Incredibly bad on so many levels. I do wonder what’s going on with the Michelin guide. How they can find the food here even remotely acceptable is one of the great mysteries of mankind. I would like to say that the service was very good, and the wine list has some very good choices, hence the 1 star. The restaurant itself is on a street with many homes and from the layout of the restaurant, this is the feel they’re going for. However, it does mean the restaurant is compartmentalised into separate rooms. Fortunately, we shared ours with a group Spaniards, who like us had taken the time to get dressed up expecting a good culinary experience. This at least provided us with a bit of ambience. Unlike another couple who were on their own in another room. Unfortunately, the room was stuffy and quite unpleasant to sit in. Not a good start. I had the starter of rice pancake with red prawns. I thought my prawns were well cooked but the rice pancake reminded me of a terrible chop suey from the 1970s. I didn’t know they still made soya sauce that bad. Why the chef thought it was a good idea to overcook the rice pancake to a gluten, sticky mess and insert it with vegetables, drowned with soya sauce and presented it on a plate is beyond me. It was by far one of the most unpleasant things I’ve ever eaten. The mains were sole stuffed with cream and mustard sauce, and the hake with sweet, red cabbage and urchin sauce. The sole was very well cooked, but why oh why was it presented like a cheese toastie? Covered in a yellowish cream sauce, and with sweet balsamic vinegar on the side. I like dessert but not as a main. Really didn’t work on any level. The hake…the chef must have a sweet tooth as the combination of flavours did not work and the quality of the hake was poor. Surely he could not have been using frozen fish? Presented with its greyish skin made it very unpleasant to look at and added to the displeasure. My final word. It was Friday night and half empty. I think that speaks volume for what the people in Lanzarote think about this place. Expensive and one of the worst dining experience I’ve had in my life. Thankfully it’s only open three days a week.

Best cooking we have ever experienced! Everything was perfect and so much better than we could have imagined. The staff were lovely, we have terrible Spanish so we muddled through with their help. Everything was cooked in a way that brought out it's natural flavours wonderfully. The iberico pork "pluma" was so perfect - crispy on the outside but so incredibly tender on the inside, beautifully flavoured with wonderful accompaniments. My partner had the sea bass starter and the cod main, and was in awe of how delicious it all was. We struggled to understand the dessert options so the chef kindly suggested we had one of the two specials each - and they were both amazing. We had the most wonderful evening in a quiet and authentic restaurant and were sad that we couldn't go back for more as we flew out of Lanzarote the following morning.

Simply espectacular. Humble yet sophisticated, Aguaviva combines canarian and northern Spain cuisine in a fenomenal way. The service is personal and attentive, and the fish dishes are original but no fluff. We didn’t try the meat. The desert selection was impressive. I doubt there is a better restaurant in the island.

Our a la carte dishes were so tasteful that we will be back to experience other choices.

Fine dining at its best in a place I would not expect it. It was a lucky chance really, but certainly worth the money!

Great food, with a very good service!! Recommended