There are amazingly good seafood restaurants in Asturias, like La Huertona and Gueyu Mar, and an excellent gastronomic restaurant, Casa Marcial. But it is also dotted with numerous restaurants with regional characters where one can eat very well and find excellent ingredients and hearty dishes. The well-known Asturian fabada is a heartwarming dish in a cold month but one should limit oneself to it. Try to take advantage of the rich heritage of Asturias by composing diverse menus.
This is what we did in Avilés when the four of us sat for a leisurely lunch at El Pandora. Our desire was to order a classic of the house, “arroz con carabineros XXL” for two. This dish is listed on their website and in the morning when we wrote to the restaurant to confirm our lunch reservation we asked them if we have to pre-order any dish. They said no. But when we arrived, we learned that the arroz dishes must be ordered 48 hours in advance!
We were quite disappointed, but the owner-manager Mr. Alberto Villa Pérez turned out to be a pleasant, generous person capable of empathy. When we understood their genuine goodwill, we became relaxed and concocted a menu. We chose both à la carte dishes and two dishes from their degustation menu which looked appetizing.
We were expecting a solid meal, a good example of regional Asturian cooking with local ingredients. We were not disappointed with this expectation, but we got much more than what we had bargained for. That is, we found here a cuisine full of gusto, more concerned with pleasure and deliciousness than with delicacy and cerebral appeal. The young chef Mr. Alejandro Villa Pérez, who is the son of the owner, shows confidence in his cooking, and even the more stylish and elegant dishes display a generosity rather than minimalist restraint.
The amuses were generous and more than satisfactory: excellent plump green olives; croquetas of jamon; buttery brioche with a generous shaving of black truffles from Spain which came from Teruel.
The bread service was especially strong with dark loaves, corn bread and focaccia bread studded with nuts and parmesan. When we commented about the excellent bread service, we were told that the breads came from an artisanal bakery, Miguel Puchal near Nueva de Llanes. The bakery also supplies renowned restaurants, including Casa Marcial, where we enjoyed the same remarkable breads.
A special mention goes to the early harvest Royal oil from Jaén. Vedat was already familiar with this olive oil, but it was our first time tasting it. We were immediately impressed by the delicate fruit and long peppery finish with little bitterness. As a thoughtful gesture, the restaurant offered us a bottle at the end of the meal.
Menu
We ordered the following dishes.
Jamon bellota 100% Iberico 5 jotas con pan de cristal y tomate
This was excellent quality jamon. They served the tomato puree not on the toasted bread but next to it in a bowl.
Tosta de frutos secos con anchoa 000, guacamole y parmesano
This dish is presented on the ornate tray. It has a crisp cracker-like base with green avocado cream, topped with anchovies and parmesan. The visual contrast is smart: the anchovy gives length and salinity, the green avocado softens and freshens, and the parmesan adds umami and dairy depth. Conceptually it is a risky dish because anchovy and parmesan already carry so much salt and savoriness, but guacomole worked well here as the balancing element. This is an addictive and easily enjoyable entrée, a house classic.
Nuestro falso risotto con Trufa Negra
They used orzo instead of risotto and presented it in an artistic black bowl cut from stone. The dish was rich and creamy and was enriched with saffron. The texture was silky and the earthy black truffles and bitter and aromatic saffron spice balanced the creaminess. This was a luxurious and very successful course.
Fritos de pixin negro con trufa Negra
Probably because they made use of black truffles in two dishes before, they substituted them with oscietra caviar and mayonnaise. The Spanish oscietra was fresh. We liked the homemade mayonnaise. The meru or merou fish was handled beautifully with crisp skin and a moist firm and meaty interior. The difference in taste between a piece of fish coming from a whole specimen as opposed to a pre-cut fillet preserved in a vacuum (unfortunately many multi-starred Michelin restaurants resort to this shortcut) is noteworthy. Needless to say, the salinity and sweetness of the caviar marry well with seafood.
Carabinero de Cadiz y ajo blanco de anacardo
Ajo Blanco, a creamy velouté with nuts and garlic, is well liked by modern chefs for a good reason. It is tasty by itself, but it also offers opportunities to marry it with fish and meat. The carabineros here were lightly cooked, with the flesh still translucent but a touch cottony, making us think that they were kept on ice too long. The cashew cream with garlic was an intelligent choice: less aggressively sweet than many shellfish bisques, softer than almond, and capable of giving body without overwhelming the carabineros. The green oil and leaves added freshness. This dish looked elegant, modern, and well-conceived. It would have been perfect with fresher and firmer carabineros.
Guisante lagrima Utrillo con pancetta de 5 jotas y huevo
The so-called tear drop peas were amazing and local. They tasted so fresh, crunchy and sweet that they were probably collected from the garden in the morning. The dish had amazing taste, but it was also visually striking. The baby peas, which never grow large as standard species do, were wrapped in translucent bacon or lardon. The wrapping appeared to be used both as a seasoning and as a membrane to enhance the green brightness of the tear drop peas. When we touched our fork, the bright yellow egg yolk that was well hidden came to the surface. The soft, cooked egg brought the two elements together. This is a subtle wow dish!
Canelon de centolla gratinado con idiazabal y pesto a la genovesa
The gratinée spider crab (centolla) with the smoked sheep milk idiazabal cheese and basil-pesto sauce sounded heavy, but it was delicious. The pale green blanket was generous and clearly dominant; it seemed to function as a warm emulsified sauce rather than a dry gratin. The cut-open view is revealing: the filling is the spider crab with some sweet shellfish reduction or sofrito behind it, while the upper layer carries the green herbal-dairy note. This was a dish built on abundance. The danger is obvious: centolla, smoked sheep’s milk cheese and pesto can easily crowd one another out. But they did not. This was a deeply comforting and lush dish.
Virrey de Luarca
This fish is called Virrey because it really is the KING fish in this part of the world. A cold water fish, its meat has an amazing amount of collagen during the winter season. In French it is called daurade rose, but I have never eaten one which impressed me in France. The English translation is red bream, but this is a dry fish. To me red bream is a standard fish that requires a good sauce to impart taste. Virrey, on the other hand, is the seafood equivalent of A5 Wagyu. It must be handled simply but with precision to bring out its collagen.
Some chefs like to age it (restaurant Huertona); some grill it fresh (restaurant Gueyu Mar). At El Pandora they don’t have a kitchen to make woodfire grilling possible, so they did the second best: cook it in the oven, then use an inside grill to make the skin crisp. The 300-gram filet was cut from the whole fish which they showed to us beforehand. They served the collar/head of the Virrey separately as this part is hard to eat but rightly praised. The quality of the fish was admirable, and it was cooked well given the means at their disposal. Most importantly, the fish was juicy and the texture was optimum. This gave us a clean and tasty finish to the savory part of the meal.
Desserts
Desserts were excellent not only because of tradition and execution but also because the quality of dairy products here is noteworthy. We shared two desserts:
Tarta de Queso
We liked this dish very much as they used light and creamy cheese with a tart edge. It was very different than what one finds in the States as the texture here was cloud-like with an almost airy rather than dense interior. The style was Basque, that it is not hard, but instead is softly caramelized.
Flan Pandora
Our notes used superlatives, such as “very rich cream with dairy depth”. This is a seductive and lush house specialty that should not be missed. Honestly, we would rather have this than the more creative desserts we found in three-star Spanish restaurants.
Because we left the restaurant fully satisfied and eager to return, we made another reservation for our last night to try the Arroz for two. However instead of carabineros we asked if they could find langosta alive. They did. So, in this second meal we ordered again Tosta de frutos seco and Guisante lagrima, but we were especially there for the following dish:
Arroz con 2.3 kg Langosta – Day 2
The spiny lobster was alive when cooked, and it weighed 2.3 kilograms. They used acquerello rice, and they burned the edges like they do in a paella in Valencia. This was truly a luxury and very generous rice dish that the four of us could hardly finish. The consistency of the rice dish was noteworthy, and it was deeply flavored by lobster juice and shellfish stock. What struck us the most was the concentrated crustacean depth of each grain as the acquerello rice absorbs the stock very well. The arroz balanced perfectly marine sweetness with salinity in a package which was intense and succulent.
Dessert
Arroz Con Leche
This was an outstanding “riz au lait”. It was on par with the Asturian version of riz au lait or rice pudding prepared in Casa Gerardo, which is another excellent restaurant in Asturias.
The Wines
Do Ferreiro Albariño ‘Cepas Vellas’ 2024
From Rias Baixas, Gerardo Méndez produces this remarkable Albariño from a tiny parcel vines that are more than 200 years old. While it has the structure to evolve beautifully over the next 10 or 20 years, it already offers a pure expression of its terroir.
A slight touch of reduction on the nose, the wine shows a salinity and a long finish with notes of peach, lime, citrus and white pepper. It was a wonderful way to start the meal.
Domaine Lorient Saint Peray 2020
Domaine de Lorient is a farm in Saint-Péray, in the Ardèche region, born from a personal project by Laure Colombo and Dimitri Roulleau-Gallais. Certified bio, every task in the vineyard is done manually, with the first Roussane vines planted in 2014.
We came across this bottle at the wine shop Goñi Ardoteka, one of Vedat’s favourite wine shop in San Sebastien. It is a place that he enjoys visiting, thanks to its carefully curated selection of French and Spanish wines.
In this cuvée, Roussanne is the dominant blend, bringing freshness and aromatic lift. Marsanne adds a texture. The nose opens with citrus, white flowers and fresh orchard fruits. The wine feels fresh on the palate, the finish is clean and leaving you wanting another sip. It is a very enjoyable wine.
Bodegas Casal de Arman – Arman Doce
This is the estate’s first sweet wine, produced in a very limited quantities from Moscatel de Grano Menudo. The grapes are frozen before pressing, a process that helps preserve freshness and purity.
The result is naturally sweet wine with apricot and jasmin aromes. The palate is beautifully balanced. We paired it with the dessert and it was the perfect way to end the meal.
The following wines are from our second meal.
Champagne Amaury Beaufort Les Jardins de la Porte de Troyes
Champagnes de vignerons have become increasingly popular in recent years. We first heard about Amaury Beaufourt through a friend who bought it at Cave Petillance in Paris, a wine bar well known for its Champagne selection. This was out first time tasting this champagne and unfortunately, it didn’t match our expectations. It was pleasant and easy to drink, but it lacked the depth and complexity we were hoping for. A perfectly enjoyable Champagne, just not one that left a lasting impression.
2014 Remirez de Granuza Olagar
The grapes for this wine come from Olagar, a single vineyard in Rioja, planted entirely in 1978 with Viura, also known as Macabeo. The wine spends around ten months in new French oak. The oak is integrated and never overshadows the fruit.
What fascinated us most was the contrast between the nose and the palate. The nose immediately brings the Rhone Valley to mind, rich, generous and full of character. The palate tells a completely different story. Refined and elegant, it reminded us of a fine Mersault.
Our only regret was not having Burgundy glasses, which would have allowed the wine to express itself even more. The finish is long, complex. As for the nose, it offers floral notes, pear, crisp apple and a touch of tropical fruits. This beautiful wine is a reminder that Rioja is about far more than Tempranillo.
