Spain’s Best Beach Destinations for Michelin-Star Dining

The country of Spain can lay claim to more than 300 Michelin-starred restaurants. Of those, more than a dozen tout the coveted three Michelin stars—the highest honor of them all, recognizing excellence in cuisine and overall dining experience. These are the restaurants that are worth traveling for, the restaurants that you talk about for the rest of your life.

However, if you’re a traveler whose foodie inclinations war with your love for days lounging on the beach, you may be torn. Do you travel specifically to where you’ll find highly acclaimed Michelin-recognized restaurants, even if it means vacationing inland? Or do you prioritize your beach days?

Luckily, if you’re headed to Spain in the near future, you don’t have to make this tough decision. There are quite a few Michelin-recognized restaurants in Spain that are located in beach destinations. So, you can head out to the beach in the morning and enjoy the sun and sand, leave enough time in the afternoon to get cleaned up, and then head out to enjoy a spectacular meal in the evening.

As you plan your itinerary, these are the restaurants you’ll want to consider adding to the list (get your reservations stat)!

In the north of Spain, in San Sebastian, Akelaŕe overlooks the Bay of Biscay. The restaurant has been around since 1970 and after more than two decades with two Michelin stars, it was awarded its third in 2007. 

Here, Chef Pedro Subijan just recently celebrated 50 years at the restaurant, where he highlights New Basque Cuisine, as one of the culinary movement’s original founders. (And if you’re not familiar with the movement, it essentially blends contemporary culinary practices with Basque rustic dishes and ingredients, with a focus on local products and seasonality.)

Expect menu items like consommé gelee with curry lumagorri chicken, duck microfoie, line-caught white tuna served with spiced dressing and its roe, or white duck breast with citrus fruits and mini vegetables. Reviewers consistently note the dishes’ creativity, the ambiance, and the staff as all top-notch.

Notably, though, if you dine at Akelaŕe and love the experience, you don’t actually have to leave. The property boasts a luxury hotel of the same name (also Michelin-recognized)—and, yes, the rooms have views of the water, just like the restaurant.

Address: Padre Orkolaga Ibilbidea, 56, 20008 Donostia / San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain

On the opposite side of the country, near Cadiz, Aponiente is known for a few things: its dedication to creative seafood dishes, sustainability, and unique location inside of a more-than-200-years-old tide mill.

The restaurant’s reclaiming of the long-abandoned tide mill helped bring revitalization to the area and now the property also houses a marine garden and its own salt mine.

As for that creative, sustainable approach to its menu, Chef Ángel León isn’t just utilizing the same ingredients that any other chef might. He’s inventing entirely new creations. He developed sausages made from fish protein, marine-origin honey, noodles made from hake collagen, and plankton tarte tatin—among other innovations.

The dining experience at Aponiente lasts several hours and changes on a regular basis. Tasting menus are divided into three “chapters”—Salty Snacks, Salty Sea, and Sweet Sea. Local wine pairings are available and reviewers report that each item served is surprising and inventive—often an experience of eating items from the sea that you’ve never eaten or never even knew you could eat. The quiet restaurant is also a little more relaxed and casual than many 3-star Michelin restaurants.

Address: C. Francisco Cossi Ochoa, s/n, 11500 El Puerto de Sta María, Cádiz, Spain

In Alicante, Restaurant Quique Dacosta is literally about a block’s walk from the Playa Calamar beach. Known for its avant-garde, innovative, and artistic Mediterranean-inspired cuisine, the restaurant changes up its menu on a yearly basis. Past menu items have included options like a bernaise of crustaceans and sea urchins, salt-cured red tuna belly, suckling beef shortbread, and iced horchata of green pine cone.

Only 30 diners can be accommodated at one time, and the tasting menus include a variety of small bites, tapas, thematic menus, and desserts, with some of the smaller bites served in the restaurant’s garden, for an overall outing that lasts up to three hours. Throughout every single course, reviewers report a welcome consistency—there are no outliers that can be dubbed the least-liked dish of the night.

Address: Carrer Rascassa, 1, 03700 Dénia, Alicante, Spain

You’ll have to travel to Spain’s Canary Islands to dine at this 2-star Michelin restaurant, but the journey to El Rincón de Juan Carlos should be well worth it. 

With sea views for days thanks to the restaurant’s location on the fifth floor of the Royal Hideaway Corales Beach hotel, the family-run restaurant highlights traditional Canary Island cuisine, making good use of the family’s fishing heritage. Diners report that the family vibes can be felt in the restaurant’s welcoming, comfortable atmosphere, and confirm that the restaurant offers the single, hands-down, best dining experience in Tenerife.

A tasting menu offers items such as cuttlefish empanadas; pigeon with beetroot; and tomato, cucumber and mustard ice cream.

Address: Royal Hideaway Corales Beach, Av. de la Virgen de Guadalupe, 21, 5ª Planta, 38679 Adeje, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

In Raxo, Pepe Vieira overlooks the Rias Baixas from a contemporary, boxy white-washed building with a terrace and expansive garden (there’s also a hotel on the property). The tasting menus combine avant-garde gastronomy with Galician tradition, resulting in dishes like smoked horse mackerel in garlic sauce, stuffed sun-dried tomatoes, fried tempura lobster tail, and langoustine cooked in sea water. Seafood, especially locally sourced, is the name of the game here, and the plating is just as beautiful as the placid setting.

Address: Camiño Serpe, s/n, 36992 Raxó, Pontevedra, Spain

Right across from the beach in Llanca, with views overlooking the water, including the marina, Restaurant Miramar was another family undertaking, with a husband-wife team turning the inn and restaurant into what it is today. Regional cuisine makes excellent use of the sea’s bounty at the main restaurant, while an adjacent artisan bakery sells breads and pastries.

Both tasting and a la carte menus are available. The SEA tasting menu offers an overabundance of seafood, from caviar to grilled cockles, nigiri koji to crab. Meanwhile, the Memory, Territory and Culture tasting menu blends regional seafood with ingredients sourced from the land. The a la carte menu provides a nice amount of variety often not seen at Michelin-starred restaurants, with options like creamy rice with sea urchins, truffles, spinach and white shrimp; wagyu tenderloin with mushroom tartar; and pig’s trotters with sea cucumbers, mushrooms, and fresh herbs.

Address: Passeig Marítim, 7, 17490 Llançà, Girona, Spain

In Galicia, O Grove stands as a beautiful fishing village rightfully known for its great beaches and seafood. At Culler de Pau, you’ll find not just views of the village and sea, but also a sustainable, seasonal approach that intends to bring you high-end dishes sourced from as close by as humanly possible—in some cases from the garden right outside the restaurant’s door.

You have several tasting menu options, but the most elaborate is the Descuberta menu, which includes four appetizers, between 13 and 15 main dishes, a pre-dessert, and two desserts (but reviewers agree that the smaller tasting menu with five appetizers, four main courses, and two desserts is still plenty enough to sate your appetite).

Address: lugar Reboredo, 73, 36980 O Grove, Pontevedra, Spain

Right on Sandinero Beach, El Serbal in Santander earned its Michelin star in 2003. It serves both tasting menus and a la carte options, with a focus on daily-sourced seafood and regional ingredients. One of the tasting menus is a menu designed in collaboration with Moët & Chandon and is exclusively served with your choice of either Moët & Chandon or Dom Perignon Champagne.

The a la carte menu serves up items such as pig’s trotter stew with smoked jus and pickles, scallops with chili crab sauce and a parsley emulsion, charcoal-grilled Iberian pork shoulder, Tudanca beef loin, artisan Cantabria cheeses and, of course, those daily seafood options.

Address: Av. Manuel García Lago, 1E, 39005 Santander, Cantabria, Spain

Back in the Canary Islands, Donaire delights with its unique approach to haute cuisine, applying the high level of technique required in patisserie to the non-patisserie culinary world, taking full advantage of head chef Jesús Camacho’s past experience in the sweet art form. Both tasting menus and a la carte menus are available, ready to enjoy from the stylish dining room that overlooks the ocean (the restaurant sits within the Hotel GF Victoria).

Expect menu items like salty petit fours, smoked sardine with sweet potato, airy bread with yeast ice cream and caviar, choux with tuna, pork belly, and a dessert that mixes chocolate and Iberian ham amusingly referred to as “chocopig.”

Address: C. Fernando Lopez Arvelo, 1, 38660 Costa Adeje, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

Even with its Michelin star, Beza & Rufete is decidedly unstuffy, serving modern Mediterranean cuisine that highlights Alicante ingredients, with some ingredients receiving particular attention: seaweed, seawater, olive oils, and fresh herbs. Past menu items have included olive with anchovy nougat, olleta (a Spanish bean, rice, and lentil stew), shrimp in brine and caviar, tuna ice cream, and iced foie and eel biscuits.

There are only a handful of tables, so the experience is intimate, and don’t be surprised if the chef himself serves you. 

Address: Av. de Ansaldo, 31, 03540 Alicante, Spain