APONIENTE — Restaurant in El Puerto de Santa María

I’ll start with the positives. The architecture, design, space and atmosphere were truly amazing. The staff was incredibly attentive, specifically the sommelier, who selected an amazing wine for us. Operationally, it was a perfectly choreographed performance.

That said, the food was disgusting, smelly, slimy and unnecessarily experimental. We left hungry and horribly disappointed and spent $900. It was not the money, we have no problem overpaying for a superior experience. At the very beginning of the meal we were asked if we have any allergies or food preferences. My wife shared that she will not eat raw fish, they assured us there was only one course with raw prawns and they would make a substitution. Throughout the meal there were several courses with raw, or near raw seafood. Every time we asked the server, we were met with laughter and a non answer. If we did not eat a course, the staff rolled their eyes and laughed.

The finale was desert which was a joke. Ice cream with macerated fish skin and then slices of tuna belly after we told them repeatedly we were finished and did not want any more fish.

We have been to countless Michelin restaurants all over the world. We LOVE seafood and are basically pescatarians, but we were even grossed out by most of the dishes. This was an artistic expression gone wrong, with arrogance permeated throughout the entire experience. We felt like we were in the Netflix movie The Menu. Thank god we got out alive, but only...

We left this restaurant feeling insulted and patronized. It's a "fish restaurant" that serves no actual fish—only fish by-products and questionable marine ingredients, some of which were barely edible.

While I respect the philosophy of sustainability, the meal was all style and no substance. The setting is beautiful and worthy of a three-star restaurant, but the food was a far cry from that. I can definitely enjoy unfamiliar ingredients, but here, I struggled to swallow some of what was served.

The evening started well with a crisp local white wine and some tasty amuse-bouches, though one—a leaf served frozen—was more perplexing than pleasant. From there, the courses grew increasingly baffling. Fish skin (just skin), chewy baby squid served with cartilage, and tuna tendon!! We were lectured that the big tuna fish has only two tendons, so it’s very scarce. Well, maybe rare but it was pretty vile, like biting into plastic. I wondered what they do with the rest of the Tuna? Throughout the meal, we waited for an actual fish course! It never arrived.

Finally, it was ceremoniously announced: the meal was "terminated" and it was time for dessert. I was ready to walk out and ask for my money back, but my wife calmed me down. The desserts were equally disastrous and cannot be called dessert by any standard. .

This was an all-around disastrous experience. The chef and owner should have to endure the same meal...

I can't but agree with the best reviews posted here. So I want to highlight an aspect not mentioned previously. Aponiente is not a restaurant. Aponiente is the tip of an iceberg that will literally contribute to improving the culinary experiences of space travellers. Let me show it to you. Chef Angel León is a driving force much like the force generated long ago by the magnificent 18th-century tidal mill where Aponiente is located. He followed Ferran Adrià's motto of synergizing cuisine and science, but he has put it on another level since he not only investigates new techniques of elaboration/preparation but also in new methods to efficiently extract, honour and serve any marine product. He is especially focused on sustainability. Inevitably, that has turned his attention to the first element of the trophic chain: plankton. He has managed to create an explosion of sea flavour with a sustainable product that also turns out to be a great source of energy. That is the perfect candidate for interplanetary travel, as it could easily produce food and energy based on it. In other words, Chef León is already saving future interplanetary travellers from boring food by creating such beauty and explosion of flavour like plankton butter, which amazed me. Curiously, the words for 'Planet' and 'Plankton' are related as both arose from the Ancient Greek Word for 'Errant'. Thanks for an...