Areia Restaurante Marbella | Areia Restaurant in Marbella — Restaurant in Marbella

pros: attentive staff, service is very fast, well thought decor

cons: unfortunately the whole food experience was rather mediocre. what i thought looking at the pictures before going, was that the concept of Areia was to prioritize high quality seasonal mediterranean products, cooked in a manner that lets their flavors shine even brighter. what it turned out to be is mainly one of these chefs’ fusion phantasies, that don’t have a clue of how to mix flavors for them to complement each other, rather than disturb. we started with: -soft shell crab in gazpacho, which was just not a good idea to put together in one plate the way they were prepared zucchini florets filled with cheese, which turned out to be a very strong cured cheese, adding to it a thick tempura and a rather heavy textured purée, you just want to eat a lemon after (kidding), to dissolve that fried thick intense bomb a bit rice with vegetables albufera style, was probably the best of all we got, al dente and with nice barely cooked veg. nothing crazy, but just a pleasant home cooked dish -lamb in cartouche, very tender, yet again, served with a very sweet sauce on top with sweet potato purée underneath. sweet on top of sweeter. who wants a dessert after that? well, we tried wild strawberries dessert, where wild ones turned out to be the regular ones chopped. should i even mention, that it’s just 2 completely different berries? when commenting to the waiter, he said, of course they’re not wild, as those are out of season, but these are ecological. ecological, Carl! then correct your menu or comment to your customer when they’re ordering Alaska cake (some sort of berry sorbet covered in raw meringue). well, apart from it being a very-very sweet meringue, the sugar in the meringue was not dissolved! restaurant of this level with desserts around 12-18eu, not to be able to prepare a basic meringue?! my husband usually tries to finish food he’s served, but even he couldn’t do that one.

Overall, mainly because of service, a pleasant evening, but certainly not a place to look for a...

Really nice looking restaurant but not worth it and not value for money. Maybe if you like the white truffle then it might be worth it.

We got 2 oysters but one was bad and we told them but they didn’t make it up for us.

This place was empty on a Thursday at 20-22 and now I understand why.

I heard they got a Michelin star and we don’t understand why.

It’s over priced even if the interior is cool but it’s not good enough.

The waiter took my starter with the vieira con salsa cítricos before I had all the juice and then came back with it as the others didn’t finish either.

Music was pleasant and calm.

Interior colors are nice.

The risotto was very strange and salty and even with the old parmasan cheese I asked for on it, it still was odd tasting and nobody at the table liked it eaither. We told them kindly but they just said sorry and came back and told me it was me that had a problem with the taste and not their dish. This I found very offensive as I have had 3 risottos the last 5 days at the best restaurants in marbella and puerto banus. I sound like a prude but I really am disappointed by that they didn’t deduct it from my bill or even offered a better oyster or something else.

Even if this is the best they can do it makes me not thinking if it’s worth to bring more clients or friends here. It feels like they don’t understand their visitors but instead think their ways is the only way.

I wished it was as good as other Michelin starred places but we only got 4 starters and we are 3 people.

I also wonder why a nice place like this has plastic plants with these high prices it seems like the concept fails a bit.

I hope this will inspire the place to become better as I’m sure they really...

Lovely looking restaurant, with fairytale decor, (but view of parked cars only) and attentive staff, but was not impressed with the food. It’s fine to be creative but dishes were not well balanced and they obviously had a bulk order of foie gras and it seemed to be part of half the dishes, so menu lacked in enough variety. The foie gras starter we had was very badly balanced and the texture and taste of the cooked foie gras in a very vinegary broth was frankly horrible. The carpaccio of prawn was merely nice but was really just a large plate of mush not well off-set with too little other textures/ flavours. We had the sharing beef shank for main course. It was huge and served with a smear of mashed potato and jus. While the beef was good, it was extremely, unremittingly rich and needed something fresh to balance the flavour and cut through the richness. By this stage we’d had enough and did not try the desserts. Wine was good, as was bread / butter. Overall this was the worst meal we’ve had in Marbella this week, and we’ve eaten at Skina (which was twice the price and worth it) and little bars just off the beach; and all were better. Areia is very much a triumph of style over substance. Would...