Palacio Ico — Restaurant in Teguise

Amazing food, but I'm not sure I would come back.

In short: great food 4/5, unbalanced wine pairing 3/5, service could have been more attentive 3/5. Aperitif, seven course menu with wine: 287 € (143.5 € pp).

I have spent the last evening in Lanzarote at the Palacio Ico restaurant with my partner. The welcoming was a bit off, slow with little explanation and we have been asked twice to about the aperitif, that we have ordered eventually. We both ordered the fix menu (there is no a la carte option) with seven courses and wine pairing.

Overall the food is greatly presented, served on beautiful ceramic plates produced locally in Lanzarote specifically for the hotel.

My favourites: The Tinajo´s Tomate Soup with smoked goat cheese ice cream. It is an amazing pre-main dish. Perfectly balanced, with different consistencies and temperatures. Playful and delicious.

The Black Pig Cheek with Glazed black potato and Demiglace with thyme. It is an explosion of flavours in your mouth and the perfectly cooked meat that just makes you crave more and more.

My least favourites: Lanzarote octopus with Yolk sweet potato, Mojo Palmero and Mimos Tinajo tomato. The octopus brings your expectations up to the top and here its flavour was not enhanced, almost imperceptible. A bit unbalanced. My partner was also not lucky as her octopus was a bit chewy, very unfortunate. Disappointed.

Cherne with Red mojo, aubergine volcanic sauce and fennel. Perfectly cooked and amazing texture; unfortunately, its taste was not the main player in the dish. Red mojo was quite dominating the fish taste. Unbalanced.

Wine and water I think the wine paring was not balanced with the dinner in terms of quantity.

We were always behind when the new wine was introduced. Was the wine too much? Maybe we should have been informed about the overall wine quantity. Or we could have had a suggestion of one pairing to be shared? Or just a bottle of wine instead (we haven't asked, but I didn't see this option). I ended tipsy and my pattern essentially sick, even if we actually gave up with the last glass of wine.

I understand it is the costumer responsibility to avoid to be sick, but at this level of restaurants you except responsibility also in the offer. Giving also the fast pace of the wine tasting. Maybe with a selection less alcoholic? Was the aperitif - cava sparkling wine - really a good idea to suggest?

Additionally, I have specifically asked not to have the last wine as it is a sweet wine that I don't drink. It has been poured anyways: very awkward.

Also, the first bottle of wine has been served with a tiny rigid black bit inside - most likely a part of cork's cover -. It can happen and I have asked to replace the cup because the cover is metal and I didn't want to have it in my wine: it took quite a while for the wine to be replaced and we had an awkward and uncomfortable inspection just a few meters from our table.

At last, we had to ask a few times to pour more water because our water glasses were most of the time empty: quite annoying and disappointing.

On a positive note: the wine quality is very high and it has been really interesting to taste local white wine from Tenerife and Lanzarote. I am red wine lover and my favourite wine was the red Spanish wine: full bodied, smooth, with a good level of complexity.

As a last note: I had greatly appreciated the prompt support from the owner when my partner needed water after the dinner. Thank...

Beautiful Hotel and a charming, intimate restaurant. A very good meal was overshadowed by a couple glaring faults.

No a La carte menu is offered, only two options for a lower and higher priced tasting menus. Both 7 courses and with multiple items featured on both menus. My wife and I asked to enjoy one of each menu so we could try all the offerings. We were told that wasn’t possible. As an industry professional, I respectfully disagree. It is possible and should be accommodated especially when no other menu options are provided.

However this could be overlooked with the continuation of a good meal, and in fairness it was. With the exception of the bread served. One piece of stale bread, toasted hours before and now cold, with no accompaniments, was placed on each of our side plates. It remained there untouched for the remainder of our meal with the exception of a confirming nibble off one of the pieces. What’s disappointing is the food would be almost five star had this simply not been served.

The amuse was nice. Brioche with cheese and sun-dried tomato had a perfect focus, while the crispy rice under the smoked salmon was a bit stale.

The tomato soup was refreshing especially with the innovative addition of a goat cheese ice cream.

Salmon tartare was a delicious contemporary take on the classic.

Gambia’s de La Santa were the most perfectly cooked prawn I have ever had. Albeit the ginger and lime sauce was just a bit overwhelming.

The octopus had good flavours, however it was glaringly over cooked and therefore unacceptably tough.

Canarian pig cheek was cooked well and showcased the Chefs diversity.

The meal ended on a high note with a incredibly well balanced...

Excellent produce from the Canaries and rather refined cuisine, though the whole experience did not achieve the hoped for intensity. You have only two options, a long tasting menu and a shorter one, currently at 95 and 75 per person. I liked the salmorejo made, of course, with the local Tinajo tomatoes but also with papaya and pitayo (the "dragon fruit"). And in the long menu you get the obligatory gambas from La Santa dish and the carabinero dish, both elegantly prepared. The pescado del dia offering was amberjack, presented beautifully. The last course, which should pack a punch, was a pleasant and sweet but ultimately rather muted cube of black local pig belly. The patisserie section left something to be desired: a banal creamy thing in a bowl (at least a good one in terms of flavour, based on gofio and caramel). In this kind of restaurant and at these prices you expect more. The petit fours featured an underperforming Valrhona chocolate and a poorly executed macaroon. The room is beautiful. Service is relatively formal - they always serve you from the "correct" side, for example, in spite of how awkward that can be given the position of the chair, and they are attentive with drinks. All in all, while I had a perfectly enjoyable dinner, I appreciated the refinement of the dishes and there is absolutely nothing I can seriously complain about, I felt that the wow factor was missing. The much higher price than average in Lanzarote was not justified by any step up compared to the the stunning flavours I can experience in the island for much lower prices, in a much less...