Blanqueries — Restaurant in Valencia

TLDR: Avoid like the plague if you don’t eat meat, they’ll serve you frozen convenience food. There’s plenty of other places in this city that will serve delicious meat-free food.

Until now, I have never felt the need to review a restaurant, even if it was disappointing. As a vegan, I’m used to my food being treated as an afterthought, and I’m content with vegetables, potatoes and salads. This experience, however, was outright insulting.

I visited Blanqueries as a part of a group of ca 25 people, including ~5 vegetarians and me, a vegan. It started out alright – as an amouse-bouche, I got a nice gazpacho, just without the feta that the others had. The first starter was alright as well - a savoury vegetarian ceviche, albeit quite heavy on the soy sauce. After that, it went downhill pretty abruptly. The next starter was something they introduced as “falafel”, which turned out to be ready-made soy protein “chicken” type nuggets that you can find in the freezer aisle of the supermarket, which I guess is where they picked them up. They served them with a sweet chili sauce, probably from the next aisle over. There was nothing wrong with the nuggets as such, but it seemed a bit surreal, given the Michelin guide sign on the door. When the next starter came, the realisation sunk in that yes, we were really being served warmed-up convenience food. This time, some limpid vegan shawarma slices sat inside a little bread bun, untouched by any attempt of lubrication with a sauce. Couldn’t they also have picked up some vegan mayo on their trip to the supermarket? Obviously, they didn’t think that far. On the bright side, I was pleasantly surprised when the main course did not contain any more frozen soy products. Instead, it was a classic “guess we’ll serve them some vegetables” situation including some perfectly acceptable, albeit uninspired stir-fried broccoli/green beans/carrots, a spoonful of rice and a frankly quite disgusting attempt at a sesame sauce. As a dessert I expected fruit and that’s what I got. However, unlike literally every other place I had eaten in Valencia so far, it wasn’t the kind of tasty, interesting fruit platter featuring melons or pineapple. It was literally a sliced kiwi, a sliced apple and a few sad, watery blueberries draped on top.

All in all, the whole €30 meal resembled something I might cough up in 20 minutes after a particularly rough day at work, not a meal at a restaurant that claims to offer “a perfect match between the authentic market cuisine, the haute cuisine and avant-garde decoration that will make your evening unforgettable”. It seemed like either they had forgotten that vegetarians were coming and just ran to the supermarket upon our arrival, or they’re just utterly shameless, or possibly both.

When I approached the front of the house to tell them to relay to the kitchen that the vegetarian food was a bad joke and that serving frozen convenience food really was below the level of such an upmarket place, the only response I got was “we do not specialise in vegan cuisine”. Didn’t get a single word of apology or acknowledgement that serving ready-made soy nuggets at a restaurant is in fact not...

We had a great experience at Restaurant Blanqueries. First of all the tables are wide and chairs are very confortable. Also staff very nice and welcoming and they guide you wisely about what to order, even if it’s against their own interest. The priority is to have a great meal , avoiding wasting food. Now, they have a “Menu Degustación” for 35€ that includes 3 starters , 2 main dishes and 2 desserts. Crazy. However we went at night and they have the Night Menu option for 27€ that included the 3 starters , one main and one dessert. They suggested us to go with this one as otherwise it would be a lot of food and we would still try every dish. They were completely right. The 3 starters were a very light salmorejo with smoke sardines and Spanish “encurtidos”. Loved the sardines and the onion combo, however I would swap the other encurtidos for asparagus. A very bechamely salmon croquette on wakame seaweed. And a pork rib taco with yogur sauce. These two were correct. On the mains, a caneloni stuffed with beef with wild mushrooms sauce. And fried cabracho fish, also accompanied with some sauce. Both good overall , but I preferred the caneloni with the mushrooms. Dessert was arguably the best, they had a very creamy banofee and for me the MVP of the night , their home made yogurt with dried fruits. We also ordered wine. Grifo a white volcanic wine from the Canary Islands.

Although there’s still some room for improvement in the kitchen. They didn’t take a lot of risks with the menu , and some of the dishes were a bit simple. I’ll give them 5 stars , as everything was very good food-wise, we had a very comfortable experience and the value for money proposition is probably one of the best in Valencia.

We will be back to see if they can keep our 5-star rating. We will demand more creativity and flavor in...

Absolute banger of a restaurant, would definetly recommend.

Started with the best croquetas we’ve had in a long time. Excellent ragout, great texture and with the subtle taste of dried ham. Next was the smoked sardine salad which had a very nice balance between smokiness, saltiness and sourness. The salmon taco’s and pulled pork were high on taste made you forgot you’re eating in a restaurant with a bib gourmand (which is a positive thing). The cod with curry (laksa?) was very tasty and the cuisson was perfect. Rice with iberico and bolete was great aswell and a very big portion. Desserts 10/10, especially the carrotcake stood out.

We had a very nice and affordable Cuesta de los Olives (godello) to accompany the dishes. The staff was very friendly and experienced, made us feel comfortable from the start till the end.

Best restaurant we visited in Valencia, will come back later! Bib Gourmand...