Restaurante El Poblet — Restaurant in Valencia

While we had very much looked forward to our dinner at El Poblet beforehand, issues and annoyances kept building up during the course of our meal, causing us to leave with a bad taste in our mouth at the end of the night (unfortunately not only figuratively)!

It started out so well though, thanks to the friendly waiters and amuse-bouches that immediately kept us wanting for more.

Our seating was not ideal (close to the stairwell causing cold drafts) and my chair's arm was loose and splintered which caused a safety issue, but we were still able to laugh it off at that point. It's 2 star, right? Must be good!

We ordered the Ciuatat Vella 11-course menu with wine pairing.

The first disconnect happened when the sommelier didn't introduce himself or even greet us, he just appeared at our table and rambled off his spiel about the first wine. Okay.

Speaking about the wine pairing: we had a sherry to start which was almost flavourless, while the next two wine pairings were very sweet, much better served with dessert rather than with starters! I also remember an orange wine we did not like very much and one fermented wine tasting like kombucha, it was so sour it brought tears to my eyes, not good at all!

It felt like the sommelier was trying to show off the rare and weird stuff he had been able to source, rather than provide guests with an enjoyable experience.

The only wines I could somewhat appreciate were a Chablis, a red wine with the duck main course, and the liqueurs paired with dessert.

Getting to the main course of this review: the food, the most important part of the Michelin experience. It was... disappointing, to say the least.

When thinking about the meal we had, the saying 'dress to impress' comes to mind, which is NOT something the chef should have focused on with his dishes in this case.

Elaborate presentation, but little variety in ingredients and flavour profiles. Too much citrus, eel in several dishes, duck as several dishes, ... very basic.

On the other hand, the most noteworthy (because unexpected) of all dishes was the red prawn, which was an extra course one could choose to pay an additional fee for and which turned out to be... just a 'sea water boiled' prawn. No seasoning. No condiments. No presentation. Just a prawn you have to pick out of a box yourself, put on your plate and clean with your hands. Interesting choice. We could barely contain our laughter, as if we had never had prawn before and these were not abundant at the market we had just visited that day, for a much lower price of course. Quite an upcharge for a simple seafood boil.

Honorable mention for the slow-cooked duck, which I almost broke a tooth on because it contained an actual bullet. Rather than apologise, the waiter claimed this was impossible to prevent, due to the fact it was a wild duck that was shot, rather than a farmed duck. A warning would have been well in place!

The other dishes are not even worth mentioning, because most of them were just bland, not special at all, like the boiled peanuts or the Korean rice paper (how is this dish 'taste of Valencia' when in your explanation at the table you call it Korean ??)

The worst dish of all though, was the arroz, a 'typical' (?!) Valencian black rice dish. It had a musky funk with fishy aftertaste, so unpleasant. We are not picky eaters and willing to try anything, but we both had to send this dish back to the kitchen after two bites.

Desserts were good. Hard to do wrong with chocolate and ice cream after all...

We are experienced diners at a large variety of restaurants, from hole-in-the-wall establishments and street food stalls, to several-star Michelin restaurants. Not only were we expecting a lot more from what is supposed to be a 2-star Michelin dining experience, we actually had a lot better for a lot less at other restaurants in this beautiful city.

The bill at the end makes the price-quality of this restaurant worth zero stars in any...

el poblet

If it does not obtain the title as the Michelin restaurant and cleaned their plates properly, I would probably give it a higher rating. Frankly speaking, I have a higher expectation since it is the one of the most highly rated restaurants in valencia and the photos on its website are impeccable. However, the real dining experience on food was nearly a disaster.

I order the 80+ Euro menu. Service: good, but not perfect, the waiter got the wrong spoon Food: 2/10 (for the Instagram-friendly plating )

First, the food is extremely salty I believe for most of the Americans and Asians, but I do not blame it since 98% restaurants in valencia are salty as hell. Even though I told them that I need minimum salt for all my meal, salty is all you can taste since it overwhelmed all the other flavors. And I believe as a fine dining that tries to sell its creativity, it should use less salt to make a perfect balance.

Besides, the dish “present from the sea” carried a sarcastic humor since there was only one “fine” small-mediem size shrimp covered by a red plastic in a huge plate. I mean, for real? And this little shrimp was not tasty enough to be an independent dish.

Most importantly, I believe sanitation is the basic prerequisite for a Michelin starred restaurant. However, the plate they used for the desert was not properly cleaned. You can see the sugar and the dirt on the four corners, which was gross and make the already-disappointed-experience worse.

Some kindly suggestions since I spent 8 mins writing this: wash/clean your plates throughly tried to adjust the seasoning balance of the dishes pay attention to customers’ extra...

Found this restaurant through the michelin guide, it is supposed to have 2 stars, but after having visited multiple 1-3 michelin stars over the last 10 years this place doesnt seem to keep up with the standards of 2 michelin stars.

First of all, the menu is not clear at all, they dont describe the dishes at all, the menu says "reed and mud" thats it. Then the waiter will explain it but quality differs here too. Some of them are poorly trained students while others are able to explain the menu well. They also have different menus, 8 and 10 courses but again, this is not clearly visible. There is also a vegetarian menu but you have to reserve this 24 hours before (again no notice was given during the reservation). Cocktails were nice, good Vermut selection. However, from the 8 courses about 3 were with Eel, which is too much. Other peoples reviews do agree with this. There are also other plates from the 8 courses that are just ok ( like the cured meats), far away from a 2 star michelin quality.

I would not recommemd this place if youre looking for michelin fine dining experience, but if you must go there go with a smaller menu and dont go with the 10 courses, its a waste of money. Also they have no dress code, a lot of people are there with shorts and small children were running around. The interior design of the restaurant is also more than questionable, it just doesnt live up to the standard of a fine dining restaurant.

In the end we paid over 600 € for 2 persons and that left...