Restaurante Lienzo — Restaurant in Valencia

We only went once. So maybe this was an unhappy accident.

The short version: Overly stylized and forced presentation without a consistent level of quality and many un-tasty and poorly seasoned dishes. Served in a location that gives the feel of a cantina, not a pleasant dinner ambiance.

The long version:

Location : Small place, very bright white walls and ceiling, without any interior design worth mentioning. The spotlights shine In the customers eyes and are unpleasantly bright. There is no space separation, and since it is a small room, almost void of furniture, the sound carries and you can hear every tables conversation, every scraping of the cutlery.

The service : Very friendly staff, they all know their monologues describing the dishes. They speak foreign languages (English, French) reasonably well and are welcoming and open to a short conversation or questions about the dishes. The staff is fine there is no issue here.

The food: We went for the 14 course tasting menu 'lienzo'.

Unfortunately we did not like it, here is why: The dishes were for the most part dainty and well presented. There are some installations, especially from the 5 snacks you get in the beginning that are overly dramatic, like the fake corral tree stumps In which lienzo serves 2 puffed potatoes as an amuse bouche. This pattern continues throughout the whole menu, the looks and presentation far outweigh the quality and culinary ingenuity. There were 3 dishes in particular that were badly prepared and had an unpleasant taste. Most other dishes were underseasoned.

The last meat dish, a preparation of beef or veal (it was a little tough to be veal), with a demi glace (they say, but it seemed to me to be a reduced pan sauce) was bland. Lacking salt and the sauce was too thin and had a slight metallic tang that was overwhelming.

The paper thin sliced dried wild mushroom served with it was unpleasantly chewy - maybe a thicker cut slice would offer more of the experience the staff wanted us to experience, namely: "the animals are raised nearby and ecologically. These mushrooms are part of their diet, so we serve them as a side."

Understanding that a tasting menu is just that, and at a low cost as it is with lienzo's 14 course menu (110 € p. P. ) there is not much room for portion size, I cannot help but think, that maybe the focus should not be on the presentation and over engineering of 'pretty plates' but in the first line on the dishes themselves.

The squid dish in dashi, reinforced with garlic and ginger, topped with a squid ink tuille was nice.

It was not necessarily new or never seen before, but it was one of the few plates that had a working concept. The texture of the tuille contrasting the well prepared soft squid, the dashi was balanced and it was seasoned well.

Alright, we did it.

Some last thoughts:

As this was our first experience we are not definitive in our judgment. Anyone can have a bad day, especially when you need to be as precise as michelin star level quality demands.

This time however you completely missed the target with almost all of the dishes.

Maybe consider what I wrote, focus on the dish first, then plate it.

We whish you bonne chance in your further journey towards...

One of the most adventurous culinary evenings I’ve experienced, Chef Maria is clearly at the top of her game. Of all Michelin one-star restaurants I’ve had the pleasure of dining in, this is the most deserving (from a culinary perspective) of a second star.

The menu is inspired and creative. Compared to its peers, Lienzo features a better balance of produce on the tasting menu, which seems better designed and executed to alight all of one’s senses (including visual and aromatic, not just taste). There is a focus on bees and honey, as well as sustainability, in the design of many courses - for example, pea pod shells are used to create a sauce for one dish, while off-parts of a fish are used to create a sausage complement to the sea bass. Presentations are among the most visually pleasing you’ll find at any restaurant in the world.

The wine pairing was a delight, with the selections almost uniformly from Spain. Some pourings were truly special - among the best wines I’ve ever tasted.

Service was attentive, with all the dishes and pourings explained.

If I were to offer some suggestions to the restaurant - slow down the pacing of courses, especially in the middle of the meal. My guest and I were scarcely finished with one course when the next course (and glass of wine) were appearing. The entry area needs to be improved - it looks like a storage area and doesn’t provide the ‘wow factor’ one would typically find when entering a restaurant of this caliber. It would have been nice to have been given a printed copy of the night’s menu at the end of the meal, and we would have loved to have been provided with an opportunity to purchase some honey jars for takeaway at the end of the meal - perhaps by turning the entry area into a retail honey display decorated with an homage to honey, bees and their role in the food chain! And here’s an odd one - suggest raising the price of the tasting menu.

Thank you Team Lienzo for a wonderful meal. HIGHLY...

Servicio formal, propio de un restaurante de estas características, pero sin excederse y sin hacerte sentir incómodo, algo que siempre es de agradecer y que no en muchos lugares de esta categoría suelen conseguir.

Asimismo, otra cosa que me gustó, es que María José Martínez fuera una más del equipo y en diversas ocasiones fuera ella personalmente la que nos presentaba los platos, algo que obviamente hizo con todas las mesas y que creo que hace que la experiencia sea más única. Ya que la propia creadora del plato sea la que te lo presente y te lo explique, es algo inigualable.

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Después de la empanadilla, llegó el que fue con diferencia el mejor aperitivo de los cuatro, el Turrón de Piñón Nacional. Uno de los mejores bocados que he probado en mi vida y que me fue fascinando cada vez más. No solo por la textura, la cual era verdaderamente particular, sino por esos matices en el sabor que ibas descubriendo conforme lo ibas saboreando y que eran inusualmente únicos. Fue terminarlo, y al momento tenía la necesidad de comerme otro, algo que no suele pasar en numerosas ocasiones, y que hace que consiga una puntación de..

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Choux relleno de pate Gallina Valenciana. Probablemente el que fue a mí parecer, el más sin más de los cuatro aperitivos. Aunque un factor que quizá influyó, fue que dio la casualidad que el mío iba bastante falto de paté (algo que no pasó el resto de comensales de la mesa) y por eso igual no conseguí captar la idiosincrasia del mismo

Al poco tiempo de terminar los aperitivos, y tras servirnos las dos variedades de pan con el AOVE, llegó el primero de los cuatro principales, y el que fue sin lugar a dudas en lo personal, el plato más flojo del menú. Si bien es cierto que la vajilla es esplendida, el resultado final del plato no me convenció en exceso. No obstante, el ligero toque picante le da una cierta energía que no le queda mal, y que hace que consiga un..

Quisquilla y Guisante Lagrima de la Horta Nord. Un plato que en conjunto estaba bastante bueno, pero en el que había un protagonista indiscutible del mismo, que ya de por si solo estaba sumamente bueno. Cómo no puede ser de otra manera, estoy hablando de la Quisquilla. Cuya cabeza no solo aportaba un toque crujiente al plato, sino que además tenía un sabor que te dejaba estupefacto y que me enamoró

Después de estos dos platos llegó el que probablemente es el plato estrella del restaurante, el Calamar y Dashi. Un plato del que había oído hablar verdaderas maravillas, y del que había visto infinidad de fotografías, pero que igualmente tras verlo en persona y darle el primer bocado, me dejó sin palabras. Si del Turrón de Piñón Nacional había dicho que había sido de los mejores bocados de mi vida, de este no puedo decir menos. Es un señor platazo, visualmente único y que aunque parezca difícil, en boca mejora

Para terminar la parte salada, llegó el plato de carne, el Cordero Guirro, Limón Negro y Milhoja de Patata. A pesar de que no estaba malo, no es tampoco nada del otro mundo. Sin embargo, la Milhoja de la Patata sí que esta bastante conseguida

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Por último, si queréis saber la puntuación de cada plato y una valoración final con su respectiva puntuación, os animo a que os paséis por mi blog de...