Millo, A Coruna
A Coruña has something that is not easy to explain. It is one of those northern maritime capitals where the ocean marks everything, where the weather is always mild and where you feel like wandering aimlessly. But A Coruña also has a unique atmosphere. Says the topic that, as a Compostela, I have to repeat: while Santiago studies and Vigo works, A Coruña strolls. And I don't say this with a pejorative desire, but to highlight that Coruña quality that makes everything happen on the street, in the bar areas, on the promenades and on the terraces.
A Coruña is a city that turns towards the street, that's why it's easy to integrate there, that's why, going back to the topic, no one feels like a stranger there. It's easy to quickly find yourself comfortable in such a festive city.
That character makes novelties happen. The people of A Coruña are used to there always being one more place to visit, that soon a new restaurant will open in a succession that from the rest of Galicia we look at, it must be recognized, with some envy.
The last few months have been very hard, especially for the hospitality sector, but it is seen that the people of Coruña fell into the pot of novelties as children because, against all odds, the pace of interesting openings continues. It was like this just before confinement, it was in the few breaths we had throughout these months and it continues to be so now.
If the restaurant scene was already one of the most exciting in the Northwest, the new premises that have been appearing in recent months they only confirm it as that city in which we all want to spend a few days of tapas, from table to table. And as an example, seven novelties, some of them opened shortly before everything changed, some with a few days of history. Seven proposals that make you return to A Coruña for a gastronomic route is today more appetizing than ever.
THE (RECENT) VETERANS
They are people who, although they opened months before the crisis, still have a certain aura of novelty; locals that were about to become landmarks when the world was temporarily frozen. It is fair that, now that little by little normality returns, we start with them.
Terreo's casual cuisine
land
It had only been open for a year when everything had to be put on hold. A year that had been long enough for the city to talk about it as that new restaurant to pay attention to. And the truth is that it is still there chef Quique Vazquez , in one of the emblematic streets of the city, with a current and attractive proposal in which rice dishes have earned a deserved fame, as a staple of this new batch of locals.
Pracer
Pracer had also been underway for a year, the project of the combo made up of Javi Freijeiro and Moncho Bargo, two crazy people from the kitchen who are capable of imprinting an enviable and contagious good vibe on everything they touch. Upon arrival, you may not be sure if you are entering a restaurant or a concert hall. Does not matter, you sit at the bar and let yourself go. You will really enjoy the atmosphere and that cuisine, with a street touch but with a lot of background, that they prepare in front of you at the moment.
Millo
Moncho Méndez was one of the last to arrive before the big break. Even so, everyone was already talking about him within a few weeks. That's right. His little restaurant on Calle Cordelería is an oasis, a breath of fresh air, a place that offers a different cuisine from A Coruña, that does not look like any other, that gathers the baggage that the chef brought from London or the good knowledge that he has of the Italian cookbook. El xarda (mackerel) en saor, Venetian-style, is a delight. As is the skate in red pickle with vegetables from the As Mariñas Biosphere Reserve. And the omelette with cod tripe. Oh, Moncho's tortilla with cod tripe. You have to come (hungry) to try it.
The tortilla
THOSE WHO ARRIVED IN 2020
Some have been officially open for a year, but in reality are still news with a few months of real opening behind them.
hunico
Adrian Felipez he is, by now, already an old acquaintance of the coruñés gastronomic scene. In just a few months, his Miga de him restaurant became an essential in Praza de España, both in its restaurant version and with the more informal terraceo, in which his wonderful tripe could not be missing. From there Felipez made the leap to the new Double Tree by Hilton, a step away from his previous location, where he can develop a more ambitious kitchen , in tune with the hotel's proposal. If Miga was the most casual face of his work, Hünico allows him to explore a side closer to haute cuisine. Black scallops with beurre blanc, pil-pil kokotxas with greens and cockles, seasoned Galician blue lobster, roasted Galician cow tenderloin with flame-roasted aubergine, foie gras and Porto bread…
Chef Adrian Felipez
Le Viandier + Pablo Pizarro
Pizarro is a familiar name for gastronomy fans from A Coruña after passing through the Bocanegra. Heading the kitchen at this Le Viandier + Pablo Pizarro since November, the chef of Argentine origin develops in a proposal that goes from breakfasts to appetizers going through a cuisine offer that changes to the rhythm of the market and the season and that on weekends takes the form of an appetizing tasting menu.
Through dishes like gizzards Rossini, fried oyster with green curry (tribute to chef Ever Cubilla), peas with egg and squid or leek confit with celery and apple marinade, Pizarro brings to Rosalía de Castro street, one of the zero kilometers of the city as far as trends are concerned, a new gastronomic air, that tasty cuisine, without complexes, that invites you to repeat, to browse and to dip a bread that is already a house brand.
NEW ARRIVALS
Things never stop in A Coruña. If the above are some of the projects that were born in recent months and that little by little have been consolidated, there are already novelties underway, spaces that have only been open for a few days but that confirm the great moment that the city is going through.
Charlatan
Another that little by little has gained an unconditional public in the city is Grupo Peculiar, with Álvaro Victoriano and Rubén García at the helm. The third business of this family, Charlatán, has just opened its doors in the middle of Calle Galera, one of the tavern epicenters of the city, with the intention of becoming an illustrated bar, in one of those places for chatting, chatting and enjoying, but with one more point of comfort, service and cuisine.
Product culture in an informal setting. Cheeses, grills, selected cured meats, meats from the best producers, vegetables from nearby orchards and a firm commitment to a different winery, in which Galician, Spanish and international have an interesting representation. Charlatán aspires to demonstrate that good vibes are not at odds with quality and is postulated as one of those product bars that make the eyes of gastronomy lovers shine.
Omakase
The Amicalia group, like the city where it was born, does not stop. The team behind Arallo and Alabaster from Madrid and who got a Michelin star with the late Alborada, returns to the fray with a proposal of Japanese essence and Galician soul.
Omakasé has just opened its doors in Praza de María Pita, headed by chef Adrián Figueroa (trained at Purosushi in Vigo and Barcelona's Tunateca Balfegó). Japanese cuisine and technique are combined with the best fish, shellfish and seaweed from local fish markets in a bar that invites you to put yourself in the hands of the chef and get carried away by that spirit that the group defines as Atlantic Realism: product, technique and learning put at the service of enjoyment without borders.