Restaurant of the week: ODISEO, where fun never sleeps
Updated on the day: 12/22/20. In Odysseus everything runs like clockwork 22 hours a day . It opens from 9 a.m. (for early risers or late-nighters to have breakfast on the terrace) until 7 a.m. the next day, when it closes The club . It seems like a lot, but there are only a few hours for so many spaces to get lost in: from the surrounding Red Bar , inspired by a piano bar from the 70s, which will soon inaugurate its concert calendar, until its secret rooftop , reserved for exclusive events and that treasures the largest cantilevered pool in Europe, 42 meters.
And although its germ is the Casino of Murcia , which now houses, here not only come to play: the recreational area accounts for just over 10%. everything else is one celebration of the culture of leisure and gastronomy , which the 240 people on staff make possible. Precisely in the year in which Murcia holds the gastronomic capital of our country,** Odysseus reinvents and claims his own city in a big way…. and in the distance**.
Odysseus' pool
They say that what is important is on the inside, but what would become of love at first sight? “ Odysseus is an abstraction of a trip through the Mediterranean . architecturally it's an oasis , a building that has a patina, which speaks of a versioned luxury, but not of expensive materials but of vibration. Is a natural and close approach that would work anywhere on the planet, that looks almost like a classic ruin but invaded by time, manipulated. It represents our particular odyssey: we have traveled around the world and now we return home”.
Manuel Clavel It is the Murcian architect who signs the building, inspired by the Parthenon in Athens . Eduardo of the Friar, design specialist , is another of the authors of this giant anti-boredom 15,000 square meters , which has taken two years and 35 million euros. This charismatic project (and a pioneer in our country) is the new endeavor of the Orenes Group, a family business from Murcia dedicated to leisure that has 11 casinos (some in Mexico), 21 bingo halls, more than 300 game rooms, 500 points of sale of betting and 30 hotel and restaurant establishments in Spain.
ODYSSEY, where the fun never sleeps
This, his new and ambitious bet, we could compare it (many do) with Las Vegas but Odysseus is also the place to fulfill any of your gastronomic fantasies : you can put on your boots (with your hands, of course) on their Pisco gastronomic bar , kitchen nikki (Japanese-Peruvian fusion); gobble up an American hamburger (but a good one) at his Sports Bar while you watch a game of your team on your XXL curved screen (the largest in Europe) ; experience what a tasting menu on the zero table , a privileged window facing the open kitchen of the gastronomic restaurant; without fuss put the spoon in the paella to recreate yourself with its traditional rice (sweet squid and artichoke, dry tuna and shrimp or the lobster stew) or smack your lips with the combination between the irreverent dinner show night and the menu, which ends with a sweet dessert from Eldense pastry chef Paco Torreblanca.
Odysseus terrace
“We offer a very fun menu because we want you to experience something different every day, but it is also a solid product menu. I believe in tradition and that is why we make a modern kitchen with classic bases”. The architect of this suggestive gastronomic proposal is Nazario Cano : the Alicante chef who held a star Michelin at the Hotel El Rodat (Jávea) and whose dishes always surprised us. He now he leads a team of 55 cooks in a single building, which he can accommodate, gastronomically speaking, to 1,000 people in this new normal . “From now on, haute cuisine is going to be very complicated and we have to be more chameleon than ever. Odysseus, who is a model of the present and future, has known how to adapt”.
And that is why they make many kitchens in the same place: the sausages from the area, lamb from Segureño or shrimp from Santa Pola are interspersed with bao breads lacquered bacon, nigiris, seafood (how not), grilled fish or vegetables from the Murcian garden . The letter is extensive. Here there is gastronomy from Monday to Sunday for any time of the day. Ask and you will receive. With one exception: “ the rabbit is pardoned ”, tells us David Conesa, Communications Manager of the Orenes Group.
And it is here that it is an omnipresent symbol: “LUCKY it is the image that represents Odysseus and our way of communicating will always be through him. It symbolizes the origin of the word Spain, land of rabbits and also allows us to make an allegorical game with the concept of luck”.
Odysseus Red Bar
Games and more games. Of words, of concepts, of spaces . Óscar Molina, artistic co-director of Odiseo, is in charge of that creative part, the surprise factor, but also that the energy flows and does not stagnate . And when you see him work, you perceive it. His eyes shine when he talks about his show, its vocalists, dancers or choreographers, actors or producers.
Odysseus cannot be denied one thing: here everything is thought . "Our hallmark is to take maximum care of the details". Noticeable. María Dolores Sanmartín is the Operations Director, who shows us a car park that looks like something out of a movie from the next century. With a VIP area included, which, behind a sliding gate, hides another sumptuous car park convertible into a room for private events … or for poker games. Even the spaces that are normally aesthetically cloned and tremendously boring, here they are from another planet. The visit to the bathrooms is a must.
This is luxury for luxury . But well understood. Here, where the show is the message, the only thing missing is a neon sign that reads something like: Don't go out, everything happens in here. And this has only just begun.
Roof of Odysseus
Address: Av. Juan de Borbón, 224, 30110 Churra, Murcia See map
Telephone: 649222222
Schedule: From Monday to Sunday, from 09.00 h. at 07.00 the next day