On our last trip, before the pandemic, we came for dinner at what was then a recent opening in the premises previously occupied by the excellent Fresquera. The cooking was then very creative and, much as I hate the phrase, it was “fine dining”, as much as it gets in PDLA.
Like many places, Goxoa has scaled back its menu since the onslaught of Covid. It’s shorter and simplified. I have no problem with that,as such. However, the menu is now very poorly constructed, to my mind. There are only around 12 main courses, of which only four are meat and all foru are beef. The remainder are seafood and, with the exception of a couple, are only available for two people. It makes for a very limited choice. There’s also a fixed tasting menu, although that’s not generally for us. We did manage to find enough dishes to set up what became a very decent three courses. But there wasn’t much else on the menu that worked for us.
As you’d expect in a place like this, there was good bread and a freebie snack was offered – a slice of an excellent morcilla which, most oddly (and not completely successfully) was topped with white chocolate. One starter was simplicity itself. – a bowl of clams, quite heavily salted, with garlic and the olive oil they’d been cooked in. Scallops were on the other plate, again simply cooked but with an excellent ricj seafood and champagne sauce. Thoughtfully, they provide a spoon for this, along with knife and fork, as you really wouldn’t want to leave any behind. In fact, I grabbed the last bit of bread to wipe the plate.
Belly of red tuna was quickly fried to medium and was served with simply boiled local potatoes and griddled Little Gem lettuce. There were a few cheffy dabs of sauce which didn’t really add much to the plate. “Grilled fish of the day” was a fillet of the local Cherne. It sat on a bed of Black Canarian potatoes and was topped with lentils in vinaigrette. And there was some of the ubiquitous red mojo sauce to reinforce that you were being given something local. It tasted much better than it sounds.
Pavlova was something of an assembly job dessert. Meringue base, topped with a nicely sharp yuzu cream and decorated with raspberries and strawberries. Rice pudding was served at room temperature and was topped with a sprinkling of cinnamon and demerara sugar, which was blow torched at the table to give a bit of crunch. Really lovely and an idea to try at home.
Service was excellent throughout. And the place was busy, throughout the evening. From the vices I could hear, it was popular with other North Europeans early on, and then filled up with Spaniards later. I rarely comment on restaurant prices . They are what they are. And we are content to pay high prices for a top quality experience – after all, eating out is our joint hobby. But the prices here are similar to those at high end restaurants in Costa Adeje (the likes of Sucas and Cupula). But, unfortunately, it is only aspirational here and the food isn’t a match for those two places. We may not be in a rush to come back next trip.
