We’ve had cracking meals here in the past. So good that I’ve reckoned it’s the best food I’ve eaten in Tenerife in 25+ years visiting. Sadly, those glory days may now be behind it. It’s not that service has deteriorated. It hasn’t- and was entirely on the ball and delivered with a smile. It’s not that the kitchen has given up trying to be “fine dining” (whatever that means). It’s just that they aren’t really succeeding in delivering flavours that are a “WOW”. And, at these prices, you should expect a WOW.
There was excellent bread. Thick slices of crusty loaves. One just a plain white, the other with bits of fruit baked in. And there’s an array of things to slather on to it. Mojo sauces, sea salt from Andalucia, olive oil, butter. It may have been the tastiest thing we ate all evening. Then there was a freebie starter – a couple of slices of perfectly pink lamb loin, with a cube of sweet potato and an orange sauce. Just too sweet for us.
We ordered starters and it was suggested they could plate them as a “half and half”, so we could try both. Nice idea. Both were actually quite snacky. A pork “taco” was a lovely crisp tart case filled with Canarian black pig and a little pineapple chutney There were two for each of us. Single mouthful size, it should have zinged but it just didn’t. But it did zing more than the other dish – a concoction of thinly sliced potato with a cheesy cream sauce. Just bland and boring.
For a main course, there was local cherne (wreckfish), which was fine in itself. But here, the menu writer’s skill got ahead of the chef’s skill. Not least in the “pil pil of plankton”. Nope, not a clue what was intended but there was nothing obvious on the plate. There was carrot as advertised – it comes raw. But the advertised mead and sorrel would have needed the detective skills of Hercule Poirot to find.
Chicken medalions were nicely cooked – flavoursome and moist. A scattering of chopped walnuts was a nice texture contrast. And there was a couple of sauces on the plate. One, I think, was the advertised blue cheese but the other was a mystery. They had done some kitchen wizardry here, forming balls of the sauce. I’ve seen tis on Masterchef, you drop teaspoonfuls into a liquid and it coagulates into a skin to form the ball. Clever trick but, for goodness sake, make your food taste more interesting before you make it look interesting.
For the one of us who drinks alcohol, it had been a tad disappointing to find that only two white wines were available by the glass. We didn’t fancy any of the desserts but did finish with very good coffee.
