After 3 visits now, I’ll attempt to explain why I love this place, hoping that I can remember all the many details! (warning—very long!)
Desde 1911 is a project of Spain’s finest seafood purveyor, Pescaderías Coruñesas, given the name “Desde (=since) 1911”, as this was the company’s founding year. In 1956 Evaristo García and his wife María Juliana Espíroz opened their first fish shop at Calle Recoletos 6 (which will soon become the company’s 6th restaurant, “Evaristo 33”).
Desde 1911, however, is no ordinary marisquería like their El Pescador, although seafood and crustaceans are the protagonists here.
This luxurious restaurant, now in the hands of the children, sits on an unfashionable street & is housed in a former 19th century pump factory. Its minimalist interior décor exudes a Nordic vibe, with bare tables and huge floor to ceiling windows opening onto an interior garden.
The greeting here is extremely warm and welcoming. On this Tuesday lunch we were escorted to our table in the light-filled main dining room, and our adventure, over 4 hours long, began with the first of many presentation trolleys (carts for salmon, bread, first course, 3 cheese tables !!, dessert then petits fours/chocolates).
Service is exquisite. A special wood bench with a hanger for my purse, changing of napkins, refilling of water, the tying of one’s bib for the prawns/lobster, the water & lemon to clean one’s hands, all handled by the waitstaff so unobtrusively that you don’t even notice.
First, diners are presented with the smoked Scottish salmon trolley to commence the meal, carved into luscious thin sheets to enjoy with olive oil, toasted rye bread sticks along with a gilda (skewer) of amberjack (pez limón) with pesto. For our aperitivo drink, we chose red Lhardy vermouth.
Then another trolley appears, with a selection of 5 enormous loaves of bread from the Cientotreinta° bakery. I opted for the torta de aceite and another that I don’t remember…
Soon the veteran “master of ceremonies”, Abel Valverde, appeared (formerly of Can Fabes and Santceloni & the recipient of the recent Michelin Service Award for “Spain’s best front house manager ”). He began the lengthy explanation of the second trolley displaying all the ingredients of the menu, from which diners can choose 3, 4, 5 or even 6 (!), first courses.
Each day the entrante options change, as does the main fish course.
The menu (hand printed) is created early that morning (7 am) from what has arrived the previous night from Spain’s finest fish markets (lonjas).
For this, our 3rd visit, the first course selections were a “totem of squid”, a king crab chawanmushi with Maresme tear peas, grilled Palamós red prawns, John Dory from A Coruña prepared two ways, cod tripe with small Motril prawns, white beans and black truffle or…Galician lobster.
On a previous visit, at the end of our 3 starter courses, since there was no evening service, Abel gifted/surprised us all with an extra off menu: for each of us, a half portion of squid carbonara with white truffles (priced at €70/p). Service above and beyond…
To enjoy the black truffle starter, we were presented with gold silverware from Queen Isabel II’s personal cutlery collection (in its original chest), and my babá al Ron was served on a gold plate from Lhardy (now part of the Pescaderías Coruñesas dining empire).
Our fish course, the “finest catch of the day” was a sea bass (lubina) from Ribeira, Galicia, baked in their wood oven and topped with a dressing extracted in the copper press from the fish’s collagen, bones, all the juices, with white wine (missed a photo of this process).
Diners can see this chosen fish hanging from the display case in the center of the room.
After pressing the juices and pairing the whole fish, each diner is presented with his portion under a dome, with choreography—the waiters lifting the lids simultaneously. (I took a video.)
The staff makes a note of what fish you were given on your previous visit so that you don’t repeat the same fish.
To accompany our main course, the sommelier selected a vino de pasto (unfortified sherry), the Muchada Léclaport Elixir, 2019, from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Marco de Jerez, a blend of moscatel and palomino. Although the wine list encompasses 300 different labels, we left it to his discretion. Very nice choice.
The truly mythic cheese course presentation consists not of a mere one table/ trolley but three! There are some 60 different cheeses from which to choose!
By that time, we were overwhelmed and left this chore in the hands of the lovely female “cheese hostess”. We did request the Basque Ondarre and the Rogue River Blue. Others we were served (as indicated on our take home menus): Cádiz Búcaro Azul-bas, Cantabrian Picón Bejes-Tresviso, a Castilian Humo, an Haute Savoie Reblochon Algae, Sierra Morena’s Olavidia “Quesos y Besos” and Puigpedros from the Cerdanya… accompanied by the jam of our choosing–tomato, pear, quince, cherry, apple or strawberry.
What we couldn’t finish was wrapped up for us to take home and presented at the desk as we departed.
At that moment, the sommelier appeared again to suggest a pairing for the cheese and dessert courses. He chose a Niepoort 20 year old Tawny.
Then, it was time for dessert trolley (!!), presented by one of the four female pastry chefs.
From the 6 daily dessert selections, today we 3 chose the “today’s cake” (a beautiful pavlova), rum babá with mascarpone Chantilly and the chocolate and caramel soufflé with mango sorbet. The filloa (Galician crepe) that I ordered previously is filled with custard and vanilla ice cream and prepared in front of the diners.
Whew!
But no, we weren’t finished!
An antique, two-tiered trolley wheel bestowed us first with a selection of sweets, petits fours, then a myriad of chocolates (take as many as your heart desires), which once again were boxed up for us to take home.
We passed on the opportunity for a digestif taken in the lovely garden courtyard, as it was a chilly.
Now for the photos-
Spain’s finest maitre presenting the hand printed menus
Smoke salmon
Our skewer amuse
The 5-bread table
Our truffled starter
Another starter
Grilled clawed lobster with Wagyu
Grilled Palamós prawns
King crab Chawanmushi with Maresme peas
All of the menu ingredients on the presentation table
The display of today’s sea bass
The queen’s gold cutlery
Once oven baked
Our sea bass under its domes
Our wine selection
Lubina in its sauces
The groaning boards of international cheeses
Our dessert port
The pastry chef’s presentation
“Today’s cake”
My rum babá on a Lhardy gold plate
Husband’s chocolate/salted caramel soufflé with mango sorbet
The finishing touch—petits fours and chocolates from the revolving cart
. Thanks for the info 
