The Maralba and Corral de la Morería restaurants, new three soles from a Repsol Guide that adds 101 new restaurants

The Repsol Guide has celebrated today in Alicante the gala of its 2023 edition, which adds 101 nuevos soles to its extensive selection of restaurants, which rises to 712 establishments from all over Spain

This year, Repsol has delivered two new 3 Suns, the highest distinction of the guide to Maralba, in Almansa (Albacete), and Corral de la Morería, in Madrid. Thus continues the attempt by the oil company to distance itself from its most direct competitor, the Michelin Guide, awarding two veteran restaurants that the French prescriber only recognizes with two and one star, respectively.

This has not been the only gesture to try to differentiate itself from Michelin. If the tire company was criticized in its last edition for barely awarding women, the Repsol Guide has decided that the cooks with suns from the Valencian Community are the ones who make the menu after the Gala. One of them, Maria Jose San Romanhas also officiated a lunch with the press at his restaurant Monastrell, which lost its Michelin star in 2022, but continues to have two Repsol suns.

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Ya estamos en Alicante para asistir a la Gala Soles Repsol 2023. ¿Cuáles serán los restaurantes premiados?

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It is difficult to fight for equality as a prescriber in such a masculinized world like haute cuisine. Nor are there many cooks among the nuevos soles: there are only four among the new 101 award-winning establishments. But, at least, both at the gala and in the informative materials an attempt has been made to highlight the role of women in sommelier and room, where they are much more present.

These are decisions, surely well thought out, of a guide that has been trying to forge a new path since, in 2015, its current director took over the reins of the veteran prescriber, Mary Ritter. His team of inspectors made up, they insist, by profiles of all types of professional sectors and sociodemographic environment, has tried since then to clean up a guide that she had become stagnantwith many restaurants not worthy of being included in it and, many others, that should be and were not.

rain of suns

It is true that Repsol is much more generous than Michelin, but the French guide is always criticized for being too harsh with Spanish restaurants and it makes sense that a genuinely Spanish guide would be more generous with veterans – eternal third-star contenders like Ricardo Camarena o Mugaritz have had three soles for decades- and faster when it comes to recognizing new talent. A separate issue is that in a guide with thousands of restaurants with soles and others that are recommended, which accumulates hundreds of new winners year after year, it is very easy to find comparative torts within each category. What does have to be celebrated is that, little by little, the selection of new establishments is improving.

Between the 18 new 2 Suns From the Repsol Guide we find restaurants from all over Spain, mostly relatively young establishments, but which have emerged very quickly. Some, like -Oba (Casas Ibañez, Albacete), premiere two suns the same year they receive a star. Others such as Deessa (Madriod) or Amelia (Donostia) already appear with the same rating in both guides. Others, worthy aspiring stars, were recognized long before by the Repsol Guide and now receive their second sun: this is the case of Umiko (Madrid) or ConSentido (Salamanca).

Javier Sanz and Juan Sahuquillo, cooks from Oba-.

Between the 81 new 1 Sol Repsol Guide It is necessary to highlight the amount of soles that have been distributed in the rural environment. The guide highlights the case of Jorge Asenjowhich Donostia exchanged for a farmhouse in the Atxondo Valley (Bizkaia) to mount Erro, or that of Carlos Oyarbidethe fourth generation of a saga of chefs who led Zalacaín to the top, and who has returned to San Adrián (Navarra) to open his own house, Carlos Oyarbide Bistronomiko.

Also work in the countryside chefs such as Carlos Fernández from Kàran Bistró (Pozoblanco, Córdoba), Pedro Aguilera from Mesón Sabor Andaluz (Alcalá del Valle, Cádiz), Juan Carlos García with Valdenvira (Baeza, Jaén), Manu Franco with La Casa de Manolo Franco (Valdemorillo, Madrid ), Aurora Torres (Lula by Aurora Torres, Los Montesinos, Alicante), Dámaso Navajos (La Posada del Laurel, Préjano, La Rioja), José Antonio Medina (El Coto de Quevedo, Torre de Juan Abad, Ciudad Real), or the Hernández Talaván brothers (Versátil, Zarza de Granadilla, Cáceres).

The Valdenvira team, new Repsol sun in Baeza (Jaén).

As a curiosity, all the chefs nominated for Madrid Fusión revelation chefs this year appear in the guide with a sun or recommended. But the only one recognized by the Michelin Guide with a star, Juan Monteagudo, from Ababol (Albacete), has not received the sun that Vandelvira, Ama and El Mosqui are going to hang.

It also acknowledges guidance to many “product” restaurants, which are usually the eternally forgotten of the Michelin Guide. Restaurants that are characterized, mainly, by their work with embers, such as O’Pazo in A Coruña and Hika Gastronomiko by Roberto Ruiz in Gipuzkoa, both with two suns, or La Milla Marbella (Málaga), El Secreto de Chimiche (Tenerife) , Essentia (Cuenca), Pur (Barcelona), Lana (Madrid), Tavella (Valencia), Laia Erretegia (Gipuzkoa), Mandukar (Badajoz) and Hamarratz (Gipuzkoa), all with a sun.

Hilario Arbelaitz and Abraham García receive the suns of honor.

Repsol Guide Suns of Honor

In addition to the conventional suns, two Suns of Honor were awarded during the Gala, to Hilario Arbelaitz de Zuberoa (3 Repsol Guide Suns) and Abraham García de Viridiana (2 Repsol Guide Suns). Two veteran chefs who have announced their retirement this year.

In the opinion of the guide, “both are gastronomic references and throughout their career they have contributed modernity with respect and have left their mark on several generations of chefs”. From their restaurant in Gipuzkoa, they explain, “Aberlaitz has defended the essence of lifelong Basque cuisine, updating recipes traditional”. Abraham García, they point out, “was the first to put fusion cuisine into practice at the end of the 70s, when the term had not yet been invented”.

They have also been delivered Sustainable Sun Awards to the restaurants that “have stood out for their fight against climate change and the responsible use of the product”: Culler de Pau (3 Repsol Guide Suns, O Grove), La Finca (2 Repsol Guide Suns, Elche), Molino de Alcuneza ( 1 Sol Guía Repsol, Sigüenza) and Finca Alfoliz (Recommended, Aljaraque).

To these soles we must also add 248 restaurants that enter the category of recommendedwhich already includes a total of 1,269 establishments.

Full list of new awardees

Three suns

The Corral de la Morería (Madrid)
Maralba (Almansa)

Carlos Hernández del Río, chef of Consentido.

Two suns

Ambivium (Valladolid)
Amelia (Donostia)
Bo.Tic (Girona)
Castell Peralada (Girona)
Consented (Salamanca)
Deessa (Madrid) The Lake (Malaga)
Garena (Bizkaia)
Hika (Guipuzcoa)
Mantua (Cadiz)
Montía (Madrid)
Cloud (Tenerife)
The English way (A Coruña)
Oba- (Albacete)
O’ Pazo (A Coruña)
Rekondo (Guipuzcoa)

Pedro Aguilera, chef at Mesón Sabor Andaluz, new Repsol sun.

A sun

Andalusia

The Ensign (El Palmar, Cádiz)
Meson Sabor Andaluz (Alcalá del Valle, Cádiz)
Kàran Bistró (Pozoblanco, Córdoba)
I recommend (Córdoba)
Radis (Jaen)
Valdenvira (Baeza, Jaén)
The Marbella Mile (Marbella)
12 Tapas (Castilleja de la Cuesta, Seville)
Lalola (Seville)

Aragon

Arcas House (Villanova, Huesca)
Racking (Barbastro, Huesca)
The Solfa factory (Beceite, Teruel)
Goralai (Zaragoza)

Victor Planas, chef at Kensei.

Canary Islands

Bevir (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
Muxgo (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria)
The secret of Chimiche (Granadilla de Abona, Tenerife)
Kensei (Costa Adeje, Tenerife)
Taste 1973 (Las Americas, Tenerife)

Cantabria

The Carteria (Cartes)

Castilla la Mancha

The preserve of Quevedo (Juan Abad Tower, Ciudad Real)
Hanging houses (Cuenca)
Essentia (Tarancon, Cuenca)

Toño Navarro, chef of Essentia.

Castile and Leon

Cobo Evolution (Burgos)
Kamin (Leon)
Pacheco House (Salamanca)
Tavern House (Segovia)

Catalonia

Aleía (Barcelona)
Atempo (Barcelona)
Eat (Barcelona)
Enigma (Barcelona)
Elena Farm (Barcelona)
Pur (Barcelona)
Slow & Low (Barcelona)
Er Estrangèr (Betrén – Vielha and Mijaran, Lleida)
Quatre Molins (Cornudella de Montsant, Tarragona)

Raúl Sanz, chef at Treze, one of Madrid’s most beloved restaurants, receives his first Repsol sun.

Madrid

Share Bistro (Madrid)
Since 1911 (Madrid)
Lana (Madrid) Manolo Franco’s house (Valdemorillo)
La Trasiega (Getafe)
Ravioxo (Madrid)
Thirteen (Madrid)
Garcia de la Navarra Winery (Madrid)
Zuara Sushi (Madrid)

Navarre

Baserriberi (Pamplona)
Carlos Oyarbide Bistronomiko (San Adrian)
Les Amis (Pamplona)

Roseta Féliz and Daniel Malavia, from the Fraula restaurant.

Valencian Community

Bernardi House (Benissa, Alicante)
Space Montoro (Alicante)
Home of the Fisherman (Villajoyosa, Alicante)
Lula by Aurora Torres (Los Montesinos, Alicante)
Iron (Valencia)
Fraula (Valencia)
Nozomi sushi bar (Valencia)
Samsha (Valencia)
Lure (Valencia)
Tavella (Valencia)

Basque Country

Erro (Arrazola, Vizcaya)
Kuma (Bilbao)
Tamarises izarra (Getxo, Vizcaya)
Oteiza Space (Donostia, Guipuzcoa)
Hamarratz (Zumaia, Guipuzcoa)
Laia Erreteiga (Hondarribia, Guipuzcoa)
Zazpi Stm (Donostia, Guipuzcoa)

Andoni Txintxilla, chef at Hamarratz.

Estremadura

Wild olive (Zafra, Badajoz)
Mandukar (Villanueva de la Serena, Badajoz)
Versatile (Zarza de Granadilla, Cáceres)

Galicia

Omakase (A Coruña)
Terra (Fisterra, A Coruña)

Balearic Islands

Re.Art (Ibiza)
The View (Sant Josep de Sa Talaia, Ibiza)
Can Simoneta (Capdepera, Majorca)

Damaso Navajas, cook at La posada del laurel.

The Rioja

The laurel inn (Préjano)

Principality of Asturias

Farragua (Gijon)
Married Kitchen (Hontoria)
Inn the center (Puerto de Vega)
Pedro Martino (Caces) Yume (Aviles)

Region of Murcia

Sheep (Bullas)
The Mosqui (Cape of Palos)
Phrases (Murcia)

Images | Alfredo Cáliz and Sofía Moro for Repsol Guide
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