When you move to a new city, your first impressions often come on a plate.
It’s still early days, but we’ve already begun building a shortlist of favorite restaurants here in Valencia. And like any good list, it starts with the local hero. In this case, it’s paella.
We’re in the land of paella. Valencia is its birthplace, and while we haven’t scratched the surface yet, we’ve already had some truly excellent experiences at Puerta del Mar. Aside from various seafood-based versions, they do a proper paella Valenciana, which for the uninitiated is chicken, rabbit, broad beans and snails. It’s rich, savory, and satisfying, especially when the rice is scraped up from the bottom where it crisps (hello, socarrat).
They also serve fideuà, which is like paella’s artsy cousin. It’s the same concept, but made with short pasta instead of rice. Add in their excellent appetizers (we once made a meal of just a few of those), and you’ve got a place we’ll definitely continue to visit.
Tapas culture here is both vast and delightful. You could eat nothing but small plates and never run out of new things to try. One of the first places we found, and still one of the best, is Borgia Wine Bar. It leans a little fancy, with dishes like tuna tartar with caviar on brioche and a rather elegant vegetable mille-feuille. When you add in a three-page wine list by the glass and a selection of vermouths, you’ll start to feel slightly more cultured just by sitting there.
Then there’s Orio, a classic Basque-style pintxos bar. Think high shared tables, counters topped with trays of small bites served on bread and secured with toothpicks. The kitchen also sends out hot pintxos every few minutes, which we pounce on like polite but hungry seagulls. You need to save the toothpicks, because that’s how they figure up the bill!
If you’re especially peckish, you can also order racciones, which are larger plates of things like meatballs in sauce or steamed mussels.
Tuesdays are our tapas nights – Tapas Tuesday replaces Taco Tuesday in the US. But speaking of tacos …
It turns out there’s an impressive amount of good Mexican food in Valencia. We were pleasantly surprised. TKO Tacos serves up very authentic street tacos, things like al pastor and cochinita pibil. There’s also a spot simply called Burritos, which builds wraps to order like a delicious assembly line.
Mexican food is far better here than we experienced in Lisbon, and it’s been a welcome flavor boost as we settle in.
There’s no shortage of international cuisine, either. We’ve had excellent Lebanese and Greek meals. And we’ve discovered a superb Nepali restaurant, The Royal Buddha, that’s filled the emotional (and culinary) hole left by one of our Lisbon favorites. If you like Northern Indian spices, this one hits all the right notes.
Our one ongoing disappointment so far has been sushi. There are a lot of sushi places here, but most of them seem to follow a very Valencian logic.
- Every roll has cream cheese,
- Nigiri comes drowning in sauce, and
- You can’t get eel without foie gras (no, really).
The most authentic sushi experience we’ve had so far is, oddly, at SLVJ, the high-end restaurant inside the Only You hotel. The sushi there is excellent, although pricey. But – and this is not a joke – every 20 minutes or so, the lights dim, the music cranks up, and go-go dancers appear. So, you know … mood dependent.
Italian food deserves a post of its own, and believe me, it’s coming. But a quick teaser: we’ve already found several places that would make a Nonna proud. We’ve got three favorites so far, but it’s going to take years to try everywhere. Whether it’s pizza, pasta, or antipasto, Valencia seems to have a lot of Italian expats doing amazing work in the kitchen. I’ll be unpacking why Italian food feels so at home here in a future post.
I haven’t even gotten into the dozens of cafés, bakeries, and neighborhood bar-restaurants, or the local empanada stalls, or where to get some of the best cheesecake in the world (yes, I’m being dramatic, and yes, it’s justified). We’re still exploring.
And I’ll need a whole separate entry just to explain things like:
- Sobrasada (spreadable spiced pork sausage),
- Morcilla (blood sausage with rice or onion),
- Coca (a kind of flatbread or pastry that can go sweet or savory),
- …and a variety of other delicious oddities you don’t find many other places.
For now, let’s just say Valencia hasn’t disappointed.
A Modern Odyssey - Expatriates in Iberia 