Anyone who has eaten in a restaurant in Spain will already know the high standard of gastronomic offerings, from cosmopolitan cities to chic seaside resorts, as well as authentically rustic farmhouse kitchen establishments. Eating out is a frequent occurrence for many Spaniards, a part of life which is savoured to the full.
Superb-quality prime ingredients abound, including pure-bred Iberian pork and chorizo, flavourful vegetables such as tomatoes, asparagus, and peppers, prawns, almadraba bluefin tuna, clams, and bomba rice, which is used for paella. Olive oil—known as liquid gold—is a base for most savoury dishes.
Spanish restaurants regularly feature in the list of the world’s finest restaurants, and indeed often hold the top spots. The Arzak family, Angel León, and Martin Berasategui are globally renowned for their extraordinary talent and creativity, showcased in their Michelin-starred restaurants whose menus are often paired with excellent Spanish wines.
How many Michelin-star restaurants are there in Spain?
There are 291 Michelin star restaurants in Spain – 242 with one star, 33 with two stars and an impressive 16 restaurants with three Michelin stars. The biggest concentrations are in Barcelona city (33, with four three-stars) and the Basque Country (22, also including four three-star establishments), while Malaga province has eight, including one two-star restaurant, and neighbouring Cadiz has six, including a three-star and a two-star.
Michelin Star Restaurants in Madrid, Spain
As the Spanish capital, Madrid has a good number of excellent restaurants, including six two-stars. The city’s vibrant restaurant scene is highly diverse, from markets to tiny, centuries-old bars, to avant-garde spaces.
DiverXo – three Michelin stars
Anarchic culinary superstar Dabiz Muñoz has won World’s Best Chef three times, and his restaurant DiverXo has held three Michelin stars since 2013. Located in Paseo del Prado, this restaurant with whimsical decor imaginatively blends Spanish and Asian cuisine, producing avant-garde dishes like Iberian pork dumplings with Korean gochujang – the 14-course tasting menu is called “the Flying Pigs”.
Address: Hotel NH Collection Madrid Eurobuilding, Calle Del Padre Damian, 23, 28036, Madrid
Website: DiverXo
Smoked Room – two Michelin stars
Smoky flavours and aromas will delight the palate in this speakeasy-type joint, the brainchild of Marbella chef Dani Garcia. Subtitled “Fire Omakase” (a Japanese concept which means trust the chef, in other words leave him to choose what to serve you), Smoked Room jumped straight to two Michelin stars six months after opening in 2021. Charcoal-grilled and lightly smoked fish and meat star on the two tasting menus; Nitro Tomato 2 is smoked sturgeon and caviar mousse, almond pearls, and finger lime.
Address: Hyatt Regency Hesperia Madrid, Paseo de la Castellana 57, Madrid, 28046, Spain
Website: Smoked Room Madrid
Michelin Star Restaurants in Marbella
Marbella is as well-known for its glamorous nightlife and excellent shopping as it for its four Michelin-starred eateries, from the charming old town to the jet-set scene at Puerto Banus.
Skina – two Michelin stars
Skina is helmed by chef Jaume Puigdengolas, alongside owner-sommelier Marcos Granda. Located in El Capricho neighbourhood, Skina’s concept is Andalucian with a contemporary twist, and includes à la carte, less common in a Michelin restaurant, Temporality menu (seven courses, changes seasonally), or the ultimate haute cuisine Gran Cru menu (five courses), paired with the finest wines such as Vega Sicilia Unico 2014, and a price tag to match.
Address: Avda. Cánovas del Castillo, 929601, Marbella, Málaga
Website: https://www.restauranteskina.com/en
Sollo – one Michelin star plus Green star
Unusually for the Mediterranean coast, chef Diego Gallegos leans away from seafood toward local freshwater fish such as sturgeon, tilapia and trout. Gallegos is known as “the caviar chef” and champions organic Riofrio caviar from Granada. This impressively sustainable chef produces 90% of ingredients used (he grows his own vegetables and farms fish onsite using an aquaponics system); Caminho menu has 19 courses.
Address: Urbanización Reserva del Higuerón, Av. del Higuerón, 48
29640 Fuengirola. Málaga
Website: https://www.sollo.es/en
Michelin Star Restaurants in San Sebastian, Spain
San Sebastián, on the northeastern coast, is world-renowned as a gourmet destination. The city boasts an extraordinary concentration of Michelin stars – 10 in total, including two restaurants with three stars; seafood, fish and vegetables are star ingredients, while informal dining centres around pintxos (little skewers of food).
Arzak – three Michelin stars
Out of the city’s Michelin restaurants, Arzak’s reputation has spread furthest, featuring many times on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Elena Arzak – a woman triumphant in a man’s world – is taking on the mantle from her father Juan Maria, ensuring the family legacy of blending traditional Basque cuisine with daring innovations, tested in their lab – white tuna with onion helixes is one signature dish; tasting menus feature seven to nine courses.
Address: Avda. Alcalde Elósegui 273, 20015San Sebastián – Donostia, Gipuzkoa
Website: Restaurante Arzak – Arzak
iBAi by Paulo Airaudo
A less formal option, this centrally-located establishment is a local institution, with a popular pintxos bar (gildas, tortilla). In the restaurant, two tasting menus offer broth, appetisers, starters, fish main course, artisan cheese board, dessert, and petit fours; à la carte is also an option. Argentinian-Italian chef Paulo Airaudo also has a two-starred restaurant in the city, Amelia, set close to La Concha bay, as well as one in Hong Kong.
Address: Getaria Kalea, 15, 20005 San Sebastian – Donostia, Gipuzkoa
Website: Ibai
Cadiz Michelin Star Restaurants
Another coastal province – there’s a theme emerging here. Cadiz’s restaurants delight in fabulous marine produce – shrimp, prawns, clams, sea urchins, which appear in Cadiz’s Michelin star restaurants, as well as wonderful vegetables – Andalucia is known as the garden of Spain.
Aponiente – Three Michelin stars plus a Green star
Angel León – who was the first Andalucian chef to gain three stars, in 2017 – is known as “the chef of the sea”, thanks to his devotion to all things sustainably gastro-marine. León experiments with innovative formats (fish protein sausages) and novel ingredients – highly nutritious plankton, for tarte tatin, is cultivated in tanks. The restaurant is housed in a beautiful restored tide mill straddling salt marshes, and its 21-course menu is matched with local Andalucia wines, including Sherries.
Address: Calle Francisco Cossi Ochoa, 11500 El Puerto de Santa María, Cadiz
Website: https://www.aponiente.com/en
Meson Sabor Andaluz – one Michelin star
This well-established restaurant in a small mountain village near Ronda, which was awarded its star in 2024, is renowned for its outstanding vegetable dishes, using carefully selected organic suppliers in the area. The two menus, Celemin (11 courses) and Fanega (15 courses), are sometimes supplemented by seasonal market-dependent classics such as oxtail stew.
Address: Calle la Huerta 3, Alcalá del Valle, 11693 Cádiz
Website: Mesón Sabor Andaluz
Michelin Star Restaurants in Barcelona, Spain
The úber-cool Catalonian city is the capital of modernist cuisine, and strong contemporary design means that interiors are striking in many of the 33 starred restaurants, four of which boast three stars.
AbaC – three Michelin stars
Jordi Cruz’s flagship restaurant is located in a chic hotel near Plaça Kennedy. The simple, elegant dining space is decorated with contemporary art and enjoys garden views. Cruz’s cuisine is Mediterranean with global references using innovative techniques. The 14-course tasting menu – the appetisers are served by the chefs themselves in the glass-walled kitchen – combines new creations with his signature dishes, such as Le Petit Prince: a crema catalana with nitro/lio creamy popcorn, burnt caramel ice-cream and rice wafer.
Address: Avenida del Tibidabo 1, 08022 Barcelona
Website: https://abacrestaurant.com/en
Slow & Low – one Michelin star
One of Barcelona’s most cutting-edge restaurants, Frank Beltri and Nicolas de la Vega’s place, located near San Antoni market, is based around the open kitchen. Diners can get close to the culinary talent, sitting at counters to watch the action, and dishes are explained by both wait staff and chefs. Playful dishes – 18 or 22-course menus – embrace strong, spicy, diverse flavours, with Spanish, Mexican and Argentinian influences, focusing on fish and vegetables.
Address: Comte Borrell 119, 08015 Barcelona
Website: Home – SLOW&LOW
Michelin Star Restaurants in Malaga, Spain
Fish and seafood rule here, unsurprisingly, from small, homely places to more sophisticated restaurants. Food in Malaga is a magnet for visitors wanting to experience the city.
Blossom – one Michelin star
Argentinian chef Emiliano Schobert brings Latin-American flair to this bijou restaurant on a central pedestrianised street. With a small interior plus pavement terrace, the imaginative creations include scallop, foie gras, sweet potato and almonds; and sweetbread biscuit with chickpea and artichoke. Blossom won its Michelin star in 2024, five years after it opened.
Address: Calle Strachan, 11, Loc 2, 29015 Málaga
Website: https://www.blossommalaga.com/
José Carlos García – one Michelin star
At Muelle Uno by the port, the ultimate showcase for revamped 21st-century Malaga, the eponymous chef offers a bright, elegant glass-walled space with vertical garden. Garcia treats typical malagueño dishes and ingredients with avant-garde techniques. Two tasting menus embrace 14 or 19 courses; as a welcome innovation for families and the increasing number of diners who don’t eat fish or meat, he also offers children’s and vegetarian tasting menus.
Address: Plaza de la Capilla, Malaga, 29016
Website: Restaurante José Carlos García. Málaga
Michelin Star Restaurants in Basque Country
The Basque Country’s vibrant restaurant scene is one of the most celebrated in the world, blending deep-rooted traditions with cutting-edge gastronomy. From rustic farmhouses to edgy contemporary spaces, Basque cuisine celebrates the humble hake, while txakoli is the local white wine.
Azurmendi – three Michelin stars and a Green star
Azurmendi is sustainable in both architecture and produce, integrating new technologies to become an environmentally responsible restaurant. Chef Eneko Atxa showcases his commitment to a greener existence in the 14-course menu, Adarrak. This experience kicks off with a welcome picnic in front of the vertical garden, followed by snacks in a space decorated with recycled organic materials, and maritime-inspired appetisers in the kitchen, while watching the chefs at work.
Address: Legina Auzoa, 48195 Larrabetzu, Vizcaya
Website: Azurmendi
Martín Berasategui – three Michelin stars
With views of lush countryside, this restaurant inland from San Sebastian purveys original, creative, French-influenced dishes such as Berasategui’ s signature caramelised millefeuille with smoked eel, foie gras, spring onion and green apple. The menu has 15 courses (appetisers, five starters, five mains, three desserts and cheese) and each dish shows the year it was designed, like in El Bullí. Berasategui is Spain’s most Michelin-starred chef, with 8 stars: among his 10 other restaurants are a one-star in Basque city Bilbao, plus another three-star and a one-star in Barcelona,
Address: Loidi 4, 20160 Lasarte – Oria, Gipuzkoa
Website: https://www.martinberasategui.com/en
Summary
Looking through all these outstanding, ground-breaking restaurants around Spain, each with its own distinctive character and superbly inventive menu, your biggest challenge will be deciding which one(s) to visit while staying in your stylish, superbly-appointed LVC villa.
Fiona Flores Watson
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