Gourmet Guide To Denia
Denia is a gourmet’s delight with its exquisite red prawn becoming an icon for fabulous cuisine. With more than 400 restaurants, Denia is a delightful beach resort for sampling fine cuisine from Michelin-starred restaurants to traditional bustling tapas bars.
Denia has built up an impressive reputation for its cuisine where you can enjoy fine food from the sea or the mountains with views over the Mediterranean or the beautiful Montgo nature reserve.
Over the years, different settlers in Denia brought their own culinary delights to the town such as vines for making wine, raisins, fishing which includes salting or drying fish to preserve it, and rice.
The paella is the most famous of these rice dishes but the town produces an amazing number of rice dishes with arroz a banda, made with fish stock and served at banquets, being a particular favourite.
The chefs use the finest local ingredients to create simple but tasty meals such as cocas which are like mini pizzas; espencat which is a mix of vegetables, aubergines and tomatoes; or the earthy winter stew, puchero, with meat and chickpeas.
Some restaurants stick to the tried-and-tested traditional recipes using local fish, meat and vegetables with olive oil and citrus fruit while others have adapted the best dishes to create their own signature dishes.
Denia bids for World Heritage Status for its gastronomy
With such flavoursome food and so many restaurants it is no wonder that Denia is bidding for global recognition of its cuisine with its hope to become a UNESCO City of Gastronomy.
The star of its bid is the delicate Denia red prawn, which is being held up as a shining example of what the town offers with annual competitions dedicated to the shellfish being held each year.
The prawn is best served simply cooked in sea water but can also be dressed up to make an impressive dish.
The town’s most famous chef, Quique Dacosta, who runs one of the top restaurants in Europe with three Michelin stars, turns the Denia red prawn into a gastronomic treat as part of his tasting menus.
The prawn can be difficult to catch and is an expensive treat costing as much as €200 a kilo, especially at Christmas-time.
Denia tourist information office offer guided tours of the town, including a gastronomy tour, or you can follow your own culinary route.
Head for Denia’s food markets
If you’re visiting Denia in the morning, a good place to start your tour is the indoor market. The busy market has fish stalls selling local produce such as sea urchins, sardines, prawns, mussels, tuna and more.
Denia market is open 7am to 2pm, Monday to Saturday.
If you adore markets, you won’t want to miss the outdoor fruit and vegetable market in Carrer Magallanes by the indoor market on Friday mornings. The scent of sweet tomatoes, peppers and oranges surrounds you as you wander from stall to stall brimming with seasonal fare as well as herbs, honey and plants.
Try tasty tapas in Denia
From here, you can head up to Denia’s most charming historic street Calle Loreto for tapas with a good choice of small tasty dishes using local produce such as prawns, tuna, sausages and hams.
Alternatively, parallel to the market is Denia’s main shopping street, Calle Marques de Campo, with pavement cafes serving delicious tapas. It’s a wide, tree-lined boulevard so you can sit outside, order a couple of tasty snacks, and enjoy the gentle bustle of working life in Denia.
Most of the restaurants in this street serve tapas but we particularly like the old-fashioned interior at Amazing or the great selection and atmosphere at Comercio.
