We had dinner at Orobianco restaurant when we have visited Calpe. The restaurant located on the back hills of Calpe with a fantastic ambiance and beautiful view of the bay and the city.
This restaurant is listed in the Michelin guide as the only starred Italian restaurant in Spain. They serve traditional Italian haute cuisine. The head chef is the Emilia- Romagna born, Ferdinando Bernardi.
They offered 2 dining menus. The Evolution menu with 6 courses for 75 Euro ( additional wine pairing- 55 Euro) and the Gusto menu with 9 courses for 95 Euro ( wine pairing- 70 Euro). We opted for the 6 course menu with wine pairing.
The dinner started very promising. Both starters, the cappelletti with lamb terrine and the red tuna with strawberry and Martini rubino were well cooked , nicely presented and tasty.
The third dish was cream of squid which we could not identify and understand. It had lack of flavours and a very poor presentation.
The first main dish was a mushroom risotto with wild turbot. The turbot is a really flavourful fish if a proper size is served. The piece of turbot we have received with the risotto could have easily been any type of fish as it was so tiny that the typical notes of the turbot could not be traced.
The last dish on the menu was a Milanese style Chateaubriand. The steak itself had a decent flavour but wasn’t anything remarkable.
The service was pleasant, attentive, friendly staff.
This restaurant has a lot more potential but needs to fine-tune the plates and be a little more brave with the ingredients and seasoning.