Ayalga Villa Rosario

A star in the mansion

Ayalga is the restaurant of the Villa Rosario mansion, one of the indiano villas on the Santa Marina promenade, at Calle Dionisio Ruisánchez, 6, facing the sea. It has one Michelin star. The cooking is by chef Israel Moreno, who returned to Ribadesella after years working in the south, and defines itself as Cantabrian haute cuisine: Asturian recipes from sea and land, with modern techniques and seasonal local produce.

The menus

Ayalga works only with tasting menus. The seasonal menu published on its website has two:

• Villa Rosario Menu, €105: an aperitif of five bites, five main dishes and dessert, with bread and artisan butter service. Optional wine pairing, €70.
• Santa Marina Menu, €145: a longer sequence, with a prelude, a block called Esenciales de la tierra and two desserts. Optional wine pairing, €90.

Prices include VAT. As an example of what is on the menu now: among the bites, a tartlet with seaweed mousse, anchovy and tobiko or a tomato meringue with Torta del Cuera cheese; among the main dishes, trout from the River Bedón with ajoblanco, bluefin tuna with dried-tomato sorbet, seasonal mushrooms with roast pumpkin and smoked eel, the fish of the day from La Rula and roe deer sirloin. The Santa Marina menu adds, among others, cured scallop, veal sweetbread with tuna jowl and Iberian presa with massaman curry. The dishes change with the season.

Booking and hours

The Michelin Guide does not publish the hours, and neither does the restaurant's website: check days and sessions when you book. Book on its website, on +34 696 52 98 19 or at [email protected]. If you have any allergy or intolerance, say so when you book, because the menu is fixed. The house also sells gift cards from its website, in the Regala Ayalga section, a good idea if the dinner is a gift for others.

Where to sleep and stroll nearby

If you sleep at the Villa Rosario hotel, dinner is in the same mansion; the hotel has accommodation-and-dinner packages at Ayalga. A few steps away, on the same promenade, is the Ribadesella Playa hotel.

Before dinner, walk along Santa Marina beach and its villas at sunset. For a more informal lunch the next day, the grill at Güeyu-Mar, on Vega beach, or La Huertona, above Ribadesella.