The 10 Best Restaurants for Local Cuisine in Valencia

The Ricard Camarena Restaurant was opened by the namesake Valencian chef at the Bombas Gens Center d’Art cultural center, where you will find a spacious gallery in a renovated industrial complex that shows exhibitions of contemporary art. What better reason to visit the art center than to dine at the Ricard Camarena Restaurant, the holder of 2 Michelin stars and 3 Repsol suns?

Camarena describes his cuisine as 'creative without being strident, simple in appearance yet complicated in its preparation'. This exquisitely decorated restaurant is committed to the use of local produce to ensure a unique blend of flavors. We recommend the tasting menu, which offers a selection of wines that marry perfectly with the food. Keep your eyes open – it's by no means unheard of for Camarena himself to attend to the tables.

At Bar Ricardo, you will find a typical Valencian establishment that has hardly changed since it opened its doors in 1947. Why play around with a formula that works so well? Its tapas, such as the tellinas (wedge clams) and the ensaladilla rusa (Russian salad), have been delighting its clientele since the middle of the last century.

Choose between eating at the bar, at a table or on the open-air terrace. Another plus for Bar Ricardo is its perfect location, just 2 minutes from Gran Vía de Fernando el Católico and the Jardines del Turia gardens. Who can resist a cold beer with tapas after a pleasant stroll?

Restaurante Casa Montaña is one of the places with the most pedigree in all Valencia, serving meals since 1836. Right in the heart of the Cañamelar neighbourhood, behind a splendid modernista facade, you will find a timeless restaurant with a most pleasant atmosphere and servers who are happy to advise the clientele with diligent attention.

Although their advice is clearly very useful, we should also say that the specialty tapas include the tuna and the anchovies. What do you fancy to drink? Perhaps a vermouth? Whatever you order, it's bound to be delicious.

Casa Carmela, which opened for business in 1922, offers an experience that will take you back in time, allowing you to savor the tastes of yesteryear. Perhaps the secret of its delicious paellas, regarded by many as the best in all Valencia, is that they are slowly cooked over an orangewood fire, or maybe it's that they are prepared with such loving care, or that they only use the freshest, highest quality ingredients. Or maybe it is a combination of all that – who knows?

Whatever the truth is, you will definitely want to try the rice dishes at this restaurant with its large dining rooms decorated with artisanal ceramic tiles and light-coloured woods. Special mention should also be made of its original desserts, such as the torrijas caramelizadas (caramelized sweet French toast) and the flan de horchata (crème caramel made with horchata tiger nut milk).

Bar Rausell has been a point of reference for gourmets in Valencia since 1948. Its traditional cooking is simple yet flavoursome, and never disappointing. We can recommend the paella, the arroz al horno (baked rice), the fideuà (a dish that is similar to paella but prepared with pasta instead of rice), the berenjenas rellenas (stuffed eggplants) and the croquettes. It's so difficult to decide that the best thing to do is to try a variety.

The wine list is similarly extensive, as is the range of liqueurs that top off a fantastic meal perfectly. You can eat at the bar, at a table or buy food to take away. As the Jardines del Turia gardens are just 10 minutes away, why not have a picnic?

Pelayo Gastro Trinquet, a restaurant with markedly Mediterranean roots that will delight you with its preparations, is found at Valencia's Trinquete de Pelayo, an enclosed space at which pilota valenciana (a traditional handball sport) has been played since 1868.

Its clientele's favorite dishes include all the appetizers, the paella de sepia y alcachofas (cuttlefish and artichoke paella) and its desserts, such as the queso batido con frutos rojos y tiramisú (whisked cheese with fruits of the forest and tiramisu). The restaurant's location couldn't be more central, as it's just a minute from Norte railroad station.

Bodega Anyora has been serving wines and tapas since 1937. It pays homage to the mouthwatering, traditional ways of cooking, like your grandmother did when you were young. Among the regulars' favorite dishes are the anguila ahumada (smoked eel), coca con helado de calabaza (a Catalan pizza-like flatbread with pumpkin ice cream) and the 'entrecot' de tomate (tomato 'entrecôte'). Anyora's patatas bravas (fried potatos in spicy bravas sauce) deserve special mention, as they are simply unbeatable.

The decoration, based on the use of natural materials and Valencian ceramics, recreates the bodegas of yesteryear. As you sample the delicious fare, you feel like you are traveling back in time to the 1930s. Sounds good, doesn't it?

La Pascuala is an iconic bodega that is famous for its tapas, its homey cooking and its 'XXL lunches' consisting of gigantic stuffed baguettes. The original bodega, which the Valencian Pascuala Vives started in 1921, opened in new, more spacious premises in the seafront Cabañal neighbourhood in 2017.

The 'bocadillo', or stuffed baguette, menu is so varied and the staff so welcoming, friendly and fast that some call La Pascuala 'the Valencian Temple of Lunch'. Sounds good, doesn't it? If you fancy something more substantial than its bocadillos, we recommend the sepia (cuttlefish), calamares (fried squid) or fideuà con bogavante, which is similar to paella but with pasta instead of rice and served here with lobster.

Restaurante Alquería del Brosquil, a point of reference locally in terms of Valencian cuisine, is found in an old building with wooden-beamed ceilings, upholstered chairs and a large, open-air terrace.

The setting is spectacular, as it's filled with orange trees and found within the stunning La Albufera natural park, right where paella was invented. Take our word for it, visit La Alquería del Brosquil – any of its rice dishes that you order will be perfect in every regard.

Q’Tomas? is a taverna serving gourmet cuisine in the center of Valencia, just 200 meters from The Plaza del Ayuntamiento. The owners, from nearby Denia, expertly combine the freshest fish, different kinds of meat and rice of the highest quality to produce exquisite Mediterranean dishes with a certain Asiatic twist.

Among the most popular dishes are the arroz con bogavante (rice with lobster) and the tarta de queso (cheesecake), not to mention the extensive wine list. Visit this restaurant with its ample, welcoming dining area and its simple, elegant decoration and experience authentic, unique cuisine.