At Esteban’s, we are always looking to develop our business by targeting untapped markets.  One that is in Benidorm in abundance, is the All lady groups or “Hen Parties”. Over the past couple of months we have had quite a few Hen parties at the restaurant, and, contrary to belief, they have behaved impeccably!  The headlines in the papers usually say these groups are uncontrollable and falling about drunk, giving the usual bad press to Benidorm in general.

Further from the truth it couldn’t be! The groups we have catered for have been well, behaved groups of young ladies who have come to the restaurant in the early evening and have wined and dined on our special bespoke menu which has been specifically created for the bride to be and her guests.  These parties are usually organised by the maid of honour, without the knowledge of the bride.  Steve Jones, Chef Patron, of Esteban’s Restaurant says, “ Once I have the relevant information from the client, including the budget and any dietary requirements, I then create a completely one off menu for the occasion”.  This usually includes wine selections included in the price too!  Then we get the order emailed to us usually a week in advance, giving us time to plan and prepare for the evening in question. “This part is very important for us and our guests”.  Steve, who comes from a very high profile banqueting environment says, “the success of every function is down to the planning, and knowing how to cater for numbers, efficiently”.  This is why a lot of all male and female parties are frowned upon and usually refused by many restaurants of Benidorm, simply because they don’t know how to handle them!  We feel it is very important to make them feel welcome and provide them with attentive service and a laugh or two along the way.  This really does break the ice and make them feel at home.  A few of the parties we have received recently, had every intention of moving on to the clubs after dinner, but stayed all night, using it as a cooling off night from the late night Discos in Benidorm.

We have also catered for all male Stag parties too, using the same process of asking for a pre-order on our bespoke menu.  The emphasis on an all male menu usually revolves around red meat and big steaks, rather that salmon and chicken favoured by Ladies Who Lunch.

Esteban´s is available for such parties six nights a week from Monday to Saturday.  The only request is the party has to be booked a few weeks in advance in order for us to accommodate our regular custoemrs, who are equally as important to us.  Reservations can be made through our website, as a first point of contact.

Another group we see often are local ladies lunch clubs, which are as numerous here in Benidorm as back in the UK.  Usually meeting once a month for lunch, to catch up with each other and enjoy good food and wine.  Please find a sample menu below for any occasion for such groups, which is just as a guide.  Other menus can be creatd according to budget, taste and with or without wine included in the price.

Ladies Luncheon Smaple Menu – Rotary Club

Leek & Potato Broth with Smoked Bacon

Caesar Salad with Ciabatta Croutons

Smoked Salmon with Caper Berries & Horseradish.

A Tian of Mozzarella, Tomato & Basil with baby shoots

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Fillet of Salmon with Asparagus & Orange Hollandaise

Breast of Chicken with Crab & Prawns with Seafood Sauce

Fillet of Lamb with Cous Cous, Moroccan Vegetable tagine.

Breast of Duckling with Drambuie & Cherries

Passionfruit Cheesecake

Raspberry Panna Cotta

Chocolate Fondant with warm cherries and ice cream

White chocolate & Raspberry velvet.

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coffee or tea

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½ Bottle of quality Rioja per person

Esteban´s is located in Carrer De La Purissima 4 – Old Town – Levante – Benidorm 03501

Reservations Tel 965 853 883  Mob 615 453 866

Website www.realbenidorm.net/estebans

Cast your minds back 20 years, to the new craze that was sweeping Britain  and holiday destinations like Benidorm, dining out! Going along to the local for a beer to discover that food was now being offered in Benidorm bars and at your local. Chicken and chips, scampi, fisherman’s platter, served in a basket with chips. I remember chewing on paper serviette which had stuck to my chips in the bottom of the plastic basket, mmmmmm! This was the start of a new dining revolution, called eating out.

Over the years trends have certainly moved on very quickly and no more so than in the many Benidorm restaurants and pubs.  Along came the Levante steakhouses, which at the time was like haute cuisine.  Back in the UK used to look forward to popping down to the local beefeater inn, on a Sunday evening, for deep fried mushrooms with garlic dip, then a rump steak, with peppercorn sauce, with 1 peppercorn in it, which, incidentally had been made in a factory unit down the road, and supplied in individual bags, which could be warmed in hot water. This was garnished with half an over grilled tomato and watercress that had wilted on the warm plate. Oh, don’t forget the tinned mushrooms too. 

Then the pizza and pasta revolution came in along with KFC, and the burger chains which sprang up all over Benidorm to feed the 4 million plus tourists who visit our resort every year. Some people love it, but, I am certainly not sure.  I find most of these retail offerings are not particularly good to eat, and the temperature of the food, certainly could, and no doubt, should be hotter!  My favourite trend then came in. Chinese and Indian restaurants and the take away were appearing on the high street and across Benidorm too!  What a fantastic concept it was.  Out for a good booze up at Café Benidorm then stop off for special fried rice or a Kebab on the way back to the hotel!

My career was certainly changing with these trends too. Even people coming to restaurants wanted food with the ethnic influences. When I moved to the Millennium Stadium as the Executive Chef, retail food was certainly looking for the ethnic and middle eastern touch, as opposed to the Pie, pasty and sausage roll diet, the punters had been used too – especially in Holiday hot spots like Benidorm.  One thing I had to realise was that, whatever we did, it had to be available to 74,000 people, during a 15 minute window at half time. The idea we came up with was, wait for it, a Chicken Balti Pie!

Now, I am living here in Benidorm, Spain, and with all the experience of the last 20 years behind me, it’s back to creating dishes with a twist.  To me, it’s very important to take a quality ingredient, be it a Tuna steak, breast of chicken or a fillet steak, cook it as quickly and as simply as possible, well seasoned, then plate with some nice quirky leaves or shoots for garnish.  What we are using at the moment at Esteban´s restaurant are continental leaves like Rocket, Frissee, Oak Leaf and Lollo Rosso.  These are readily available at the Benidorm markets and supermarkets, and are a step up from the iceberg lettuce, tomato wedge and lemon wedge, which used to be the standard garnish for everything.  They are a so much fresher taste to the bog standard lettuce, and certainly enhance the appearance and taste of any dish.  We are also using fresh herb oils, balsamic syrup and different shoots, like pea shoots, alfalfa sprouts, baby basil sprigs and garlic sprouts giving our dishes that special unique Esteban´s touch!  Certainly different to the chopped curly parsley of the old days!  All these ingredients are great to use and readily available to the professional chef in Benidorm and house cook too. Try a few of the above leaves and dressings with supper tonight, you’ll be pleasantly surprised how fresh and zingy everything becomes.

Next time you do a salad for dinner, put a simple dressing over it before you serve. It will certainly lift the salad. Dressings are so easy to make. Take an empty washed out Jam jar. Squirt some honey in, a teaspoon of grain mustard, squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper, then some extra virgin olive oil. Put the lid on, shake really well, pour over the salad, toss, then serve. Any dressing can be kept in the jar, in the fridge. When it’s finished, wash the jar and keep for the next dressing.

So there you have it a little history of dining trends and how thing have changed over the past 20 years or so both back home and in Benidorm.  It has taken a little longer for fresh ideas to reach the kitchens of Benidorm pubs, cafe´s and restaurants, but if you ask around great food is out there in holiday Benidorm.  Seek and you shall find and enjoy good food.

Author – Steve Jones – Creative Chef – Estebans Restaurant Benidorm

To book a table at Estebans in Benidorm and to see this seasons menu please visit their website at www.realbenidorm.net/estebans

Steve Jones owner and creative Chef at Esteban´s Restaurant in Benidorm old town, talks of the delights of Winter Comfort food.  And offers readers an insight into preparing this seasons customers choice from Esteban´s new menu.

“ As TV chefs become more famous and cookery programmes more popular, comfort food and “old school” become phrases well used by the likes of Gordon Ramsey & Gary Rhodes.  So what is comfort food?  Well, comfort food to me takes me back to the long, cold winter nights in the UK, stuck in a traffic jam, on the way home from work, fantasising about what I would love to eat. Sausage & mash, stew & dumplings, curry & rice, mmmmmmm!

So, during the surprisingly cool winter months here in Benidorm, I try to bring a little “comfort food” to the menu at Esteban’s, restaurant – but with a twist!  One of the dishes we are currently running with at the restaurant is Lamb & Root Vegetable Crumble, which sounds straight forward enough, but is a surprisingly complex dish.  What I love to do is take old traditional recipes, strip them down into ingredients, then put them back together using slightly different ingredients, cooking techniques & presentation.  This particular dish has been taken from the Traditional Lamb Hotpot, from turn of the century Northern England.

As a Welshman, lamb has always been my most popular meat to both eat and cook with, when I moved to Benidorm to set up my own restaurant, it was hard to find good Lamb.  Spain certainly isn´t as green as the valleys of Wales, and, it doesn’t rain every day like it does there! The lamb here is certainly much smaller and more fatty, so New Zealand or imported is more widely used by the restaurants of Benidorm.  Also the cost element comes into the equation too, so I tend to go for the lesser cuts and work on them a little more.

Here is how you can prepare this delicious comfort dish, for foodies, yourself:  For the Esteban´s new lamb dish,  use shoulder of lamb, which is readily available  from local Benidorm butchers.  I buy the whole shoulder and trim back quite a lot of the surface fat, then marinate it in local Jalon Valley Vino Tinto, with fresh garlic & rosemary for at least 24 hours.  Then, take it from the marinade, dry and brown in a really hot pan until nice and brown.  Slightly different to the Traditional lamb hotpot recipe. The shoulder should then be braised in the marinade for 5 hours in a really low oven, this cooks the meat really slowly and renders any fat away, leaving simply delicious and tender Lamb. It also gives you a chance to go and have a siesta!

Once the meat is cook, take it from the cooking liquid, and strip the meat from the bone while it is still hot. This allows it to be stripped really easily. The meat is now beautifully tender and flavoured with the wonderful local wine, rosemary & garlic.  Leaving the Lamb to cool, the liquid should then be boiled rapidly until it has reduced, this concentrates the flavour.

Then take local seasonal root vegetables such as carrot, swede, turnip & parsnip, straight from the local market, peel and dice them, then blanch them in salted water, until half cooked.  Drain thoroughly then roast in a hot oven with black pepper and organic honey until nicely browned and slightly caramelised.  While the vegetables are roasting and the lamb cooling, along with the marinade reducing, I TOLD YOU IT WAS COMPLEX,  make a simple mashed potato, add a little cream & butter, then some chopped spring onions, for some crunch.

To assemble the dish.  Take a nice oven proof dish, pipe the mash in the bottom, then arrange the roasted vegetables over the mash and season to your taste with cracked black Pepper and Sea salt.  Arrange the ripped lamb over the top then ladle over some of the now full flavoured and thickened reduced marinade.  To finish add some dried bread which has been roughly tumbled in a food processor, with olive oil, salt n pepper and mixed herbs.  The secret here is to leave some lumps in the bread and not blend them too fine crumbs.  Scatter over the finished dish, then return to the oven for 20 minute to toast and crisp the crumble top.  Take to the table and serve or as we do in the restaurant serve in individual dishes.  The good thing about this dish is it’s an all in one type dish with the meat, vegetable and potatoes together.  This is great served with some steamed savoy cabbage with bacon or some wilted spinach.  The perfect Benidorm comfort food available this season at Esteban´s restaurant, in the old town – our signature dish – Not so simple, simply Lovely Lamb with Root vegetable Crumble.

I hope you have a go at this because it is a dish that is easy to do once all the ingredients are ready.  Great for a family meal or dinner party.  A really good Local Rioja is perfect with this, best enjoyed with friends, good conversation and of course Al Fresco on a warm Spring evening in Benidorm.  Enjoy.”

Estebans Restaurant is located in the old town of Benidorm just 2o meters from the Levante Beach.  Offering a 3 course set menu at 13.95€ plus a´la carte specialities.  Open from 7pm daily expect Sunday

Carrer De La Purissima 4, Old Town, Levante, Benidorm 03501

Reservations Telephone 965 853 883  Reserve by Text (Mobile) 615 453 866

Website www.realbenidorm.net/estebans

You have booked the Hotel and now the difficult choice of which restaurant to book for that romantic meal for two.  Benidorm is not always the first choice for fine dining, however tucked away in the old town there are four must visit quality restaurants.  We have made the choice easy for you by selecting the best choice for your Valentines lunch or dinner,  from the best known top British (and French) restaurants in Benidorm.  All of offer superb set menus during the Valentine week and on February 14th – The Big Day!  You can also book online, by telephone or by SMS text.

Book – Esteban’s Restaurant

Carrer De La Purissima 4, Old Town, Benidorm. Tel 965 853 883  Text 615 453 866

Located just 25 meters from the Levante beach you will discover Esteban´s.  A cosy small restaurant offering the very best of local and International cuisine with many unusual and experimental dishes.  Ideal for couples who enjoy fine dining at a price which leaves you feeling very satisfied.  This year they are also celebrating their first very successful year with a Weekend Feast of 4 Courses with Wine from February 12th to the 14th at just 15.50€ per person.  Their standard set menu comes in at an amazing 13.95€  A top choice.  Book online and see a sample menu on their website plus Trip Advisor reviews.

Book – Michaels Restaurant

Calle La Biga 15, Old town, Benidorm. Tel 966 801 346 Text 676 216 168

Michael the larger than life owner of Michael´s Restaurant is one of the Costa Blanca´s most well known British restaurateurs.  Located in the center of the old town you will discover a large, quality dining restaurant, famous for incredible value and a range of over 100 dishes to choose from.  There is a big feast of 5 courses available for Valentines week at just 17.95€ per person.  A popular choice with Benidorm regulars.  The standard menu offers a great set “Menu del Dia” of three courses for just 10.95€, Michael´s is also well known for the Early Bird 7.95€ Menu, for those who like to dine early or enjoy a very late lunch! Book online by telephone or SMS Text.

Book – Paneils Restaurant

Calle de Palma 12, Old Town, Benidorm. Tel 965 850 585 Text 626 322 624

Just off the pedestrian street in the center of Benidorm old town shopping quarter, you will find Paneils Restaurant, which has been established for six years.  Afirm favourite with with a good following from not just visitors but also local residents.  Offering a smart restaurant with an “Art Deco” twist.  During the Valentine´s week dine on a fine menu of 4 courses with Cava and Canapes for just 14.95€ per person.  Paneils are also pleased to announce that they are now open 7 days a week.  And for the Winter / Spring season are offering a Sunday Roast Lunch from 3pm.  Well known for great hospitality and their popular “Curry Feasts” Book online, by telephone or by text.

Book – The Vagabond French Restaurant

Carrer De La Palma 17, Old Town, Benidorm. Tel or Text 636 146 985

Benidorm´s only authentic French restaurant established since 2007 and the chosen eatery for those in the know on the Costa Blanca.  Owner and Chef Frederic has for many years operated restaurants in places as diverse as New York, Glasgow and of course France.  Customers can enjoy great French cooking at it´s best from the set menu of three course for just 13.95€.  Book early for Valentine´s Day in this small and cosy restaurant in Benidorm old town. Check out their website for a sample menu and latest customer reviews from Trip Advisor.

So there you have it the very best of fine dining in Benidorm, enjoy your Romantic meal for two and do remember to book early as all the above restaurants are popular and fill up quick especially on Valentine´s day.  If you have still not booked a Hotel for the night check our recommended Romantic Spanish Hotels.

For more information about dining out in Benidorm to suit any pocket visit the Benidorm Restaurant Guide.

Why not write a Benidorm restaurant review in the comments section below and let your favourite restaurant know that you Love them as much as your significant other!