El Rincón de Juan Carlos 2*, Tenerife – Amazing Experience September 2024

by legionpichon

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  1. legionpichon

    My fiancé and I visited Tenerife on September and as it isn’t destination often found here, I thought I would share some thoughts on our meals there. We did 3 “fine dining” meals and enjoyed them all. I´ll start with our favorite “El Rincón de Juan Carlos”, a two Michelin star located at the Royal Hideaway Corales Beach Resort in South Tenerife. If you want my final thoughts you can skip to the last 2 paragraphs.

    Restaurant is located at the fifth floor, we were greeted at the entrance by Maria Jose Placencia, Maître and sommelier. The dining room is gorgeous and offers a panoramic view of the sea, the sun was low, and the tones gave the restaurant a beautiful warm feel (for most of the food photos for the I changed the tone to be more neutral).

    We arrived at the first time slot and we had the restaurant for ourselves for at least 20 minutes. They offer a tasting menu for 170 euros and 3 different pairings, my fiancé went for the longest pairing which was at 180 euros for 11 glasses and I had to settle for small sips of her pairing as I had to drive on hour back to our Airbnb as we were staying at the northern part of Tenerife. English isn’t my first language so there may be some mistranslations by my part but the structure of the menu was:

    Welcome

    -Bite of Nori with English Foie Gras Cream -Shrimp (Quisuilla) -Roll Lobster (Bogavante) -Tartlet with miso mayonnaise -Aged Beef Tartlet with consome gelée and migas.
    *Great Start. We loved the Nori with Foie Gras cream, the Shrimp “Roll” and Lobster tartlet were also good. The Aged beef wasn’t too interesting *Bread was offered, I believe at an additional cost. The bread and butter was great so for the small extra charge was worth it.

    **First Station:**

    -Onion Soup with broken flan -Pickled Tomatoes with Bacalao Pil Pil Dumpling -(Empanadilla) of daikon and shrimp (carabiniero) with caviar -Seafood Salad Cured Medregal -Canarian Blood Sausage Nougat with almond praline.
    *The pickled tomatoes were the first wow bite from the meal, intense, balanced, each had a different topping, the best bite was the one with coriander flower. The blood Sausage is a staple from El Rincón de Juan Carlos we can see why, it was amazing, deep intense flavor and a profile that walked a fine line between sweet and savory it may have been the best savory dish from the night. The onion soup was hearty, we didn’t liked the dumpling that much, the seafood salad was fresh with interesting textures and the cured mackerel was also good but simple.

    **Second Station:**

    -Shrimp (Bogavante) -Parmesan Raviolis with lentil soup -Celery snail (shape), celery toffle and fried pinenuts -Cherne (fish) with white cherne sauce -Lamb Neck.
    *Overall we liked the “second station” more that the first, they were all pretty good although none of them beat the Blood Nougat. Parmesan Raviolis were good but I was expecting more of the parmesan flavor which paired with the soup ended up mellow. The Celery “snail” was great, interesting textures and intense flavors coming from the fried pinenuts. Fish was great but nothing that felt new here and we loved the Lamb Neck, it could’ve used something acidic or sweet for balance, but we loved it nonetheless.

    **Desserts:**

    -Tomato, cucumber, mustard ice-cream, passionfruit and herbs -Pear, yogurt and yeast ice-cream, crackling pralinéCorn -Millefeuille, toasted buttercream and black garlic.
    *The Tomato dessert was ok but what came after was amazing. Jonathan Padrón oversees desserts, and his desserts were some of the best we’ve ever tasted. Balanced, intense, full of depth and flavor and I’m beating myself for not asking for a second round of those millefeulle’s . The petite fours came set up, with a big tree, they were also the best we’ve had, they ranged from good to excellent and even though we were already full we finished almost everything. We’ve been to El Celler de Can Rocca only once but we Enjoyed Jonathan desserts much more.

    We had an amazing time at El Rincón de Juan Carlos, for a two star they really punch above their weight and I wouldn’t be supervised if they get a 3rd star in the near future. Dining room is beautiful, service was warm and extremely attentive without being intrusive, perfect balance for us. We really enjoyed the pairing (even though I only had small sips) Maria Jose Placencia Maître and sommelier was amazing and she shared a lot of knowledge regarding their local wines which we loved.

    Even though this is a 2 Michelin star, it maintains the heart of a family restaurant run by the two Padron brothers (Juan Carlos and Jonathan) and their wives Maria José and Raquel. Some dining restaurant can feel soulless, and even if they have amazing products and techniques there isn’t something unique or interesting about them. EL Rincón de Jaun Carlos is the opposite of this, we had the opportunity to sit at gorgeous dining room, taste some interesting combinations based on local ingredients paired with great local wine, altogether with a warm and attentive service. At 170 euros for the tasting menu, we thought it was a steal, and we’d come back every time.

  2. g0ing_postal

    We went there last year and really enjoyed it as well. I thought the dessert tree was really fun.

    Did you also go to San ho?

  3. PassRevolutionary254

    Spanish fine dining (and wine) remain as one of the best deals out there!

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