A corner of Galicia in Marbella is the motto of the Vila do Grove restaurant and perfectly describes what a diner who appreciates quality will find in this establishment located in front of Puerto Banús and close to the Casino.
This restaurant, founded in 1999, exudes such a Galician aroma that even the wood, granite and slate that form part of its structure and decoration were brought from Galicia at the express wish of its founder, who even brought a stonemason from his native land to carve the columns on the façade of the establishment.
Its current manager, Alejandro García Peláez, explains the gestation of the business: “It was the dream of my father-in-law, Jaime, who wanted to set up something truly representative of what a Galician restaurant is, inspired by the stately manor houses, and to bring the products from there”.
“Here,” he continues, “the idea is to have a representation of all the Galician cuisine, I say all because we serve everything from lacón con grelos to seafood that is alive in the fish tank and is taken out of it when the client requests it. We can find oysters, clams, fine clams, which I think no one works in Marbella, lobster, crab, and spider crabs and crabs depending on the time of year. As for the fish, we bring from there for example the hake of skewer, the tails of black monkfish, the wild turbot, all pieces of more than four kilos if possible”.
Among the most demanded dishes of the extensive variety offered by Vila do Grove’s menu, its manager points out the turbot, hake and sole. “Apart from grilled sole”, he points out, “we have a sole in Albariño sauce that is very popular with both Spaniards and foreigners”.
Goose barnacles, says Alejandro, are a very unknown product for foreign customers, although when they try them they start to like them as much as Spaniards do. “Even when they ask for it,” he explains, “you have to show them how to eat it, because they don’t even know how to catch it”.
As for meats, what the Vila do Grove restaurant mainly works with is, of course, the Galician blonde cow. “We’ve been doing it since it opened. We have always worked with the slaughterhouses or suppliers there, selecting the cows. It is very important that it is a selected cow, first because it is rare that it is stabled, it can be in the barn for part of the day, but the rest is outside grazing, and in the last phase of its life it has a prolonged fattening with corn, cereals, and that gives it a special aroma and flavor”. Among its dishes, the restaurant offers sirloin steak, sirloin steak of Galician blonde and the T-bone steak, which for me is the pinnacle of the flavor of this type of cow.
As for desserts, all are made in the restaurant and one of the most typical are the filloas, a kind of pancake usually served filled with pastry cream, “of course made here”, or it can be made with orujo, which is flambéed in front of the customer.
The queimada, the famous Galician liquor that is prepared with fire, is made on demand. “If a table asks for it, we look for my father-in-law, who does the ritual of the incantation,” Alejandro explains.
In the restaurant’s cellar there is no shortage of the best-known Albariño and Ribeiro wines and other Galician wines that are beginning to reap fame, such as the Mencía reds and Godello whites.
The restaurant is open every day except Sunday from one to four in the afternoon and from seven to twelve at night. It has capacity for more than 120 diners between its two floors. Vila do Grove also has a tavern facet with hot and cold tapas. “We can find”, says Alejandro, “from a Russian salad, pickled mussels or anchovies in vinegar all made here, to a spectacular potato omelette, which is what most people ask for at the bar… and in the hot part we have everything and it varies”.
“For me”, continues the manager of Vila do Grove, “the most important thing is that we bring the best product and that we try to do it with all the love in the world, because Galician cuisine does not really hide anything, it does not salty, and we have to do it well, both in fish and meat and seafood: product and that’s it. As I tell the maitre d’, Daniel, here we sell food but we give happiness, and that is what we want: that people leave really happy”.
VILA DO GROVE RESTAURANT
C/ Las Malvas, On Line building, Local 2. 29660 NUEVA ANDALUCIA – MARBELLA
Tel. 952 81 34 15 – viladogrove@gmail.com – www.restauranteviladogrove.com
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