Ricard Camarena Restaurant

Ricard Camarena is the best-known chef in Valencia, and his flagship restaurant is the city's leading fine dining address. It holds two Michelin stars and a Michelin Green Star for sustainable practice, along with three Repsol Suns, Spain's own restaurant guide. It occupies part of Bombas Gens, a former hydraulic pump factory on the Avinguda de Burjassot that now houses the Centre d'Arts Digitals.

The cooking is rooted in the huerta, the market gardens that surround Valencia. The restaurant works closely with nearby growers and makes decisions with them at sowing, growing and harvest, so vegetables are the starting point of most dishes rather than a side note. Seafood from the local coast completes the picture. The restaurant describes its food as personal and simple in appearance but complex in preparation, and that is a fair summary: dishes look restrained on the plate, while the depth comes from careful technique and carefully sourced produce.

There are several menus, ranging from a shorter Menú Carta, where you choose your main course and dessert after a set of starters, to longer tasting menus. Drinks are extra, with a wine pairing and a non-alcoholic pairing available. A meal lasts about two and a half to three hours, so plan an unhurried evening. Allergies and intolerances should be mentioned when you book; the restaurant tries to adapt but cannot always do so.

This is a special-occasion restaurant and priced accordingly, best suited to couples and food lovers who want to understand modern Valencian cooking at its most ambitious. Booking well ahead is essential, through the reservation button on the website. Lunch is served only on Fridays and Saturdays, and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday; the restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Smart casual dress is appropriate.

Bombas Gens is in the Marxalenes area, north of the Turia garden and a short taxi ride or a 20-minute walk from the Torres de Serranos. Before dinner it is worth looking at the building itself, a handsome piece of the city's industrial heritage. If you want to try Camarena's cooking more casually, his group also runs Central Bar in the Central Market and Canalla Bistro in the Ensanche.