Food: modern traditional
Address: Av. del Mar 1, 46712 Piles, Spain (on Google Maps)
Phone Number: +34 962 831 353
Website: www.gloriamar.es
What I paid:  37€ (per person including a menu for 25€ plus wine and espresso)
Visited: August 24, 2013

Bib Gourmand is what Guide Michelin considers a “Best value restaurant”. In comparison to the Michelin-starred restaurants were no cost for the meal should be considered, a Bib Gourmand restaurant has the price as a very important factor, so even if the restaurant is extremely good but at the same time expensive, the restaurant can not get the Bib Gourmand “label”. I have eaten on quite a few Bib Gourmand restaurants and they are usually a very good deal! This may sound that they are “less good” from a pure food perspective but on the other hand inexpensive, but let me clarify this; they all serve good to very good food (but to a fair price, and you usually pay just a fraction in comparison to Michelin-starred restaurants)! When I visited Germany with some friends a couple of months ago, we first ate at a Bib Gourmand restaurant and then, the day after, had dinner at a 3-star restaurant and all four of us thought that the Bib Gourmand restaurant was better (and we only considered the taste and creativity of the food). That is of course usually not that common, but what really is common, is that Bib Gourmand restaurants usually are well worth a visit!

The Bib Gourmand restaurant GloriaMar is a family-run business. Located on a beachfront in what seems to be a 100% tourist spot, in Platja (playa) de Piles on the Costa Blanca coast (about halfway between Alicante and Valencia) I was a little bit surprised to find this kind of restaurant on a location like this. Restaurant on Google Maps.

There were two tasting menus to choose from, one “big gastronomic menu” a 35€ and one “small gastronomic menu” a 25€. We opted for the small menu and this what we had:

Welcome snack:

Welcome snack with a view

Tuna tataki with pickled vegetables:

Tuna tataki with pickled vegetables

Tuna tataki is a Japanese dish. It is a kind of sashimi, which is thinly sliced, lightly seared raw fish. I do not consider this tuna that thinly sliced but I really liked the dish, regardless what you call it…

Fritters duo: tickets, Ibérico ham and Truffle, shrimp and lobster

Fritters duo

Sea and Mountain: 

Sea and Mountain

Then you had to choose to either go with fish (two alternatives) or meat:

Fish alternative: Supreme cod with tomato stew and crispy leeks Provencal:

One of the fish alternatives: Supreme cod

You could also have had Squid and Carabineros rice as the fish/seafood alternative (which neither of us did, so no picture…).

Meat alternative: Grilled Ibérico pig

Meat alternative: Grilled Ibérico pig

Strawberry dessert (I don’t remember the details here…):

Strawberry dessert

This dessert may look simple but it was very delicious!

A final coffee…

To summarize: Excellent location on the beachfront and you cannot possible eat a better price/performance meal than this!