One of our top reasons to travel is to try the food at each new city. Valencia didn't disappoint. From amazing burger joint in the setting of library to eating raw red shrimp the side of live fish stall in Central Market to eating life change Italian pasta with fresh truffles coming out of Cheese bowl, we had some good food in Valencia and cannot wait to go back.
We actually should start with our hotel. We stay at Hotel Cosmo in the middle old town. Prime location, amazing service, cute rooms with nice outdoor terrace. We stayed in room 502 and highly recommends it.
As for food, here is a run down
Breakfast / Lunch
- Bar Cosmo is in the hotel we are staying and where we had free cooked to order and buffet breakfast everyday around 11:30. yes their breakfast end at noon :-) We got this comped because we had some AC and room issue first day. I was impressed with the variety of their food and how late it was offered (until noon)
- Almalibre Acai house for lunch first day when we arrived. didn't realize it was most vegan with one or two egg dish for lunch which we were too late to order. We went with Falafel burger - amazing and Coconut acai bowl - accidently ordered two but we finished it all :-)
- Le Pepica - it has a low rating of 3.5 on Tripadvisor but we went anyway as it is the oldest paella restaurant in valencia from the late 1800s. It was actually pretty good. We had the chicken and rabit Paella Valenciano and also the Valenciano salad. Both quite tasty and this restaurant is quite large and right by the beach in Valencia. Beach in Valencia is about a 20 min uber ride from old town. It was fun for a day to visit. We were there from 10:30 to 2:30. Sand is very fine although the waves are pretty strong. this place is also open for dinner
Dinner
- Secreto restaurant - just 4 minute walk from us. We had amazing pork dish and pretty good
octupus dish. I would give it at least 4 stars. The service can be warmer, but food was really yummy - Marisqueria L'orsea - I would say don't ask for grilled sole. That was dry and not good, but the seared scallop and razer clams dishes were amazing there. It is a whole experience too where you to the fresh seafood counter to order your dinner. It's a bit gimicky especially I wasn't happy with our main dish, but the other stuff was pretty good.
- Hundred burger - it has a burger called singular that apparently is rated one of the top 25 burgers in the world. the location was also cool - looked like the inside of an ivy-league school library. very swanky for a burger place and they had an amazing vegan salad as well
- Latte & Farina - in the top 5 of all restaurant in Valencia. we had their signature dish - Linguini with mushroom and cream sauce served from a Cheese bowl - it was enough for both of us and not at all seem heavy. We added a whole summer truffle for only 7 Euros. it was amazing. worth the hype
- Alenar restaurante - very traditional spanish tapas place. The gazpacho soup was amazing and include some seafood, Russian salad is egg and potatoes and so yummy. didn't care as much for the cold cured fish dish. Love the all you can drink Moscato bottle he gave us at the end with the bill. So good.
Snacks
- TKO tacos - open until 1am with 1 euro tacos. I went twice for snack once at 12:40am. pretty good tacos for the price. love the beef one
- Llaollao - yummy yogurt place - I got passion fruit sauce and love it. Hubby tried cherry sauce. they also have pistachio cream topping. I wanted to try but just forgot. It's supposed to be similar to dubai chocolate
- Santa Catalina cafe - famous for their Horchata and Fartons. definitely get the drink with sugar. tried without and didn't taste right. We heard it's make of Oat milk
- Central market - last but not the least. This is a daily market until 3pm with 50+stalls of different produce type, We had the raw red shrimp, raw oyster, and boiled shrimp snack. I also bought delicious fresh fruits there.
