Puente Romano Marbella: Sea Grill Begins a New Chapter at the Marble Seafood Bar

Sea Grill, the signature restaurant of Puente Romano Marbella, has been completely transformed: it is now a more intimate dining room, with daily menus that follow what the sea and the season provide.

Also available in: Deutsch

Choose the fish, then the method

The centre of the new Sea Grill at Puente Romano Marbella is a marble seafood bar where the day's finest catch lies on ice. Chef Leonardo Ferchero and his team explain what is at its best that day, and guests decide how it should be prepared in the open kitchen: grilled over charcoal, baked in a salt crust, fried in the Andalusian tradition or served as crudo. The menu adds two regional styles, a la roteña with tomatoes, onions and peppers, and bilbaína, pan-fried with garlic, chilli and olive oil.

The list of origins reads like a map of the Spanish coast: langoustines from Huelva, XL red prawns, red mullet and snapper from Marbella, tiger and scarlet prawns from Cádiz, lobster from O'Grove and spiny lobster from A Guarda. Caviar is offered as Oscietra, Kaluga or Beluga.

Growers with first names

The restaurant names the people behind its produce. Wild seabass and langoustines come straight from the boats, wild asparagus from Antonio in Sierra de Yeguas, rare tomatoes from Emilio in Coín, picked on the morning they are served, and baby peas from Domingo, grown on the resort's own organic farm. Wild aromatic herbs from the coast complete the picture. On the menu this becomes a section called The Seagrill Farm, with dishes such as heirloom tomato with white balsamic vinaigrette or courgette flowers with spiny lobster mousseline.

Meat lovers are not forgotten. Selected and aged cuts from Spanish pastures, among them a Black Angus T-bone of 1.2 kg and a Galician striploin, are finished and carved at the table, as is the homemade smoked salmon.

A cellar with four awards in a row

Sea Grill holds four consecutive Wine Spectator accolades, the Best of Award of Excellence, and the cellar keeps growing. The sommelier's range runs from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Pétrus and Château Margaux to Vega Sicilia and Salon Cuvée S champagne, so the bottle can follow the dish rather than the other way round.

Breakfast with a sea view

The new format also changes the start of the day. The Puente Romano breakfast, with its generous buffet and à la carte selection, is now served at Sea Grill and at La Petite Maison, daily from 7.30 to 11 am, on the sunny terrace or inside. La Petite Maison is itself a new arrival on the resort's bay, bringing the cooking of the Côte d'Azur that has made the restaurant a Riviera icon for more than three decades.

Our take

Marbella has no shortage of seafood restaurants, but few tell you who grew the peas. The new Sea Grill puts the product and its origin first and leaves the rest to the guest, from the cooking method to the bottle. Lunch and dinner are served daily from 1 pm to midnight, with the kitchen open until 11.30 pm.