Atrio - Cáceres
Tables surround an interior courtyard
Rating: 17/20
Where: Cáceres, Spain
When: Dinner for 2 on 24 March 2023
Cost per Person: Tasting menu 235 Euro, Wine pairing 100-170 Euro
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Iberian pork is used in every single dish
TL;DR - Should you visit Atrio, one of Spain's newest three Michelin star restaurants? It comes down to your reaction to two questions:
Do you mind long car rides? The closest major airport for the restaurant is a three hour drive away.
Do you like Iberico pork? Every single dish on the tasting menu includes said pork. Even the desserts.
If either of those raises a red flag, then this restaurant is probably not for you. Otherwise, please read on.
Three Michelin star restaurants are supposed to be worth “a special journey”. Since Michelin makes money by people wearing out their tires, creating the Michelin Guide probably seemed like a good idea for the company. Atrio is a restaurant/hotel located in Cáceres, which is in western Spain near the border to Portugal. When the restaurant's website mentions Madrid as the closest airport - “only” three hours away by car -, you know that you're in for a special journey indeed.
But luckily, the restaurant's location is not chosen at random (or adversarially, as one might suspect). Cáceres is right in the middle of Iberian pork country, where one of Spain's most famous culinary delights is produced. Abundant local acorns result in the prized taste of the pricy (and prized) meat.
The restaurant is right in the middle of Cáceres' old town that sits on a hill overlooking the more modern parts of the city. Medieval buildings are all around, and the restaurant (and its associated hotel) occupy one of them. But once inside, one instantly jumps hundreds of years into the future - the interior is entirely modern - this must have been a major renovation.
Atrio owns an impressive wine cellar, and guests are invited to tour it before beginning their dinner. The depth of the collection is quite astonishing. For example, where else can one admire almost a hundred vintages of Chateau d'Yquem, nicely arranged in a circle to highlight the change in color from light yellow to dark brown as the years pass. Unfortunately, a few years ago, the cellar also attracted the interest of burglars who ended up disappearing with wine priced at $1.7 million. Luckily (or unluckily, if you're planning your own heist), security seems to have improved since then.
After the wine cellar, we were led to the dining room which wrapped around an interior courtyard, so that we could see the kitchen on the other side. There were white tablecloths, but otherwise the design was modern. The restaurant was completely full during our dinner, which made the room a bit busy, since there was an unending stream of dishes being delivered from the kitchen. Luckily, we were sitting at a corner table, and that led to a somewhat a calmer experience. (And maybe for that reason, our table reportedly had seen the highest number of proposals in the restaurant.)
Atrio only served a single tasting menu, and yes, almost every dish contained some form of Iberico pork, but generally it played second fiddle to another main ingredient. I confirmed with our server, that, yes, this is not a temporary thing: it's all pork all of the time. And yes, they can accommodate the rare person who doesn't eat pork, but he seemed a bit puzzled about why they would come here in the first place (“we get a few of those from time to time”).
There was nothing to choose regarding the food, but wine pairings were available with four, five or six glasses at 100, 130 and 170 Euro, respectively. The wines were pretty good, but generally covered multiple courses, so one shouldn't expect a perfect fit with any dish - suspiciously, the four and six glass pairings disagreed even on whether dishes went with a white or a red wine. Maybe that's why we received barely any introductions of the wines when they were poured. Another issue with the pairing was that it started pretty late (around the tenth dish), so ordering an additional aperitif is a good idea. Or just stick with a bottle, like most tables did - our sommelier seemed a bit disappointed when we ordered pairings...
The first bites were served not long after we sat down, in fact our table was rarely without anything edible, since the courses appeared in very short succession. We felt a bit hurried, and the entire dinner took less than 2 1/2 hours, which was pretty ambitious (so to speak) for a tasting menu consisting of 22 courses. We definitely would have preferred a slightly more relaxed pacing.
Anyway... our first bite was a "sandwich" made from paper-thin potato slices, filled with goat cheese and dill. The slices were so thin that one could see through to the cheese and dill inside. A very light dish with a great crunch. I couldn't really taste the cheese, but the dill was quite pronounced. Nice 17.
Flaxseed and amaranth crackers were filled with a black olive tapenade. The crackers were a bit soft - not too much of a crunch here -, but the olive flavor was very strong. A lovely bite 18.
The next dish was literally handed to us, it was a choux pastry filled with smoked bacon and herbs. The pastry was lovely, and the bacon flavor came through quite strongly 18.
A trio of bites appeared thereafter, all with seafood ingredients. First was a little crunchy cup filled with tuna belly, lardo and caviar. The lardo was overpowering, to the point where it was hard to taste the tuna at all. Nicely crunchy, but somehow this bite didn't come together as a whole for me 15.
Salmon cream and tapioca were the main ingredients of the next dish. Decorated with a pretty (and crunchy) butterfly-shaped crisp, I liked this a bit better than the tuna. The subtle salmon flavor was pretty nice 15.
Rounding out the seafood trio was a terrine of eel and pork, served with apples and some pepper. This dish achieved something interesting, when eaten in one bite, the first taste one noticed was of the fresh apple, the pork flavor developed sometime after that, and the pepper kicked in even later. What a nice progression to get out of a single mouthful. On the other hand, the flavors didn't really wow me: this dish felt a bit too light in the taste-department, and the eel was barely detectable at all 15.
Next, a so-called “hamonnaise”. A sorbet of mayonnaise sat on top of pieces of ham and a jelly of tomato water (I think) was draped over it. This was served with a soup containing the same three ingredients (tomato, ham, mayonnaise). Unfortunately, this was another dish that fell pretty flat for me since it barely tasted of anything: not much from the jelly or the sorbet, and I didn't detect any ham and hardly any tomato flavors in the soup 14. My dining companion (aka my sister) would have gone as low as a 12 for this dish. Oof.
Another trio of bites were the kitchen's play on a charcuterie board. (Incidentally, this was the point where the wine pairing finally started.) A “salsiccia iberico” was served with a black pepper emulsion in a crispy wheat cup. This little bite was definitely very yummy, but tasted pretty much like salami on a slice of bread. I'm sure (and/or hope) that there was some culinary trickery involved to get here, but the result felt almost too simple - a salami bread is not exactly three-star territory. Unfortunately, I missed the description of (and was unable to taste) what was in the golden pearls that topped this dish 15.
Next, drops of pork pate, mustard and pickled onions were served on a banana crisp. Try as I might, I couldn't taste the banana, but I suspect that that was intentional - a strong banana flavor might have made this dish too weird. As it was, it tasted like a good pate with pickles on a nicely crunchy cracker. Plus, the dish was pretty light, always an welcome achievement when pate is the main ingredient 17. My sister liked this even better than me, 18.
A pork tartare was served with watercress leaves on a cracker. This cracker was very hard in consistency - a bit lighter crunchiness might have been better. The pork came in pretty large chunks, making this dish feel rustic and heavier than previous dishes. Several of the staff independently mentioned that this was their favorite dish on the menu. It was not bad - I liked in particular the strong iberico pork flavor -, but my own favorites were still to come 17.
Our next dish had to be eaten without utensils. And there was a lot to unpack here. Out waiter described it as a turnover, the menu claimed that it was a potsticker, but it mostly looked like a taco. Texture-wise, the dough reminded me a bit of thick, elastic, fried dumpling skin. This international dough of mystery was shaped into a cup and filled with a tomato cumin soup, grapes, curry and flower petals. Since the cup rested on a bed of toasted sesame seeds, some of these also ended up in the dish and added some nuttiness and crunch. The tomato/cumin combination was apparently based on a classic local soup. How did it all taste? I liked the result quite a lot, but just like the skin, its contents defied categorization. There was some nice curry spice, but as a whole this dish felt neither particularly Indian or Spanish or Asian. It was in a class of its own, I suppose 17.
Pork tonnato was a play on the traditional Italian dish of vitello tonnato, with the veal replaced by (obviously) Iberian smoked pork loin. A tuna emulsion contained anchovies and was seasoned with fresh ground pepper. Some capers made an appearance as well. This was a very well done dish, with the pork nicely cooked and the emulsion quite tasty. Interestingly, the pork made this dish noticeably more rustic than its veal-based inspiration. Usually, when a three Michelin starred restaurant takes a traditional dish as an inspiration, the result is more elegant and refined than the original. This one went (successfully) the other way 18. The chef stopped at our table at this point, and was infectiously giddy when discussing its genesis. Talk about taking the “everything is better with bacon” philosophy to its fine-dining conclusion.
Out next dish came in black-and-white. Squid ink had been used to color (if that’s the right word) a brioche that was filled with a pork stew. It was sitting next to thin slices of calamari that had been cooked like pasta. Finally, a squid ink sauce was used to finish the dish table-side. Less would have been more here - less of the bread in the center of the dish that is. This brioche was quite heavy, and tasted fried, mushy, and not really of pork at all. Maybe a 14 if rated by itself. The squid pasta and sauce however were heavenly: almost melting in one's mouth, the squid was excellently cooked, and the sauce was perfectly seasoned to go along with it. This part of the dish would have been a 19. Generously, overall a 18.
Back to color with the following dish: bits of raw scallops, pork rinds, and tomatoes were served with an onion/celery/yuzu sauce. This dish came across like a high-end ceviche. The lovely sauce provided lots of acidity, and arguably tasted more of lemon than yuzu. While the scallops were perfect, flavorful and creamy, the pork rinds were a bit too fatty for my taste, although they did add a nice crunch. We also felt that the dish had a nice spiciness to it. Very good 19 (my sister thought 20). It’s curious to note that the last two dishes would both have been better if the pork had been left out…
“Iberian flan” was the description of our next course. An Iberian pork jowl had been (very) slow-cooked for 70 hours at 40 degrees Celsius. What started out as essentially a solid piece of fat ended up with a wonderful melt-in-your-mouth consistency. Considering its nice porky flavor, this by itself would already have been a quite impressive dish. But when you add a wild mushroom reduction that was bursting of flavor, salt and umami, and heap some very nice caviar on top, you have a real winner 19. I was even considering a 20, but in the end eating a giant piece of pork fat still seemed a tiny bit off-putting, even though it tasted great.
Lobster had been glazed with pork fat, and was served with a Thai green curry sauce, lemongrass, some coconut foam, fried broccoli crowns and chickpea crisps. The lobster was very nicely done, but the lemongrass flavor overpowered the otherwise very good curry. The charred broccoli, bucking the Asian theme here, felt a little out of place 18.
More seafood: a crawfish was served with a fried pork cheek and a creamy poultry sauce that (I think) also incorporated pork cheek. Apparently, this was a recipe that the chef invented a long time ago. The langoustine was lovely and perfectly cooked; the pork had a nice crunch but otherwise felt a bit too fatty for the rest of this dish. Also, I wish that the sauce had been served warmer than just lukewarm. A nice dish, but it didn't fully come together for me, missing some “je ne sais quoi” 18. My sister thought that only salt was missing - 19.
Our final savory course was partridge. Following a historical recipe from the 16th century, it had been macerated in port wine with a touch of chocolate. There were also some shaved truffles, and a consommé of a partridge brandy reduction. Our first taste association for this dish was “Christmas”. That was because of the use of cinnamon and other spices that one nowadays associates with that time of the year. I suppose that's medieval cooking for you - salt was more expensive than gold, so cinnamon, nutmeg, and other spices had to stand in to season the meat. The result here was much better than I expected, an edible history lesson 18. My sister disliked the mushy, creamy, liver-like consistency of the dish, and would have liked some bread with it (indeed, no bread was served during the entire dinner). She would have rated this a 15.
On to the pre-dessert: the “pig cracker” - a pig-shaped crisp containing cheese and jamon. More chewy than cracker-y, it was quite fatty and tasted only faintly of pork 13.
Better was a plate with creamy sheep's milk cheese, quince, matcha and an ice cream made from the same cheese. This tasted like a deconstructed cake containing pieces of cheese. Not amazing, but decent 16.
Chocolate was served with a chocolate cracker, creme brûlée, the fatty part of jamon, and some coffee ice cream on top. Our server used a pepper mill to add some ground coffee beans as well. This dessert was a bit heavy. It was big on chocolate, but the jamon was barely an aftertaste 16.
Our next dish looked like a cherry, but wasn't one. In fact, it tasted like a cherry cake mousse and was made from chocolate and cherry juice. A very pretty presentation for sure 17.
Petit fours concluded our meal - without any hidden pork this time. Long sticks of coconut macaroons were fine but nothing special 15. A vanilla cream puff was pleasant 16. Olive oil madeleines tasted a bit lemony - good but straightforward 16. Lemon macaroons (the other kind) were nicely fruity 17. Strawberry pate de fruits were enjoyable, but tasted more of strawberry jam than of fresh fruit 16. Finally, a chocolate truffle was fine, but heavy, and nowhere near the best chocolates I've had 15.
Overall: Iberian pork is one of the most quintessential Spanish ingredients. I suppose that makes this dinner one of the most Spanish of Spain's three-star restaurants. Almost everything on the menu was enjoyable, but only a few courses were solidly in three-star territory. The majority of the dishes were either too rustic/simple or a bit low on flavor. This was an interesting experience no doubt, but given its singular focus on pork, I don't know how much of the menu actually changes over time. Add to that an extremely rushed service and the amount of driving needed to get here, I probably won't be returning in the near future 17.
