I first noticed the aubergine walls of Lucas Maes Restaurant when a cascade of tiny lights appeared on them in the run up to Christmas several years ago.
Located on a slip road to the TF5, slightly back from and above the road, you might have considered it perfectly forgiveable that I hadn’t noticed the restaurant before, until you discovered that I had driven past it several times a day for years.
When I finally got round to visiting, I realised what I’d been missing.

Food with a view
Stepping onto Lucas Maes chill out patio with its commanding views across the banana plantations of La Orotava Valley to the glistening Atlantic beyond, is like entering the glossy pages of Conde Nast. Black rattan low backed settees with plump cushions cluster around candlelit coffee tables beneath an elegant canvas awning.

Inside the traditional house, Lucas has applied his eye for art and his impeccable taste to the individual styling of each of the dining rooms. Many of the floor tiles are original, a row of stained glass panels are set into the picture window that capitalises on the views. Walls are rich, warm vermillion, vibrant turquoise or cool beige and are adorned by abstract oil paintings by Jesús Torrez.
Centre stage is a large glass cabinet displaying some of the fine wines for which Lucas Maes restaurant won the Best Wine List in the Canaries award in 2009.

The culinary art
As I walk into the dining room, Lucas is in his familiar territory – behind the worktop of his open kitchen where he’s putting the finishing touches to my first course.
On a textured glass plate which appears gold beneath the spotlight, a succulent carpaccio of red tuna is rolled around a warm centre of chutney, tomato and crusty bread and placed on a bed of cream cheese. There’s a small crown of crispy noodle and a single beet leaf is leaning against the roll.

It’s his passion for preparing and presenting his dishes as an art form that has earned Lucas his reputation as a chef’s chef and one of the finest in the Canary Islands.
Nothing here is mass produced or frozen, every ingredient is freshly prepared by Lucas. From the bread rolls to the ice cream everything on the menu has the handmade by Lucas label.

I bite into a piece of the tuna and the cool flesh of the fish yields to the warm filling. It’s a delicious blend of tastes – the simple,untouched flavour of the tuna giving way to the delicate savour of the chutney and tomato and then to the hint of cream cheese.
As I scrape every last vestige from the plate, Lucas is sprinkling tiny cuts of black olives and placing beet leaves carefully onto my next course.
Three plump scallops have been gently seared and are sitting on a bed of yoghurt, lightly drizzled with curry sauce and topped with the black olives.

My first reaction is one of amazement.
“I’ve never seen fresh scallops on Tenerife!” I declare.
Lucas smiles.
“That’s because you can’t buy them here,” he tells me. “Only frozen scallops are available on Tenerife. I buy these fresh from Madrid market. Provided I get my order in before midday, it’s delivered to me the following morning.”

The scallops are the freshest and most succulent I have ever tasted. The sauce gives just a delicate hint of curry, enough to complement but not to interfere with the flavour of the scallops and the bitterness of the olives is countered by the suave yoghurt.

Just desserts
Just when I think it can’t possibly get any better, dessert arrives in the form of banana ice cream and mousse on a biscuit bed with a toffee reduction.
The fact that its presentation is worthy of a place in the Tate Gallery does not I’m afraid, stop me from ruining it. The banana ice cream on the toffee reduction reminds me of my childhood and a flavour combination long since confined to memories. The mousse on the biscuit base is a mini cheesecake sensation of taste and texture.

Fighting against the urge to pick the plate up and lick it, I prattle on and on to Lucas about how much I’ve enjoyed his cooking. Lucas just smiles his handsome, Belgian, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-the-mouth smile and goes about his culinary business.

Tenerife magazine’s five star rating for Lucas Maes
Décor – 5 stars. All the beauty of a grand, old La Orotava house with contemporary style, comfort, elegance and loving attention to detail.
Menu – 5 stars. A new menu is created every week to showcase Lucas’ innovation and capitalise on the availability of seasonal ingredients.
Food – 5 stars. This is where some of Tenerife’s top chefs come to eat on their night off. If you judge your food by its volume, this isn’t for you but if you’re a true foodie, Nirvana awaits.
Service – 5 stars. Friendly, efficient, deferential and good looking…what more could you want?

Where, when and how
Barranco de la Arena, 53 (on the Salida 32 slip road from Carretera Los Rechazos to the TF5), La Orotava; open Wed-Sun 13.00-15.30 and 19.00-23.00. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays; reservations (0034) 922 321 159.

Prices
Starters average €17, main courses average €19. There’s are two ‘degustación’ menus at €35 and €40 which allow you to sample a wide range of dishes.
The wine list is extensive to the point of bewildering, from locally produced to rare treasures and from affordable to off the chart.

Dining is one of Puerto de la Cruz’ specialities; almost 300 restaurants are scattered in and around the town providing some of the best cuisine to be found on Tenerife. Menus range from traditional Canarian, through Italian, Spanish, Austrian, Chinese and Indian to Mexican and Peruvian and from burgers to haute cuisine. And nowhere is that variety and high standard of choice more evident than in La Ranilla.
Candles dance alongside artfully simple table decorations on outdoor tables and chairs lining the cobbled streets of the old fishing district as we thread our way through them to arrive at Mil Sabores.

I’ve booked a table on the upper floor because it’s my favourite part of the old house but as we climb the stairs in the heat of the September night, I’m beginning to wonder if I should have gone for one outside instead.
Aubergine and lime green is the sort of colour scheme that only the colour blind would choose, but here, amidst the rich mahogany beams and beneath the Mudejar ceiling, it works beautifully. Yellow-green fine gauze curtains gently drape against beams and quirky food themed pictures and colourful murals adorn the walls.

The menu
… throws all four of us into turmoil. Seven choices of soup alone, sumptuous starters and saliva inducing descriptions of meat, chicken, fish and vegetarian dishes are overwhelming. Between us, there isn’t a single item that we don’t want to order and it takes what feels like an eternity before choices are finally made and conveyed to our smiling waiter.
Small complimentary hors d’oevres of tuna along with a selection of savoury breads act as appetite teasers until the soups arrive.
One of our dining companions considers himself to be something of a fish soup expert having “travelled the world on fish soup” and he happily declares that, after the amazing bouillabaisse he once enjoyed in Marseilles, his fresh seafood soup with saffron is the second best he has ever eaten.
My carrot soup with ginger and orange is the perfect balance of sweet and savoury and the watercress soup with Manchego cheese and Spanish ham is creamy and light.

Dishes
Main courses arrive together and piping hot and our first reaction as every dish is placed before is a collective “wow”. Portions are very generous and beautifully presented on elegant, rectangular plates.
The Tower of Babel ship with its crow’s nest sail is medallions of succulent beef and pork, cooked to perfection and served between crispy, light potato scallops with a hollandaise, herb sauce.
My Ángel y Diablo consists of a firm, moist chicken breast in a light, honey sauce and a savoury pork fillet in a piquant relish accompanied by crispy potato rösti and fresh broccoli with carrot juliennes and cherry tomatoes.
Dark, rich shoulder of lamb in a garlic and rosemary sauce with olives, green beans and roast potatoes is declared to be “moist, tender and delicious” while everyone agrees that the skewers of duck breast in a light pineapple sauce with fresh vegetables and couscous is possibly the leanest, tastiest and most generously portioned duck ever to appear on a restaurant plate.

Sweets
Appetites sated and thirst quenched by the soft , mellow fruits of a carafe of house red, we all agree that despite loosened belts, there’s a small compartment in the stomach reserved exclusively for chocolate and so desserts of chocolate mousse, tiramisu and profiteroles with almonds are duly ordered.

Each dish consolidates the all round excellence of Mil Sabores’ cuisine but the home made dark, crisp, rich chocolate profiteroles have to rank as the best in our known universe.

If you’ve got a special occasion while you’re on holidays in Tenerife, and even if you haven’t, I recommend at least one visit to Mil Sabores.

Tenerife Magazine’s 5 Star Rating for Mil Sabores:

Décor – 4.5 Stars – An immaculately restored traditional Canarian house dressed in contemporary, extrovert design with lots of elegant and quirky touches to discover.
Menu – 5 Stars – Innovative selection of starters, soups, main and desserts with vegetarian choices. Menu is well set out with Spanish, German and English descriptors beneath one another.
Food – 5 Stars – Generous portions; excellent cuts of meats cooked to retain moisture and flavour; fresh vegetables and deliciously decadent desserts all beautifully presented. Faultless.
Service – 5 Stars – Friendly, efficient and professional without being obtrusive. All dishes arrived together and were cleared promptly and all requests were met quickly and with genuine smiles.

Where, when and how:
Calle Cruz Verde, 5: Puerto de la Cruz; open Mon to Sat 18.30 – 23.30; Reservations (+34) 922 36 81 72

Prices:
Our three courses, beer, wine and water came to €109 for four persons.
Starters average €8; soups average €4; main courses average €12.60; sweets average €4.60.
An extensive wine menu starts from around €9

The La Laja restaurant in Costa Adeje Gran Hotel offers fine dining beautifully prepared and presented and at the sort of prices that mean you don’t have to wait for a special occasion to enjoy it.
Perfect for discerning palates.

When it comes to restaurant settings, there’s something unerringly romantic about a waterside location.
Positioned alongside the fabulous rooftop swimming pools of the Costa Adeje Gran Hotel is the cool, stylish La Laja restaurant.
Taking a table in the window, we watched the sun turn the façades of the elegant hotel gold and cast palm silhouettes into the still surface of the pools before it dyed the heavens scarlet and disappeared into the night.

When you enter the a la carte restaurant of a five star hotel in Costa Adeje, you expect that you’re going to be paying a premium, but the menu prices were no higher than the menus of many sea front restaurants.
Taking the advice of restaurant manager Rodriguez, we opted to start with the warm goat’s cheese salad with tomato and pine nut vinaigrette and the foie terrine with caramelized onions and apple purée.
For main course we chose fresh fish baked on its back served with a Bilbaine sauce and duck Magret with onion purée, sweet potato crisps and port coulis.

Freshly baked rolls and a selection of flavoured butters arrived, followed by complimentary hors-d’oeuvres of deliciously smokey salmon in teppanyaki sauce served on a bed of polenta.

As the sun bade goodnight, the first course arrived. Two perfect slices of foie terrine lay on a slate board alongside a fresh salad topped with a flower of caramelized onion, surrounded by ribbons of apple purée and finished with a generous sprinkling of rock salt. The terrine was a perfect texture and melted in the mouth with a fusion of flavours; the onions were sweet and tangy and the purée complemented them both beautifully. The only flaw was the rock salt decoration which had to be carefully worked around so as not to pickle everything.

The warm goat’s cheese lay on a fresh salad, topped with a piquant vinaigrette of pine nuts and tomato and drizzled with honey. The lightly grilled French goat’s cheese was rich, tangy and creamy with a slight saltiness which combined with the honey to send the taste-buds into euphoria.

For main course, the fish was a fresh dorada (bream) which was cut lengthways, grilled and served with a mild onion purée and tasty sauce of tomato and mushrooms. Cooked to perfection, the flesh was moist and flaky with good flavour and texture.
But the culinary masterpiece of the evening was Chef Pablo Aznar’s duck Magret which was succulent,  tender and melted in the mouth. Served with the onion purée and light tangy crisps of sweet potato, this was a gastronomic triumph.

To finish, we chose home made apple pie served with vanilla cream and the chocolate surprise which we were warned would take 10 minutes to prepare.
The time was well spent watching the moonlight dance on the water and the guests of the hotel dance at the Pool Chill Out party while we finished a soft, full bodied Lomo red.

The apple pie was delicious but the chocolate surprise was out of this world. A lightly baked outer sponge concealed a sensuous centre of hot, dark chocolate sauce – this was a sweet that belonged in the grown-ups section of the menu.

Where, when and how:
Restaurant La Laja, Costa Adeje Gran Hotel, Avenida de Bruselas, 16, Costa Adeje; the restaurant has its own entrance on Avenida de Bruselas just along from the hotel. Open evenings only 19.00  – 22.30, closed Weds & Thurs; reservations – (0034) 922 71 94 21

Prices:
Starters average €8; main courses average €9.50; sweets average €4.20
A good selection of Canarian and Spanish wines range from €9 to €40

Open to:
Residents and non-residents. Guests in suites at the hotel dine in La Laja and guests on half or full board can upgrade for a modest supplement.