Ricard Camarena

Ricard Camarena is Valencia's most accomplished chef — a self-taught cook who opened his first restaurant in 2012 and earned two Michelin stars by 2019. In 2017 he relocated the flagship into Bombas Gens, a 1930s Art Déco factory restored as a contemporary art centre on the Avenida de Burjasot. The dining room — all polished concrete, walnut, and vaulted brick ceilings — is one of the most architecturally considered restaurant interiors in Spain.

Camarena's cooking is anchored in vegetables and broths. He has written two reference cookbooks on stocks — and the tasting menus (€180 for Iconos at nine courses, €265 for Rice & Caldos at twelve courses) are built around them. Signature courses include a single tomato in four states (raw, confit, reduction, leather); a langoustine in its head-juice with orange blossom; a rice cooked in broths extracted over 72 hours from whole chickens, ham bones, and dried fish.

The wine programme, run by sommelier Begoña Juan (Spain's Best Sommelier, 2021), emphasises Valencia (Utiel-Requena, D.O. Valencia), El Bierzo, and Galicia — the three less-commercialised Spanish regions whose wines Camarena pairs with consistent originality. The non-alcoholic pairing is one of Spain's best — a parade of vegetable and herb infusions extracted from the kitchen's own stocks programme.

The experience includes a 20-minute pre-dinner tour of the current Bombas Gens exhibition, which the restaurant team will arrange on request. Dinner runs 3 hours minimum for Iconos, 3.5 for Rice & Caldos.

Ricard Camarena is the definitive Valencia client-impressing address. The Bombas Gens setting, the architectural seriousness of the room, and Camarena's singular vegetable-and-broth vocabulary together signal a level of taste that most Spanish cities cannot match outside Madrid or San Sebastián. The pre-dinner gallery visit turns the evening into a full cultural outing. Request the corner table at the bar counter for a semi-open view of the kitchen. Allow 3.5 hours minimum. The non-alcoholic pairing is worth requesting as a novelty even for drinkers.