La Pergola in Malaga: a restaurant in one of the city's best locations

La Pérgola is, without a doubt, one of the best-located restaurants in the city of Malaga, facing the port and the beach, right next to the traditional lighthouse. This establishment, which belongs to the Tercer Acto Group, is positioning itself as an essential place, both for locals and visitors, who want to enjoy unbeatable views and simple, uncomplicated cuisine, with a deep seafood flavour and whose prices do not scare the diner. The success of the main managers of the group, Antonio Banderas and Pablo Gonzalo, has been to provide this space, the former terrace of the Club Mediterráneo, with an infrastructure, including a direct entrance from the street, where the cuisine would have the prominence it deserves in a setting like this.

At the helm of the kitchen is Pedro Moriano, a native of Jaén who, after working at another of the group's establishments, Doña Inés, has taken charge of the menu at La Pérgola, where he shines on his own merits with a well-structured and well-defined cuisine. Here we are not going to find overly sophisticated elaborations, nor fusion dishes that might confuse the diner, quite the opposite in fact.

An unequivocal proof of where La Pérgola is headed can be found in the figure of its gastronomic advisor, for me one of the best chefs of Malaga cuisine we have, Javier Hernández, who has already proved that he knew and believed in what in the nineties was known as 'creative cuisine'. He then made a success of it in his own place, Candado Golf, but with a cuisine much more typical of Malaga and with a mastery of rice dishes. With this tandem, chef and consultant, plus a good dose of patience, La Pérgola and its cuisine are on the right track.

The menu is varied within the philosophy of the house. However, there are some more modern and provocative dishes, such as the cashew and coconut ajoblanco with white prawn tartar or the artichoke flower with a veil of Iberian pork and egg yolk cream. But above all the dishes, the rice dishes mark a before and after in Moriano's cuisine, the variety and execution is impeccable.

Javier Hernández's advice spreads beyond the rice dishes, in this Russian salad his influence can be seen and felt. It is worth remembering that Javier's Ensaladilla Rusa won the National Championship in 2019. Perfect in point and temperature.

Whether or not there is a saturation of tuna tartare featuring on restaurant menus can be debated, but this one by Pedro Moriano stands out for the type and thickness of the cut and for the balance between the salty and spicy touch.

Fashions are fashions and in gastronomy they change frequently. Nowadays, the braised avocado reigns supreme and it is perhaps the least attractive dish on La Pérgola's menu. The excess of sweetness does not go well with the prawns.

Impeccable in its execution and in the texture of the rice grains. The strong flavour of the artichokes is balanced by the base obtained by frying the Iberian pork and its subsequent reduction until it becomes a dry yet intensely flavoured rice.