Malaga gains and loses a sunny 'sol' in Repsol's good food guide for Spain

This prize was a big part of his career objectives as a chef. He almost gave it up for lost. But it has finally arrived. Diego René López Andújar has fulfilled one of his dreams: being awarded a sunny 'sol' in the Repsol food guide for his restaurant Beluga. "I was really looking forward to it, I had been chasing it for a long time and we have finally achieved it", the chef admitted to SUR. So, his plural thinking and use of the "we" not only refer to his restaurant crew, but also to the person standing right by his side through all this, Andrea Martos, who works as head waiter and with whom Andújar also shares his life outside the walls of the restaurant located in Plaza de las Flores in Malaga city.

So, what next? "The change will be to continue improving in all senses and, of course, to go for the second sun", said López Andújar. He smiles with satisfaction as he looks back on what they have achieved from their beginnings as basic cooks knocking up rice dishes right up to the here and now, where their cuisine shines through on a strong foundation of Mediterranean style and good seafood. As the Repsol guide puts it, this restaurant is "full of nods to the coast and, amid tributes to Albufera, what the pastures and the deep sea provide and the island of Tabarca, the rice section of the menu really stands out ('arroz a banda' [just rice cooked in a special fish stock], 'campero' [packed with produce from the land], pigs' cheeks, pork shoulder, duck...), regarded as a cultural legacy."

Beluga is the only new 'sol' being added to the list of Malaga province restaurants in Repsol's guide for foodies. However, it is not the only edit to the list. On the negative side, the Marbella restaurant El Lago slips down a rung on the ladder, losing one of its two suns. This coincides with changes in the management team there and the culinary selection on offer, now headed by Milos Zdravkovic. Just a couple of months ago El Lago launched a fresh start (and menu) with the aim of returning to the gastronomic elite.

Despite this one disappointment, Malaga continues to lead the ranking of distinctions and 'sols' by province in this new 2025 edition of the guide, which was presented on Monday this week in Tenerife. Thus, Malaga province still heads up the gastronomic map of Andalucía in the Repsol guide with 22 restaurants out of the 77 that hold suns across the region. In total, Malaga now has 27 distinctions.

Malaga is followed by Cadiz with 25, Cordoba and Seville with 11 apiece, Jaen and Granada with nine each, Almeria with three and then Huelva with one. In this new edition the really noteworthy mentions for Andalucía should be Bagá (located in Jaen) for having obtained its third 'sol', and the second sun for Alevante (based in Chiclana, Cadiz). The latter restaurant is run by Ángel León, who will be bringing his menu to the Meliá Don Pepe hotel in Marbella between 2 and 5 April. Another sun award, this time for sustainability, is also worth mentioning, the restaurant being Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María in Cadiz province.

Andalucía completes the top-three podium with the most restaurants with suns in this new edition of the guide, behind Catalonia (115) and Madrid (102). The Basque Country (73), Valencia (65) and Castilla y León (58) complete the list of regions with the most 'soles' in Spain. In total 789 award-winning restaurants (44 with three suns, 176 two suns and 569 with the one) and 1,488 recommended restaurants (208 of those being new additions).

One by one, the Malaga map would therefore be as follows: with two 'soles' Bardal, José Carlos García, Kaleja, Los Marinos José and Sollo. Then with one sun, Areia, Arte de Cozina, Beluga, Cávala, Don Giovanni, El Lago, Godoy, Kava, La Cosmopolita, La Milla, Leña, Lobito de Mar, Messina, Palodú, Rei (formerly Kabuki Raw), Ta-Kumi Marbella and Ta-Kumi Málaga.

On a national level, the main changes have been in the section for three-sun restaurants where, in addition to chef Pedro Sánchez and his Bagá restaurant stepping up from two suns, the "emotional cuisine" served by Susi Díaz at La Finca (Elche) enters the list. In the category for two suns, the 17 additions "reflect the diversity of a larder that boosts the creativity of a cuisine that has opted to show more of itself, laying itself bare", according to the guide. Among them, the aforementioned Alevante, Barcelona's Enigma, or the Madrid restaurants Cebo, Kappo, La Tasquería and Verdejo.

Among the new restaurants with a 'sol', Repsol comments that "more and more young chefs are opting for the formula of smaller gastronomic menus and menus designed for sharing at a more affordable price." The guide's authors add: "Haute cuisine offerings that seek to make customers return to their tables more frequently and have the option of ordering a menu of seven or eight courses that, in many cases, do not exceed 40 or 50 euros, or they conjure up their own sampling from the menu according to the moment and the company."

As a trend, they emphasise the increasingly widespread idea of "returning to the place where the family roots lie". "In the place where their ancestors were born, they find the tranquillity and freedom to develop a personal and distinctive cuisine, in which part of the family is often involved. Therefore, couples, who have coincided in other restaurants or studied together, set up businesses with the ambition to be themselves", the guide authors underline.