Top Restaurants in Benalmadena
Top Things to do in Benalmadena
Countries
Where to Eat in Benalmadena: The Best Restaurants and Bars
While most visitors choose Benalmadena for its glorious beaches, there are plenty of other attractions to keep your family amused. Take a trip out to sea on a boat or a ferry; you can even go whale and dolphin watching. A cable car ride would make a welcome change, or perhaps a visit to Bil Bil Castle. The castle is distinctive with its Arabian architecture, and it hosts concerts as well as art exhibitions. Visit the Sea Life Centre, where you can walk through the transparent tunnels in the underwater park or watch feeding demonstrations; the centre even has a mini golf course. At the end of a relaxing day, Benalmadena becomes a great place for nightlife. Whatever kind of cuisine you are looking for, you are sure to find a restaurant that will suit your family's tastes.
Things to do in Benalmadena
1. El Naranjo
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 458 reviews
Reviewed By HarryK1947 - Gillingham, Kent
We ate here last Friday evening with two friends. The ladies shared a huge lamb slow-roasted lamb shank, which came with a bottle of wine between two. My friend and I each had the set menu, and both had the soup of the day followed by pork medallions.
All the food was superb, and they certainly don't stint on the portions. Only two of us managed dessert, which was from an admittedly limited set of choices, but I guess that not many people manage to finish their starter and main and still have an appetite! Some people have said they think El Naranjo is "a little bit expensive" but I think it's excellent value for money, given the quality of the food and service, and the generous portions. One thing we particularly all enjoyed, being Brits, was the vegetable accompaniments, which were plentiful and varied, unlike quite a few restaurants we've been to in Spain over the years.
2. Bull Bar Benalmadena
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 390 reviews
Opening Hours: Bar Hours: Monday - Saturday: From 11:00 till late night. Kitchen is open from: 11:00 till 21:00. Bar Hours: Sunday: From 12:00 till 21:00. Kitchen is open from: 12:00 till 18:00. In our family Bar, food is served all day with a family friendly atmosphere. Picturesque village surroundings. Traditional Spanish Tapas freshly prepared daily. Full menu with daily specials are also available. Breakfast Lunch Brunch Dinner Tapas Etc. Sunny Terrace Seating all year round. BREAKFAST MENU/ Available from 11am. MENU DE DESAYUNO. Disponible desde las 11:00. Opening Hours: Monday - Saturday: The Bar is open from 11:00 till late night. Kitchen is open from: 11:00 till 21:00. Sunday: From 12:00 till 21:00. Kitchen is open from: 12:00 till 18:00. Kind Regards, Pam & Phil
Reviewed By ParvinderSingh - Johannesburg, South Africa
We stopped over at this cafe/bar after visiting the lively Columbus castle nearby. Kids were starving and we were lucky to find this little gem.
Hostess is a charming british Lady, Pam who has great local insights. You can sit underneath the orange trees and enjoy little nibbles or mains. We loved their sandwiches, chicken tikka masala and coffee.
Highly recommended. Thanks Pam for filling this place with so much warmth.
3. Restaurante La Fuente
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 842 reviews
Innovative international cuisine served in one of the oldest and most enchanting buildings in Benalmadena Pueblo.
Reviewed By Andrey83 - Moscow, Russia
we've been here 4-5 times during our vacation in late September. The food is delicious, the best choices for us were: pasta marinara (our 4yo boy enjoyed it very much), beef stroganoff and lamb. The location is great -- sitting in front of the Fountain...MoreThank you Andrey you keep coming back and I'm glad we lived up to our excellent reputation! We look forward to see you again New Years Eve. Happy new year!!!!
4. Pampa Tablas y Tapas
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 678 reviews
Reviewed By Annelies S
We went there twice in one week, and since we NEVER do that, this means a lot. Would recommend this place to everyone. Small restaurant but very cosy interior, great and helpful staff, good prices and delicious tapas. Try the truffles for postre, you won’t be disappointed
5. Hong Kong Aberdeen
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 279 reviews
We close November and December.
Reviewed By Andrew S - Durham, United Kingdom
We all loved this place! We all had a variety of dishes and kids meals and all agreed these were very good!
Chow mein, Singapore style was excellent and the sweet and sour chicken was deliciously fried in a tempura batter.
Just one downside is that it gets full quickly and we couldn't book a table which could be quite frustrating.
Lagers are bottled but the wine is pretty good!
We did this twice in 2 weeks and we will go back again.
6. Escorpio Restaurante
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 223 reviews
Reviewed By Mike K - London, United Kingdom
We three middle aged British guys are in Benalmadena for a cheap week away from London as we had a busy and expensive Xmas and NY hosting. We are just over midway through our break.
As we have been generally economising by self catering in a very cheap and quite comfortable hotel (Vista del Rey) combined with a cheap return flight we were execting to splash out on a meal at some point.
We had walked all the way up the hill from our hotel to the old pictureskew town hoping to catch a lateish and cheapish menu del dia lunch. Along the main old town street we found the Hotel Fonda (at 14:15) and a sign for a catering course restaurant Escorpio. I remember having seen it on TA with good reviews. The menu was a bit above our budget but was varied, unusual and tempting. The directions pointed through the smart hotel (designed by Cesar Manrique of Fuertaventura fame). We entered and further in we had to descend the stairs and found a bright white, modern, fully glazed and pretty empty restaurant with a view across to the sea ahead and Malaga to the left. It was quite tempting as we had not found anywhere else with that view apart from El Muro close by which seemed closed for lunch (on Tuesday in the early evening just before sunset it was opening up).
The waiter greeted us in perfect English and we took a table on the glazed edge of the main dining room at 14:19. The music was casual MOR pop and unobtrusive thankfully. It all seemed very swish for a catering school, maybe the music gave it away? The table was dressed with real linen tablecloths and napkins and wide flat steel underplates. We are not used to this!
We were presented with the very extensive menus, one a la carte and a smaller one for raciones/tapas. Some of the dishes were way above our price range and the set gourmet dishes especially so, although most were quite fishy with occasional meat dishes but all quite inventive. In general we kept to the lower end. The wine menu was separate and we chose (at 14:40) the cheapest house rose at €14 and a litre of still water at €2.75.
Whilst perusing the menu a tray of olives, mini miniature of extra virgin olive oil and bread was presented. This proved very welcome after our 3km trek up the hill. I went on 4G to see what TA reviews had to say about this place....#22/722 and ££££ with obviously appreciative comments. OK, THIS was going to be our holiday splurge/treat!! We were not walking out!
We asked the waiter about vegetarian/pescatarian options and he explained they could remove meat from some dishes if necessary (e.g. one had ham shavings) and that there were plenty of fish options.
My friend decided he wanted a cocktail as an aperitif, a margarita at €5.50 and my other friend a Manzanilla at €3. I desisted and stuck to the wine ordered.
The cocktail, wine and Manzanilla all arrived at 14:48 and was expertly poured by the waiter who turned out to be from Croydon, living here since 2001!
The water was the popular Spanish Font Dor in a posh blue plastic bottle whilst the rosé wine was a Viñas del Vero 2016, Merlot tempranillo blend (retailing at €4.55) which was offered to me to taste and it passed the bouquet/corked test! The three drinks were all good and went down well. We shared the rosé during the meal and it was appreciated by all three of us.
It was difficult to choose from the cheaper end as pasta and beans prevailed as well as the fact that my friend is an excellent cook and quite inventive. We took a while to choose and were not hurried. More people arrived, mostly locals which was encouraging. We chose eventually by 14:47 just before the drinks arrived.
The main dishes arrived together in quick succession by 15:03.
Vegetarian Chickpea Salad (€3.50) was nicely presented in an upturned cup format with salad garnish and dill leaves lightly sprinkled round the edge. My friend found it quite tasty and value for money. A tart marmeladey gel and watercress garnish was a nice addition.
Lasañe de Gambas (€8) was quite flat and small but very tasty covered with a breadcrumby crust whch he really enjoyed. He also enjoyed the tomato sauce which he usually avoids, but ths one was very different.
Pasta con Gambas (€10.50) was mine and was surprisingly tasty, not a lot of tomato as expected, quite a few prawns and an overall flavour of cumin which was very nice. A reduction of rasberry gel was dappled on the edge along with another mint flavoured gel dapple. A sprig of coriander topped the creation.
Torre de mozarrela (€5.50) was a shared dish that was real buffalo (two consistency) mozzarella topped with two chunky prawns and surrounded by a tasty garnish of watercress, yellow and red cherry tomatoes with dill sprinkled round the edge again. Very tasty again.
Vieira Gratinada (€9) was the last to arrive at 15:08 for sharing and was a scallop shell filled with scallop au gratin on a bed of crystal salt (for stability the waiter explained on our enquiring) surrounded by watercress. The menu specified 'served with sea urchin caviar' but there seemed not to be any. We did not notice as menus were taken away, I usually hold one back for reference but forgot and I did not want to trawl through my photos of the menu (posted at the time using their very food speed wifi!). It was quite tasty but seemed to lack something (maybe the caviar?) compared to all the other dishes considering the price.
The bread and olives remained on the table (not whisked away as in some places) and were finished off during the meal, the bread being used to mop up the flavoursome remains!
Overal the savoury dishes were very good and we were still hungry enough to have a go at the Deserts (which we rarely do) as they were well priced and we saw something spectacular pass us earlier! We ordered the menu to choose and a completly different Deserts only menu arrived! The original menu had a small selection at €3.75 each, this menu was more extensive, in four languages (see pics pisted) but at €4.50 each. Still a reasonable price compared to other places we had seen or been to. My friend said to expect a tiny portion. How wrong he was!
Pastel Sacher was a rich dark chocolatey smallish cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, large wafer with chocolate sauce drizzled over everything. My friend was pleased as it was very tasty!
Tarta Fina de Manzana was a crepe thin base covered finely sliced apples baked to caramelisation with toasted walnuts, a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a sprig of mint and another similar wafer. It was delicious!
Helado de Vanilla (€3.75 as on the menu outside and the original tapas menu) was accomanied by belgian chocolate sauce. My friend loved it and it did not annoy his sensitive tooth (he usually avoids Deserts as too sweet).
So the desserts (which we also shared a bit) were a success too! Other diners seemed to be enjoyng themselves too.
We chatted to the waiter who had no rush as most diners were sorted. Apparently the catering school was upstairs as part of the building owned by the hotel and the restaurant we had just dined in was the hotel restaurant! Professional chefs and waiters with a little help from the school if necessary, as well as real life on the job experience for students, but rare. We were under the impression that the whole restaurant was the public side of the catering school. No problem as we had dined well for half as much more than anywhere else we had seen, given the quality. The public may be put off by the thought of students' cooking and serving so that should be explained on the front menu boards. We three know LeSoCo (ex Lewisham College in South London) and their catering school which has a fine reputation and serves the public, every term time Wednesday, very fancy food, very well priced and supervised in their Phoenix Restaurant. We also knew the Croydon College equivalent as we all worked in the college in the 90s.
We eventually ordered the bill as the waiter was going off shift and it was 16:10, technically ten minutes after closing, and we were almost the last people there. He said there was no hurry, we said we should pay now in order for him to get the tip, he said it all sent into a pot. He asked if we wanted any tea or coffee but we desisted. They were obviously not pushing us out onto the street! All very relaxed!!
The bill came in a large mother of pearl oval shell shaped box and with it three shots of chilled lemoncello style local liquer with honey and rose; a much appreciated offering and digestive!
The itemised bill was €74.50,as expected, so we paid by card and added €7 as a cash tip. We were very happy as we had paid €50 in a nice, but not as top notch as this place, the other day for lunch. One gets what one pays for and we kept to a ££-£££ budget in the end in a ££££ establishment!
We noticed after that we had not been charged for bread sevice (as specified in the menu) which we had expected as often bread is assumed to be wanted, delivered and charged for automatically; so was this a deliberate omision or a mistake? Maybe it was my joke to the waiter on asking for the difficult bit, i.e. the bill, at the end!
We sat at the table catching up with internet stuff (I just had to check into ths place on FB and upload pictures to my profile) as the wifi was so good compared to our hotel. The new waiter was cleanng and tidying up around us but we were never pressured to leave. Eventually at 16:50 we felt we had to leave so bad him farewell and thanks and explored the rest of the building with commanding views from even higher up above the restaurant!
7. Lillie Langtry's
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 194 reviews
Lillie´s is a bar restaurant offering Pizzas, Tex-Mex, Spanish and traditional English food, we also have a snack menu with toasties, burgers and sandwiches. All our food is made in house and our pizza bases are hand made by Chef El Roberto we never ever use frozen, we do not use processed meats in any of our dishes and can cater for vegetarians, vegans and special diet requirements. We are also a bar offering great value on draught beers and you are very welcome when no food purchase is required, we show sporting events and have a very cosy inside for the cooler months.
Reviewed By emmamccourt - durham
Been going Benalmadena now for over 10 years and have always gone in lillies ! Wayne & Ann make you feel very welcome and nothing is too much trouble !
Lovely sat out the back in the sun and talking to the regulars in there
Toilets and bar spotless so well done there to you all !
The food we had in there was superb as well Sunday dinners !! Wow must be the best on the coast !
Beer prices are less than average we paid in and around the area so well done there.
We booked again for may so will be popping in for our lunch and a few beers. This time hopefully Wayne won’t have to put the roof over the outside Terrace!
See you all in may
Gilly (junior) & family
8. Mango Cafe & Tea Room
Overall Ratings
5 based on 163 reviews
British style cafe in the beautiful village of Mijas serving high quality breakfasts, lunches, cream teas and snacks. We use only the best ingredients and prepare your food in front of you. Gluten free, lactose free and vegetarian options available.
Reviewed By Annaliese B - Ayr, Scotland, United Kingdom
Beautiful breakfast. Lots of choice. Veggie options too! Sausages are wonderful. Big pots of tea and smiley service.Thank you for your kind words....smiles come free of charge!
9. Bistro Michel
Overall Ratings
5 based on 449 reviews
Reviewed By EliteIn
Recently we have been twice for dinner. Food is great, LARGE portions and top service. Parking is a bit difficult. Atmosphere is international as we heared all languages.
10. Panorama Bistro Bar
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 415 reviews
Reviewed By Mike C - Mansfield, United Kingdom
Found this little bistro in Benalmadena and visited a number of times. Their Tapas are great value and extremely tasty. Amber and Ivan are great hosts, friendly and welcoming. Worth a visit. Located above the Palm 5 bar, next to The Drunken Sailor.
