Restaurante Garza Real

Haute cuisine is no longer the exclusive territory of celebrity chefs in major cities. In Extremadura, I’ve eaten top-tier food in small towns that are barely on the map.

This is the case with the Jerte Valley, which is internationally famous for its star product, cherries, and the town of Valdastillas has some rural hotels and restaurants that are top quality, like the Garza Real.

The tasting menu which we tried was amazing: wild boar croquettes with quince aioli, cream of wild mushroom soup, flounder on a bead of river eels and wild mushrooms, pork loin with cherry chutney, and a creamy Mascarpone cheese with pearls of quince jelly. All of this washed down by a delicious glass of Marqués de Valdueza 2007.

Our culinary route through Extremadura reached its end in the Jerte Valle, and the grand finale was the La Garza Real restaurant.
It’s a small and charming place and the cuisine is excellent. We tried a tasting menu that featured some of the most typical dishes of the region.

It’s also fun to learn about the culinary events they hold in the area; in the autumn, many of the local restaurants cook up their signature dishes and present them in festivals which attract the most demanding palates. Logically, the cherry is the star of the local cuisine.