Looking at pictures, wine list and reviews made me have some expectations. Front desk staff are also waiters in this restaurant which is also a hotel. Entering the restaurant I found a bottle of 2012 Victorino, one of best Toro wines, standing on a shelf...in this part of the restaurant were the wines are kept. The temperatures were 25 degrees (my guess). Neither standing bottles or 25 degrees are ideal condition for cellaring wines - what a pity and lack of respect for good wine. Although I was hooked on the Victorino (53€, 17 % more expensive than I have had it several places) I went for a bottle of 2012 Clio from Jumilla (44€, 10 % more expensive than I have had it several places). Two of of three waiters had a ok level of english. None of the waiters appeared to have experience with handling good wines. Highlight of the evening was the lasagne. It was good, but unfortunately cold inside,,, The risotto (with meat) lacked seasoning. With a lot of salt and peber it became eatable but lacked flavor and concentration from the beginning, The pork cheeks were disappointing (I could use much stronger language). Very hard as they had been cooked with too high temperature. If slow cooked at low temperature the meat becomes soft, juicy and tender and almost falling apart. The local goat cheese was surprisingly strong for a cheese that had only been matured for three month. That is not a criticism, just my observation. The cafe solo was ok. Honestly I was a disappointed. Earlier today, at lunch, I had the menu degustation at restaurant Jesus Carrion, where I had a lot of good food. I rated it 4*. The quality level toningh at Essentia were way below... So 3 1/2* is a fair verdict.More
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