Tasting menu

The amount of people enjoying gastronomy and identifying themselves as foodies increases by day. Going out for lunch or dinner is on the rise, hence the emergence of new restaurant openings with different culinary concepts.

This experience encourages us to try different things every time, tasting cuisines from different countries, merging cuisines, discovering new cooking techniques, and new products. This desire to experiment with new things often leads to incredible dishes, and other times… dishes that don’t meet our expectations.

In the last few years, more restaurants have been offering tasting menus, which are a perfect opportunity to try and learn about a restaurant’s cuisine. It’s true that while the origins of these menus date back centuries, the current concept of the tasting menu emerged around the 1990s in some haute cuisine restaurants.

Tasting menus typically offer a tour of each restaurant’s signature dishes or highlights. They should be a culinary experience featuring the best of the restaurant’s cuisine, with a sense of purpose and balance so that they are not a random selection of tapas or dishes.

What aspects should we expect from a proper tasting menu?

• Amuse-bouche: it is a French term that means “mouth amuser” and it is usually a small appetizer or a selection of snacks that give us a hint for what is to come.
• Creativity and variety: this menu, as we have mentioned before, is usually made up of small portions of the most characteristic or special dishes on the menu where we can appreciate the chef’s skills and creativity to transport us to other countries, bring back childhood memories or blow our minds with a flavour explosion.
• Presentation: this is a fundamental part of a tasting menu, since an appealing dish is more attractive and pleasant to eat.
• Pairing: This is usually optional (since not everyone drinks alcohol), but it’s essential. The restaurant’s sommelier will prepare a selection of wines that pair perfectly with each dish and enhance the experience to a much higher level. So, if you’re a wine lover, it’s always the best option.
• Element of surprise: a proper tasting menu should incorporate some element that surprises us, either at a tasting, visual or olfactory level, it can be some interactive element… This is always a factor that pleases and leaves a special memory on this type of menu.
• Quality: the last item on the list but not the least important. It should be mandatory that if we’re willing to pay a slightly higher amount of money than usual for a unique experience, the quality of the products offered will be on par with the rest of the aspects on this list.

We can easily find this type of menu in restaurants recommended in gastronomic guides such as Michelin, Repsol, etc. although it is also possible to find them in more modest restaurants.

If you are near Guardamar del Segura, we recommend a visit to Ñam restaurant, recommended in the Repsol Guide 2024 and 2025. At Ñam you can find 2 tasting menus to taste all the dishes of the restaurant, with an unbeatable quality-price ratio.

5 Senses menu

Snacks
King prawn cold soup and herbs
Red tuna tartare, lemon and truffle
Aged cured beef croquette
Tomato and semi-salted dried fish

Dishes
Foie Royale, King prawns and Fondillon (sweet wine)
Fungi, Thai marinade and corn caramel
Sea bass warm Ceviche, plantain chips and smoked eel
Local goatling, nuts, and cinnamon

Dessert
Bread, chocolate, olive oil and salt

Petit four
Sweet red pepper ice cream

Ikigai menu

Snacks
King prawn cold soup and herbs
Red tuna tartare, lemon and truffle
Tomato and semi-salted dried fish
Aged cured beef croquette
King prawns and sweet red pepper Taco

Dishes
Artichoke salad with premium tuna and celery
Santa Pola´s bay prawn Ceviche, sweet potato, and Cancha (Peruvian corn)
Octopus, snow peas and charcoal grilled bone marrow
Galician premium beef steak tartare, pickled mustard and black garlic
Cucurrones (local traditional wheat pasta) and rabbit stew with garlic and mushroom
Grilled beef sweetbread and eel Vichyssoise

Desserts
Fruits sweet curry
Nougat soufflé, sweet red pepper and sheep milk ice cream

Petit fours
Sweet red pepper ice cream
Caramelised chocolate bonbon

Either of these two menus perfectly represents what you should expect from a tasting menu, and you also have the option of pairing them with a selection of very special wines.

You can book your table calling us to +34 659 181 652 or through our website clicking here.