Nestled on Avenida Rafael Puig LLuvina in Playa de las Américas, Bésame Mucho offers not just a street-level dining experience but also serves as an elevated viewpoint overlooking Troya Beach. It provides particularly stunning views at sunset towards La Gomera Island, allowing patrons to relish the superb climate of this tourist hotspot.
Ever since its establishment, the restaurant has maintained a distinctive culinary approach set by its owners, the Cabrera Losada brothers, Javier and Carlos. They specialise in seafood cuisine, notably rice dishes and a variety of grilled fish and shellfish. What sets Bésame Mucho apart from the myriad dining options along the beachfront is the curated menu and, more importantly, the high quality of the ingredients that see minimal intervention in the kitchen.
On a recent visit, we began with an array of seafood: locally caught shrimps, thinly sliced smoked wahoo marinated in La Palma honey with Teide almonds, and delicately sliced Aquanaria sea bass. These were complemented by a spoonful of Zar caviar, a product offered by the Cabrera Losada brothers.
Following the seafood, we enjoyed a superb salmorejo, crafted delicately from select Canarian tomatoes and accompanied by finely chopped hard-boiled egg and Iberian ham. While these were the dishes we opted for, the restaurant also offers Galician oysters served simply with lemon, ‘tosta del beso’ (bread spread with butter and topped with Siberian caviar), and king crab among other delicacies.
We then sampled a rice dish featuring squid and Canarian prawns, which was particularly enjoyable for a day by the sea. The rice was cooked to perfection, achieving the ideal texture and including the coveted socarrat at the base.
For our second seafood dish, we had ‘tableta,’ a fish caught off the coast of El Hierro. Its rising popularity is justified by the perfect grilling technique used at Bésame Mucho.
Two noteworthy wines accompanied our meal. The first was Rajadero, a forastera variety from La Gomera, specifically from the Salto de los Mozos plot in Altos de Chipude. The second was Trenzado 2021, a white listán from Suertes del Marqués winery in the Villa de La Orotava, owned by Jonatan García.
The meal concluded with a nostalgic nod to childhood: bread with chocolate and oil, followed by ‘tarta del beso’—a cheese and red fruit cake—and some traditional torrijas. All desserts lived up to the high standard set by the preceding dishes.
