Valencia Eats: menú del día at Deli_rant

Jul 28

Jul 28 Valencia Eats: menú del día at Deli_rant

Plaza del Patriarca is one of my favorite plazas in Valencia - it's calm, dotted with globes of orange trees, and faces the historical building of University of Valencia. In this plaza is the restaurant Deli_rant, which offers a menú del día for €15. A bit on the pricey side in Valencia, it includes starter, main course, dessert, bread, coffee, and unlimited cold water - a nice benefit which ought to be standard everywhere.

The interior is eclectic, with a mix of different chairs, and a wall of the artisanal beers they offer. They also have several beers on tap.

First are fried yucca strips and popcorn - the yucca strips were a lot more fine than the ones at Malmo. In fact, this restaurant reminded me a lot of Malmo - both are a bit pricier than normal, both have trendy interiors, but at Deli_rant the food is more creative and executed better than the somewhat lackluster Malmo.

For my starter, I chose tonkatsu chicken, which were fried perfectly while being juicy inside. It came with a ginger dip, although I didn't taste any ginger in it. The bowl of bread included a kind of curry brioche, an olive loaf, and a dense, rustic white bread.

For my main, I chose a tuna tataki. It had a strange salted, smoked taste and texture, but in the end it wasn't bad - a good, light choice for a hot summer day. It came with a sauce of dried peppers (ñoras) and sesame.

Dessert was a brownie sandwich, with a filling of haba tonka cream. Now, I didn't know what haba tonka was until I checked it up just now - it's a black seed known as tonka beans, and has been used as a vanilla substitute and the FDA actually bans its use in food in the US... Hmm... Anyway, I had a hankering for brownie sandwich and by magic this dessert was one of the choices on the menu (the others were a tamarind granita and a dulce de leche mousse with banana). It was good, although the brownie was a bit dense.

The coffee in the end was excellent - extremely strong and flavorful, unlike many coffees in restaurants. A misstep was offering the selection of sugars - white, brown, vanilla, cinnamon, orange, and lavender. The orange and lavender sugars were so artificial in looks and smell that they actually were repulsive. For me, this was a gimmick.

Overall, Deli_rant is a solid choice for a weekday lunch. It's a restful location with a pleasant indoor environment - they also have tables right on the plaza if you don't mind the sun. The menu is fun with 3 choices for each course, although at times it shoots a little too high with unnecessarily exotic flavors and ingredients.

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Deli_rant

Plaza Colegio del Patriarca, 4

Valencia

963 25 89 19