My 19th visit to Aponiente: the 2026 season feels like another major step forward

I returned to Aponiente for my 19th visit, and the 2026 season may be its strongest yet. I have been visiting the restaurant at least once a year since 2014, when it still held one Michelin star.

What is new this year is that part of the meal is now served outdoors in the marshes around the tide mill, with walkways over the water, a kitchen in the estero landscape, and dishes that feel inseparable from the place. Ángel León’s cooking remains radically innovative, but also deeply local. This is not a restaurant that could exist anywhere else.