Best Seafood in Puerto Banús: 10 Dishes Worth Booking a Table For

The short answer: whatever was alive or on ice this morning and is cooked with the least interference. In Puerto Banús that means lobster chosen from a tank, king crab, Mediterranean red prawns, French oysters and a few luxuries such as caviar and sea urchin. A long menu matters less than a short list of products that are sold by weight, cooked to order and brought to you without a heavy sauce.

I cook every one of these dishes myself, so this is not a list of everything we serve. It is the ten I would send a friend to eat on their first evening in the port, in the order I would talk them through it. The table gives you the whole shortlist at a glance: the name you will see on a Spanish menu, how each dish is priced, and who it suits best.

Two practical things before you read on. Most of the top shellfish is priced per 100 g, not per plate, and the current prices for every dish below are read live from our menu, so you always see today's figure. And because the best seafood rooms around the marina are small, the evening works better with a table booked than with a walk-in gamble.

Lobster is the dish most people come to Puerto Banús for, and the one most often done badly. The rule is simple: it should be alive when you choose it, weighed in front of you, and cooked for minutes, not drowned in sauce. Our tank by the entrance holds Canadian lobster and Spanish blue lobster, both bogavante in Spanish, and spiny lobster, langosta, which has no claws.

The two clawed lobsters taste different. The Canadian lobster is sweet and tender, with big, meaty claws, and starts at about 700 g, usually up to about 1.4 kg. The Spanish blue lobster is rarer, with firmer, more intense meat, and weighs about 900 g to 4 kg. Both are priced per 100 g, which you can see in the table below, and spiny lobster is sold at the price of the day.

How to order it: choose your animal, ask for the weight and the total before it is cooked, and have it grilled. It is split lengthways, brushed with olive oil and laid shell down over the charcoal, then brought back split in half with lime and roasted potatoes. A 700 g Canadian lobster is a generous main for one; two people sharing should look at 1.1 to 1.4 kg. If you prefer it boiled, say so: the menu offers both.

If lobster is the dish for two, king crab is the dish for the whole table. A whole one weighs 1.4 to 14 kg, and its long legs are packed with sweet white meat that comes out in thick pieces. Ours is steamed, which keeps the meat juicy, and served with caramelised butter. Put it in the middle and everyone reaches for the same legs at once.

King crab is priced per 100 g, like lobster, so the size you choose decides the bill; the current price is below. As a rough guide, remember that the shell is a good part of the weight, and choose a bigger crab for a group that wants it as the main dish rather than a course among several.

It is the best order for four to eight friends who want one dramatic dish rather than eight different plates. For groups over eight, call us before you come so we can plan the table. For a smaller party, book a table online and ask about the size of the crab when you arrive.

Spain takes its prawns seriously, and the two to look for are carabineros and gamba roja. Carabineros are large, deep-red prawns with a rich, almost lobster-like flavour; the head holds the juices, and in Spain sucking it is not bad manners but the point. Gamba roja, the Mediterranean red prawn, is smaller, sweeter and more delicate.

Both are at their best simply grilled. Our red prawns go over charcoal and come with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt flakes and lemon, nothing else. Large carabineros are sold per piece and medium ones per 100 g, so one large carabinero each makes a spectacular starter, while a portion of medium ones works for sharing.

For a heartier plate, langostinos, grilled king prawns, come six to a portion with roasted potatoes and our own sauce. Gambas al pil pil, six prawns cooked in garlic-infused olive oil, spicy or mild, are the dish to order with bread. My advice: start with red prawns and a glass of Albariño while you decide on the rest.

Oysters are the natural first course, cold and briny, and they leave room for everything that follows. We serve seven French oysters, from Gillardeau and Amélie Fine de Claire to Geay and Tarbouriech from the Thau lagoon on the Mediterranean. Gillardeau is the one to try if you only order one kind: fleshy, clean and slightly nutty. Our guide to fresh oysters in Marbella explains how the seven oysters differ.

An oyster should be opened to order, in front of you or just before it reaches the table, and it should smell of the sea and nothing else. Look for a full, glossy oyster sitting in its own clear liquor. Squeeze a little lemon or eat it as it is, and chew once or twice to taste it properly.

Then there are the two bites I would call the best first mouthful in the port. The first is an oyster topped with sea urchin and caviar; the second, a scallop with sea urchin and caviar. Each is briny, creamy and salty in a single bite, and one each with a glass of champagne sets the tone for a celebration better than any starter on a plate.

Caviar is the quiet luxury of a seafood dinner in Puerto Banús: no cooking, no waiting, just a cold tin and a spoon. Ours comes in tins under our own label, and for two people I recommend Oscietra, 30 g to share. Its medium, golden-brown pearls taste rich and nutty, and it goes perfectly with a glass of Blanc de Blancs before the lobster arrives.

Oscietra comes in 30 g, 50 g, 100 g and 250 g tins, and the table below shows every size. The menu also lists Beluga 00 and Beluga 000, Almas, the pale albino caviar, and two Baerii: one with truffle and one smoked. Eat it from a spoon of mother-of-pearl, bone or horn rather than silver, and let a small amount sit on your tongue before pressing it against the roof of your mouth.

Beluga, Almas and both Baerii can also be bought to take away, at a separate take-away price, which makes a good gift for a dinner at your villa or a birthday on a yacht. Our caviar guide for Marbella explains the differences between the grades and how to serve caviar at home.

When a table cannot agree, the grilled seafood platter settles it. The large one comes from the charcoal grill with eight prawns, ten pieces of calamari and eight razor clams, with grilled potatoes, and you complete it with octopus, with brown crab, or with both. There is also a smaller platter, with prawns, calamari, octopus and razor clams.

Octopus is worth ordering on its own as well: tender, grilled with baby potatoes and salad, with a light smoky edge from the coals. Brown crab, buey de mar, is the other classic of Spanish marisquerías. The sweet meat is served in the shell with bread, and the claws are for cracking at the table.

For a group of four to six, I would order a large platter with octopus and brown crab in the middle, a round of oysters to start, and one lobster or a king crab if the table wants a centrepiece. That gives everyone a taste of each without anybody sitting in front of one expensive plate they cannot finish.

Sea urchin divides people, and that is part of its charm. Ours is large, from the USA: orange tongues of roe that taste creamy, sweet and deeply of the sea. If you love oysters, try it on its own first, then in one of the premium bites with caviar.

Two more dishes for guests who like raw or barely cooked fish. The prawn ceviche is fresh and sharp: prawns cured in lime and lemon with onion, mango, sweetcorn, pomegranate and coriander, finished with crunchy corn. It makes a light starter on a hot evening. The otoro, dry-aged fatty bluefin tuna belly, comes two ways: raw as sashimi, or as a steak grilled so it stays buttery inside, with deep umami and a smoky finish.

Finally, if someone at the table prefers fish to shellfish, order a whole wild sea bass to share. It weighs 1 to 6 kg and is sold per 100 g, grilled whole so the flesh stays soft and juicy; a gilt-head bream, dorada, is the smaller alternative. A whole fish in the middle of the table is also the most generous dish for a group.

If you do not want to choose at all, let me choose for you. Our chef's choice menu is a tasting menu built from the best of the day, at four levels per person; the current prices are listed below. It is the easiest way to eat the best seafood in Puerto Banús without studying a menu, and it suits a first evening, a celebration or a guest who wants to be surprised.

If you prefer to order yourself, the table below is how I would build the evening for different occasions. It is not a set menu, just a combination that works: something cold to start, one main dish from the tank or the grill, something to share, and a wine that fits.

Timing matters. We are open Tuesday to Saturday from 13:00 to 22:00, so plan a long seafood lunch, an early table, or a classic dinner at 19:00 or 20:00. In summer, a walk along the marina first, past the yachts, and a table at 19:00 is the best way to see the port and still have time for lobster and dessert. Book the 19:00 table online; for more ideas on the port itself, see our guide to where to eat in Puerto Banús, and for a dinner for two, our tips for a romantic dinner in Marbella.

Wherever you eat, a few signs tell you the seafood is the real thing. None of them depends on the view or the tablecloth, and you can check all of them in the first five minutes, before you order anything expensive.

This is how Gosia and I run DioGo's Seafood, Meat & Wine, at Calle Francisco Villalón 11 in Nueva Andalucía, two minutes' walk from the marina. The tank is by the entrance. You choose your lobster or crab yourself, we weigh it at your table and tell you the price, and only then does it go onto the charcoal. I learned to cook seafood in my grandmother's kitchen in Portugal, simply and over charcoal, and I still cook in that spirit: the best product, as little interference as possible.

The room is small on purpose: six seats at a walnut bar and a handful of tables on the terrace. Gosia runs the room, and our team speaks Polish, English, Spanish, French and Portuguese. You can book online, by phone or on WhatsApp, and we confirm within about 15 minutes. Every dish, wine and champagne from this guide is on our full menu, our guests rate us 4.9 out of 5 on Google, and you can read more about us in the best seafood restaurant in Marbella.