Restaurant in Alacant, Spain
Michelin-noted tasting menus, booking essential.
Celeste y Don Carlos is Alicante's French-influenced tasting menu option, running Michelin Plate-recognised menus built on seasonal market ingredients and classical technique. Booking is essential but easy to secure. At €€€, it is the city's most accessible route into a composed, multi-course dinner from a kitchen with consistent Michelin recognition — ideal for food-focused visitors who want depth over the standard coastal seafood circuit.
Getting a table here is easier than you might expect for a Michelin-recognised restaurant in Alicante, but booking ahead is still essential — walk-ins are not the format and the tasting-menu structure means the kitchen plans around confirmed covers. If you are already in the city and want a serious dinner that goes beyond the rice-and-seafood circuit, this is one of the clearest yes-decisions on the Alicante dining map. The 4.6 Google rating across 282 reviews gives you reasonable confidence that the experience lands consistently, not just on good nights.
Celeste y Don Carlos runs exclusively on tasting menus. There is no à la carte option, and that is a feature, not a limitation. The format here is designed to tell a coherent story across courses, with the kitchen's French-influenced technique — informed by time spent in the kitchen of the Hotel Ritz in Paris , shaping the progression from start to finish. That Parisian grounding shows up in the structure of the menu: classical foundations, seasonal market ingredients as the primary material, and an international range of references rather than a strictly regional Valencian focus.
For food-focused travellers who have eaten their way through Spain's tasting-menu circuit, this is a useful contrast to the hyper-local, terroir-driven format that places like Quique Dacosta in Dénia or El Celler de Can Roca in Girona have built their identity around. Celeste y Don Carlos is not trying to be a monument to Alicante's coastline , it is making a case for what French-trained technique applied to Spanish seasonal produce can achieve. Whether that excites or concerns you is the real question to answer before you book.
The tasting-menu-only format also means you should arrive with time and appetite, not as a quick weeknight dinner. Come prepared to commit to the full progression. If you want flexibility , ordering individual dishes, skipping courses, eating on a tighter schedule , look elsewhere in the city. But if a composed, multi-course experience is what you are after, the format here is well-suited to it.
Michelin Plate recognition in both 2024 and 2025 confirms that the guide's inspectors consider the cooking here worth noting, even if it has not yet crossed into starred territory. The Plate is a signal of quality cooking rather than a statement about the overall experience package that a star implies. For context: a Michelin Plate venue is competing in a different weight class from a starred room like Baeza and Rufete (the city's most decorated table), but it is still a meaningful credentialled endorsement in a city where most restaurants have no Michelin recognition at all. For the food-focused traveller, repeated Plate status over two consecutive years suggests the kitchen is cooking at a consistent level rather than having one exceptional year.
If your benchmark for a serious tasting menu in Spain runs toward the starred rooms , Arzak in San Sebastián, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, or Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria , then Celeste y Don Carlos is operating at a meaningfully different level of ambition and recognition. Set your expectations accordingly and you will not be disappointed. Come expecting a starred-level experience and you may be asking the wrong question of the venue.
At the €€€ price point, Celeste y Don Carlos sits in the mid-to-upper bracket for Alicante dining , well above the tapas-bar register, but below the full-commitment spend of the city's leading table. For a tasting menu with French technique, seasonal sourcing, and two years of consecutive Michelin recognition, that price range represents a reasonable proposition, particularly for visitors who are already spending on accommodation and experiences in the city. Compare it to what similar tasting-menu formats cost in Barcelona or Madrid and Alicante's pricing looks efficient.
Book here if you want a composed, multi-course dinner that prioritises technique and seasonal ingredients over a specifically regional identity. It works well for a special occasion dinner, a first serious restaurant experience in Alicante, or a food-focused evening that does not require the full ceremony of the city's leading starred room. It is less well-suited to groups who want to share plates and move around the menu freely, or diners who are primarily interested in traditional Alicante rice dishes and coastal seafood , for that, Monastrell or Open are better fits. For the explorer who wants depth and context in their dining rather than a quick hit of local colour, Celeste y Don Carlos makes a convincing case for an evening of your time in the city.
If you are building a longer itinerary around serious eating in the region, pair this with a trip to La Ereta for its setting contrast, or travel further up the coast to Quique Dacosta in Dénia if you want to see what three Michelin stars looks like on the same stretch of Mediterranean coastline. For broader trip planning, see our full Alacant restaurants guide, hotels guide, and bars guide.
No dress code is published, but the €€€ tasting-menu format and Michelin Plate recognition suggest smart casual is the safe choice. Think along the lines of what you would wear to a comparable mid-to-upper bracket dinner in any European city , nothing overly formal, but not beachwear or trainers. In Alicante's dining context, this sits above the casual tapas register, so dress accordingly.
There is no ordering in the conventional sense , tasting menus are the only option. The kitchen makes the choices, with menus built around seasonal market ingredients and informed by French culinary technique. One menu is specifically inspired by the chef's time at the Hotel Ritz in Paris, which is the stronger argument for a food-curious visitor. Arrive without a fixed agenda for specific dishes and let the progression unfold.
Specific dietary accommodation policy is not published in the available data. Given the tasting-menu-only format, it is worth contacting the restaurant directly before booking if you have restrictions or allergies , menus of this kind typically require advance notice to adjust. Do not assume flexibility will be available on the night; flag requirements when you make your reservation.
Seat count is not publicly listed, so capacity for larger groups is unclear. For a small group of two to four, the tasting-menu format works well and is the natural fit. For larger parties, contact the restaurant directly before assuming availability. If you are organising a group dinner in Alicante and need more flexibility on format or size, El Portal Alicante or Baeza and Rufete may offer more options for larger bookings.
Three things: book ahead (walk-ins are not the format here), come with time and genuine appetite for a multi-course meal, and know that this is not a traditional Alicante seafood restaurant. The kitchen's identity is French-influenced and internationally minded, applied to seasonal Spanish produce. If you are visiting Alicante primarily for the rice dishes and grilled fish, this is not the right first dinner. If you want a composed tasting menu at a Michelin-recognised table without paying starred-restaurant prices, it is one of the clearest choices the city offers. For wider context on eating in the city, see our full Alacant restaurants guide.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Celeste y Don Carlos | A gastronomic restaurant offering innovative international- and French-inspired cuisine which is always based around seasonal market ingredients. Tasting menus are the only option here, one of which is inspired by the period the chef spent working in the kitchen of the Hotel Ritz in Paris. Booking essential.; Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | €€€ | — |
| Baeza & Rufete | Michelin 1 Star | €€€€ | — |
| La Taberna del Gourmet | € | — | |
| Nou Manolín | €€€ | — | |
| El Portal Taberna & Wines | €€ | — | |
| Piripi | €€€ | — |
Comparing your options in Alacant for this tier.
Smart casual is the sensible call. A Michelin Plate-recognised restaurant running €€€ tasting menus is not a beach-casual setting, but Alicante is also not Paris — you will not need a jacket. Think neat trousers and a collared shirt or a simple dress rather than black tie.
There is no à la carte menu, so the kitchen decides. Tasting menus are the only format, built around seasonal market ingredients and French-influenced modern cooking — one menu draws directly from the chef's time in the Hotel Ritz Paris kitchen. Your job is to choose which menu length suits your appetite and budget, then let the kitchen run.
No dietary policy is published, and the tasting-menu-only format means the kitchen controls every course. check the venue's official channels when booking — at the €€€ price point and with this level of Michelin scrutiny, most kitchens at this tier will accommodate restrictions with advance notice, but confirm before you arrive rather than on the night.
For two to four people the tasting-menu format works cleanly — everyone eats the same progression and there is no coordination problem. For larger groups, seat count is not published so it is worth calling ahead to check capacity and whether a private arrangement is possible before committing the whole party.
Three things: book ahead since walk-ins are not the format here; come ready for a full multi-course dinner rather than a quick meal; and know that this is French-influenced modern cooking anchored in seasonal ingredients, not a regional Alicante rice-and-seafood house. If you want arroz a banda, go elsewhere — if you want composed tasting-menu cooking with Michelin Plate recognition behind it, this is the right room.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
