Restaurant in Benavente, Spain
A Michelin star earned far from the crowd.
El Ermitaño holds a Michelin star in rural Benavente, Zamora, with a 12-course seasonal tasting menu and a signature à la carte anchored by regional produce. At €€€, it's one of the more accessible starred addresses in Spain by price tier. Book Friday or Saturday if you want evening service — dinner runs until 11:30 PM on those two nights only.
If you've visited El Ermitaño once and left thinking you'd like to return, here's the timing intelligence that makes the second visit meaningfully different from the first. The restaurant operates a tighter evening window than most Michelin-starred addresses in Spain: dinner service runs only on Fridays and Saturdays, with the kitchen staying open until 11:30 PM. Every other day, service ends at 6 PM. That makes El Ermitaño one of a small number of Michelin-starred restaurants in Castile and León where a proper late dinner — seated past 9 PM, unhurried, with the tasting menu running its full course , is actually on the table. If your schedule allows only a weekday, you'll need to treat it as a long lunch, which works well but doesn't give you the same room to breathe through the 12-course menu. For a return visit, Friday or Saturday evening is the format to target.
El Ermitaño sits off a minor road in Benavente, Zamora, reached through vegetable gardens and fields of corn that telegraph something about the kitchen's priorities before you've walked through the door. The property is an aristocratic country house with an adjoining hermitage dating to 1775 , a setting that has shaped the restaurant's identity across generations rather than serving as decoration. The Pérez brothers, Pedro Mario and Óscar Manuel, have built a programme that holds Michelin recognition (one star, 2024) while remaining rooted in the produce and traditions of the surrounding region. Their phrasing , 'cook what we are' , is the kind of line that sounds like marketing until you eat here and realise it describes the menu accurately.
The scent of the place matters more than you'd expect. The approach through working kitchen gardens and the proximity of the old hermitage give the building a particular quality of air , earthy and faintly herb-inflected , that shifts the register before you've ordered anything. It's a detail that stays with returning guests and one that distinguishes El Ermitaño from the more neutral, purpose-built dining rooms that surround Spanish fine dining in larger cities.
The à la carte is built around the restaurant's signature dishes, anchored by cured meat canutillos with duck liver and quince, a preparation that has become sufficiently associated with the kitchen that skipping it on a return visit would be a mistake. The menu also carries occasional creative and seasonally driven dishes that rotate with the produce calendar, so a second visit won't replicate the first course for course. For returning guests, the more interesting of the two tasting menu formats is the 12-course seasonal menu, which requires advance booking and changes with each season. On the evidence of past service, the glazed lamb sweetbreads with potatoes, snow peas, radish and vinegar is one of the stronger plates in that format. The second tasting menu option , where guests select four dishes from the à la carte to construct their own sequence , suits diners who want to anchor around specific dishes rather than commit to a full structured progression.
Google reviews sit at 4.6 across more than 3,000 ratings, which for a rural Castilian address is a reliable indicator of consistent delivery rather than one-off excitement. That volume of feedback at that score suggests the kitchen performs evenly across service types, not just on tasting menu evenings.
Booking difficulty at El Ermitaño is high. No website or phone number is listed in current records, which means you'll need to approach reservation through direct contact with the restaurant , phone or email via the address at Arrabal Huerta de los Salados, 49600 Benavente, Zamora. For Friday and Saturday evening slots, plan well in advance; the combination of limited evening services and Michelin recognition creates genuine scarcity at dinner. If you're targeting the 12-course tasting menu, the booking notes make clear this requires advance notice, so flag it when you reserve. Weekday lunches (Tuesday through Thursday, and Sunday) offer more flexibility but close at 6 PM, which limits how long the meal can run. The restaurant is closed on Mondays.
The €€€ price positioning makes El Ermitaño one of the more accessible Michelin-starred addresses in Spain by price tier, particularly relative to the €€€€ operations that dominate the country's fine dining circuit. For the 12-course seasonal menu with wine, you're unlikely to reach the per-head totals common at three-star addresses in Madrid or San Sebastián. That price differential, combined with the setting and the depth of the menu, is a meaningful part of the case for the drive to Benavente.
For broader context on where to eat and stay around your visit, see our full Benavente restaurants guide, our Benavente hotels guide, our Benavente bars guide, our Benavente wineries guide, and our Benavente experiences guide. If you're building a wider Castilian food trip, Atrio in Cáceres is worth pairing with El Ermitaño for a two-destination itinerary across the region.
Against Spain's €€€€ Michelin set, El Ermitaño reads differently , and that's the point. DiverXO in Madrid and Arzak in San Sebastián operate at three and two stars respectively with progressive, technique-forward menus and price tiers to match. El Ermitaño's one-star positioning at €€€ makes it a lower-commitment entry point to serious Spanish cooking , you get genuine Michelin-calibre execution and a strong tasting menu format without the financial exposure of a three-star booking. If you're comparing on value per star, El Ermitaño is the more efficient choice.
Azurmendi in Larrabetzu and Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona both offer more technically ambitious, produce-driven menus at €€€€ , they're the right choice if creative progression and maximalist tasting menus are your primary criteria. El Ermitaño, by contrast, is the better booking if regional rootedness and a country house setting matter as much to you as technical score. The two kitchens are solving different problems. Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María operates at the furthest remove , three stars, seafood-centred, with a theatrical format , and belongs in a different comparison category entirely.
For a direct analogue in terms of format and positioning, Auberge Grand'Maison in Mûr-de-Bretagne and Cave à Vin & à Manger in Narbonne offer the closest European parallel: traditional cuisine with Michelin recognition, rural settings, and menus grounded in local produce rather than avant-garde technique. If El Ermitaño's approach resonates, those two addresses are worth adding to a longer cross-border food itinerary.
The cured meat canutillos with duck liver and quince is the signature dish on the à la carte and the one item worth ordering regardless of how many times you've visited. For a return visit, the 12-course seasonal tasting menu is the more revealing format , it changes with the produce calendar and showcases what the kitchen is doing at its furthest reach. The glazed lamb sweetbreads with potatoes, snow peas, radish and vinegar has appeared in the seasonal menu and is one of the stronger plates documented from that format. Note that the 12-course menu requires advance booking when you reserve.
Yes, particularly relative to comparable Michelin-starred addresses in Spain. At €€€, you're getting one-star execution and a 12-course seasonal tasting menu option at a price tier that sits well below the €€€€ operations that dominate Spanish fine dining. The value case is clearest if you're comparing it against Arzak or Azurmendi on a per-head basis , El Ermitaño delivers serious cooking and a distinctive setting for meaningfully less spend. The main cost is logistical: Benavente requires a deliberate trip, not a casual detour.
Dinner, specifically on Friday or Saturday when service runs until 11:30 PM. That's the only format where the 12-course tasting menu can run without time pressure. Weekday lunch (Tuesday to Thursday, plus Sunday) closes at 6 PM, which works for the à la carte or the four-dish guest-curated menu but doesn't allow the full evening format. If you're making a dedicated trip, book a Friday or Saturday evening and plan to stay in Benavente overnight rather than driving back mid-tasting menu.
No bar seating is documented for El Ermitaño. The restaurant operates from an aristocratic country house format, and no bar counter or informal seating option appears in available records. If informal counter dining is important to you, this is not the address , book a table and allow the full meal format to play out as intended.
No specific dietary policy is documented in available records. Given that the 12-course seasonal menu requires advance booking, that is the right moment to raise dietary requirements , before you arrive, not on the night. No website or phone number is currently listed publicly, so contact should be made through the restaurant's direct address in Benavente when reserving. For the à la carte format, restrictions are generally easier to accommodate than in a structured tasting menu, but confirm in advance either way.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Ermitaño | Traditional Cuisine | El Ermitaño is accessed by a minor road flanked by vegetable gardens and fields of corn, a setting which reaffirms the gastronomic, cultural and family legacy of this aristocratic country house which retains close links with its surroundings and boasts an adjoining hermitage dating back to 1775. The Pérez brothers (Pedro Mario and Óscar Manuel), who look for contentment in even the smallest of things and who, in their own words, 'cook what we are', remain loyal to their history, their heritage and to their different yet complementary personalities. Take your pick between the à la carte, featuring the restaurant’s signature dishes (don’t miss the cured meat 'canutillos' with duck liver and quince) and the occasional creative and seasonally inspired dish, and two tasting menus: one that guests create themselves by selecting four dishes from the à la carte offering, and a second special tasting menu with 12 courses which showcases seasonal produce as it changes with each season. We particularly enjoyed the glazed lamb sweetbreads with potatoes, snow peas, radish and vinegar.; El Ermitaño is accessed by a minor road flanked by market gardens and fields of corn, a setting which reaffirms the gastronomic, cultural and family legacy of this aristocratic country house which retains close links with its surroundings and boasts an adjoining hermitage dating back to 1775. The Pérez brothers (Pedro Mario and Óscar Manuel), who look for contentment in even the smallest of things and who, in their own words, “cook what we are”, remain loyal to their history, their heritage and to their different yet complementary personalities. Take your pick between the à la carte, featuring the restaurant’s signature dishes (don’t miss the cured meat “canutillos” with duck liver and quince) and the occasionally creative and seasonally inspired dish, and two tasting menus: one that guests create themselves by selecting four dishes from the à la carte, and a second special menu based around baby lamb, a favourite ingredient of the team here. The latter includes up to 12 courses (we particularly enjoyed the glazed sweetbreads with potatoes, mangetout, radish and vinegar) and requires advance booking.; Michelin 1 Star (2024) | Hard | — |
| Aponiente | Progressive - Seafood, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Arzak | Modern Basque, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Azurmendi | Progressive, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Cocina Hermanos Torres | Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| DiverXO | Progressive - Asian, Creative | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
What to weigh when choosing between El Ermitaño and alternatives.
The venue database does not confirm a bar dining option at El Ermitaño. As an aristocratic country house with a Michelin star and a format built around à la carte and tasting menus, seating is almost certainly table-based. If bar dining is a priority, check the venue's official channels before booking — getting a reservation here requires offline outreach in any case, as no website or phone is publicly listed.
No specific policy is documented for El Ermitaño, but the kitchen's ethos — the Pérez brothers describe their cooking as 'cook what we are', rooted in seasonal, local produce — suggests a hands-on team likely to accommodate with notice. The 12-course tasting menu changes with each season, so flagging restrictions at booking is essential, not optional. Raise it when you make your reservation.
If the 12-course seasonal tasting menu is available, book it — it requires advance notice and showcases the kitchen at full range. From the à la carte, the cured meat 'canutillos' with duck liver and quince are specifically flagged as a signature dish. The glazed lamb sweetbreads with potatoes, snow peas, radish and vinegar have drawn specific praise in Michelin's own notes.
At €€€ with a Michelin star earned in rural Zamora rather than a major city, El Ermitaño offers strong value relative to comparably starred restaurants in Madrid or San Sebastián. The format is flexible — you can build your own tasting menu from four à la carte dishes, which lowers the commitment if you want the starred experience without the full 12-course outlay. Worth it if you're making the detour deliberately; less so as a casual stop.
Friday and Saturday are the only days with evening service through 11:30 PM; every other open day closes at 6 PM, making lunch the default for most of the week. If you have schedule flexibility, a Friday or Saturday dinner gives you more time and a less pressured pace. Lunch on a weekday works if you're passing through, but dinner on a weekend is the stronger version of this visit.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
