Restaurant in Ourense, Spain
Book the tasting menu before it rotates.
Pacífico is Ourense's most credentialled value tasting menu restaurant, holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand in both 2024 and 2025. Chef Alexandre Thomas rotates a single contemporary menu every two months, built around seasonal Galician produce. At €€ pricing with a 4.6 Google rating and easy booking, it's the first reservation to make in the city.
Pacífico runs a single contemporary tasting menu that rotates approximately every two months. That constraint is the most important thing to know before you book: what's on the menu today won't be there in eight weeks, and there's no à la carte fallback on weekday evenings. If you've eaten here before and want to return for a specific dish, check whether the menu has turned over. For repeat visitors, that rotation is a feature, not a problem — it gives you a reason to come back. For first-timers, it means the window to experience any given iteration is genuinely short.
The restaurant holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for both 2024 and 2025, which at the €€ price point is a meaningful signal. The Bib Gourmand is Michelin's marker for good cooking at a reasonable price , it's not a star, but it tells you the inspectors found the food worth a dedicated visit. In a city like Ourense, where the broader dining scene doesn't compete at the level of Arzak in San Sebastián or El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, a consecutive Bib Gourmand puts Pacífico in a short category of restaurants worth planning around rather than just dropping into.
Pacífico opens with a café-bar at the entrance before giving way to a bistro-style dining room with an open-view kitchen. The energy skews relaxed rather than formal , this is not the kind of room where you'll feel underdressed in smart casual, nor is it austere enough to demand ceremony. The open kitchen keeps a low-level ambient hum in the background: the sounds of service rather than music-driven noise. For a conversation-first dinner, that's good news. If you visited once and found the room worked for you, it's consistent enough to rely on again.
Weekend brunch, served in the same space, changes the atmosphere considerably. The café-bar entrance becomes more active, the room feels less structured, and the pace shifts. The brunch option is an added draw, but if you're returning for the tasting menu experience specifically, a weekday or quieter weekend evening booking keeps the atmosphere closer to what the kitchen is designed for.
Chef Alexandre Thomas works with seasonal, locally sourced ingredients , which in Galicia means access to serious produce: river fish, Atlantic seafood, mountain vegetables, and meats from the interior. The menu rotates often enough that no single dish can be called a permanent fixture, but the Michelin record indicates consistent execution across visits and menu changes.
One dish from a past menu illustrates the kitchen's direction well: sea bass escabeche with carrot purée, a garlic refrito salsa, and dried fruits. That's a technically considered plate , escabeche requires timing and acid balance, the refrito adds depth without weight, and the dried fruits bring a register that stops it reading as direct fish cookery. It points to a kitchen that uses classical technique but isn't cooking classically. For returning guests, that consistency of approach across changing menus is the main reason to come back: the idiom holds even when the ingredients shift.
The database record doesn't include specific wine list details for Pacífico, so this section stays grounded in what's verifiable. What can be said: Ourense sits in Galicia, one of Spain's most interesting wine regions for white wines, particularly Godello and Albariño from appellations including Valdeorras and Ribeiro. A kitchen that emphasises seasonal, locally sourced ingredients and operates at Bib Gourmand level almost always pairs that approach with a wine list that leans into the region. For returning guests, asking the team about Galician whites alongside the current tasting menu is a reasonable move , the regional pairing logic is sound even without a confirmed list in front of us. If wine pairing matters to you on a given visit, call ahead and ask whether a paired option is available for the current menu iteration. Don't assume; verify directly with the restaurant. For broader context on what Galician wine regions offer, our full Ourense wineries guide covers the regional picture.
At €€ pricing with a Bib Gourmand and a 4.6 Google rating across over 1,300 reviews, Pacífico is well-known enough that you shouldn't assume walk-in availability on a weekend. That said, booking difficulty here is rated Easy , this is not a restaurant requiring weeks of advance planning under normal conditions. A few days to a week ahead should be sufficient for most weeknight visits; weekend evenings and the period just after a menu change (when word gets out) may warrant slightly more lead time. If you're planning a special occasion dinner around a specific date, book it the moment the date is confirmed rather than leaving it to the week before.
There is no online booking information in the venue record. Contact the restaurant directly at Rúa Pena Trevinca, 37, Ourense. The restaurant was originally founded in 1975 by the grandparents of current owner Francisco Domínguez, which means the team has been managing reservations for a long time , direct contact is likely the most reliable route.
Ourense is not a city that draws visitors primarily for its restaurant scene, but Pacífico is a genuine reason to eat well here rather than just adequately. For context on where it sits nationally: Spain's highest-profile tasting menu restaurants , DiverXO in Madrid, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria, Quique Dacosta in Dénia, Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María, and Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona , operate at a different price tier and scale entirely. Pacífico isn't competing with those rooms. What it is doing is delivering a credentialled, seasonally driven tasting menu at a price point where the value case is easy to make. For visitors to Ourense, it should be the first restaurant booking you make. For Ourense residents, the bimonthly menu rotation makes it a viable regular rather than a once-a-year occasion. See our full Ourense restaurants guide for how the rest of the city's dining compares, and our Ourense hotels guide if you're building a full trip around it.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pacífico | This classic family-run restaurant founded in 1975 by the grandparents of current owner Francisco Domínguez has moved with the times and now presents a much more appealing modern feel that showcases the evolution of this renowned eatery. The café-bar at the entrance leads to a bistro-style dining room with an open-view kitchen. Here, the focus is on a single, contemporary-style tasting menu that changes every two months approximately and is centred around seasonal and locally sourced ingredients. An added option here is the extensive brunch available at the weekend. One dish that we particularly enjoyed on our last visit was the sea bass escabeche with carrot purée, a garlic refrito salsa and dried fruits.; Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025); Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) | €€ | — |
| Ceibe | Michelin 1 Star | €€€€ | — |
| Nova | Michelin 1 Star | €€€ | — |
| Miguel González | — |
How Pacífico stacks up against the competition.
Yes — Pacífico has a café-bar at the entrance, separate from the main bistro-style dining room. It's a practical option if you want a lighter visit or haven't booked ahead, though the full tasting menu experience is in the dining room with the open-view kitchen. For the Bib Gourmand format, the dining room is where the menu is designed to be eaten.
Book at least one to two weeks out, possibly more on weekends. With a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2024 and 2025 and over 1,300 Google reviews at 4.6, Pacífico is not a quiet local secret. The tasting menu also rotates roughly every two months, so if there's a specific iteration you want to catch, timing your booking around that window matters.
At €€ pricing with two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmands, the value case is solid. The menu is contemporary, changes seasonally, and draws on Galicia's strong local produce. If you want à la carte flexibility, Pacífico is the wrong format — it runs a single tasting menu only. Commit to that format and the price-to-quality ratio is one of the better ones in Ourense.
The format is a single contemporary tasting menu — there's no à la carte option, so come with that expectation set. The restaurant has been family-run since 1975, now updated with a bistro feel and open kitchen under chef Alexandre Thomas. Weekend visits unlock an additional brunch option if the tasting menu isn't what you're after. Book ahead; walk-ins at this recognition level are a gamble.
Ceibe is the comparison to make if you want to step up in formality or ambition within Ourense. Nova is worth considering for a more contemporary or casual approach. Miguel González is a practical alternative if you want something more neighbourhood-focused. None of the three hold consecutive Bib Gourmands, which is Pacífico's clearest point of difference at the €€ price level.
Yes, at €€ with a 2025 Michelin Bib Gourmand, Pacífico sits in the category where recognition and accessible pricing overlap. The Bib Gourmand is specifically awarded for good cooking at reasonable prices, so the award is itself the answer to the value question. If you're spending a night or day in Ourense and want one meal to get right, this is where to put the money.
It works for a low-key special occasion — a birthday dinner, an anniversary meal where the atmosphere skews relaxed rather than formal. The bistro-style room and café-bar entrance set a convivial tone rather than a stiff one. For a milestone that demands a grander setting, you'd want to look at Ceibe instead. But for a considered meal that feels intentional without being stiff, Pacífico at €€ with Bib Gourmand credentials is a reasonable call.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
