Restaurant in Vinaròs, Spain
Bib Gourmand value, four menus, easy to book.
A Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2024 and 2025, Rubén Miralles is the most considered restaurant in Vinaròs at the €€ price point. Chef Rubén Miralles runs four menus — including a seasonal Producte option and a fully plant-based Amarant — with local coastal ingredients at the centre of each. Book the full gastronomic menu for a dedicated visit; the midweek Debé lunch works without a reservation.
Most visitors to Vinaròs come for the seafood and leave with an unremarkable fish lunch. Rubén Miralles, on a narrow street minutes from the Plaza Parroquial, offers something considerably more considered: a Michelin Bib Gourmand (awarded in both 2024 and 2025), four distinct menus, and a kitchen that takes local Castellón ingredients seriously enough to ferment, reinvent, and occasionally look toward Arabia, Peru, and Asia for technique. At the €€ price point, it is not just good value for Vinaròs — it is good value for Spain. Book it before you arrive.
The address — Travessia de Sant Vicent, 9 , puts you on a compact side street a short walk from the main church square. The space is small and intimate, which matters practically: seating is limited, and the room rewards a relaxed pace rather than a quick turnaround. Come expecting a focused dining room, not a sprawling restaurant. The atmosphere reads closer to a serious neighbourhood table than a special-occasion showroom, which is part of the appeal at this price tier.
Chef Rubén Miralles is Castellón-born, and that regional grounding shows in the menu architecture. This is not a kitchen chasing global trends for their own sake. The locally sourced produce , coastal seafood, market-garden vegetables from the huerta , forms the backbone of every menu, and the international influences (North African spice logic, Peruvian acidity, East Asian precision) are applied as seasoning rather than spectacle. Vine tomatoes with natural and fermented salmorejo, and espardeña (sea cucumber) with boletus foam, a pounded sauce called majado, and egg yolk are dishes the Michelin inspectors called out specifically for their delicate touch and flavour. That is a useful steer for first-timers: the kitchen's strength is refinement, not provocation.
This is the most decision-relevant thing to understand before you book. Rubén Miralles runs four menus, and which one you should choose depends on when you visit and what you want from the meal.
The Debé menu is the lunchtime, midweek option , the most accessible entry point, and the one that does not require advance reservation. If you are passing through Vinaròs on a weekday and want to eat well without committing to a full tasting experience, this is your route in.
The Producte menu is where the seasonal angle becomes the deciding factor. It showcases local market gardens and the sea, which means the dishes rotate with what is actually available from the region. Spring and early summer bring the huerta produce at its peak; autumn shifts toward richer coastal catches. If the season aligns, this is the menu that most directly answers the question of what Vinaròs and its surrounding coast taste like right now. It is the one Pearl would point most first-timers toward.
Amarant menu is fully plant-based , and it is not a concession or an afterthought. Miralles has been public about his conviction that every serious kitchen needs a pure vegetable offering, and the Amarant reflects that commitment with the same technical approach applied to the seafood menus. If you are eating plant-based, this is one of the more serious vegan tasting menus available on the Costa del Azahar. It requires booking in advance.
Rubén Miralles menu is the full gastronomic experience , the most ambitious option, the longest, and the one that requires advance reservation. If you are making a dedicated trip to the restaurant rather than stopping in as part of a coastal drive, this is the format to book. Reserve it before you travel.
Producte menu makes seasonal timing genuinely consequential here. The Costa del Azahar's market gardens are most productive from late spring through early autumn, and the Mediterranean fishing grounds around Vinaròs produce the richest espardenya and shellfish in cooler months. Visiting in April through June gives you the huerta at its most expressive; November through February favours the sea-forward dishes. Summer visits (July and August) coincide with peak coastal tourism, which means booking ahead matters even for the Debé lunch. Outside summer, walk-in availability at lunch is more plausible, but advance reservation is still the safer approach for any menu other than Debé.
Booking difficulty at Rubén Miralles is rated Easy by Pearl's assessments. The Debé lunch menu does not require advance reservation; the Amarant and Rubén Miralles menus do. For weekend visits or the full gastronomic menu, booking a week or two ahead is sensible. No phone number or direct booking link is currently listed in our database , check the restaurant's current contact details on arrival in Vinaròs or via local search. For more on eating and drinking in the town, see our full Vinaròs restaurants guide.
Quick reference: €€ price range / Michelin Bib Gourmand 2024–2025 / 4.8 on Google (831 reviews) / advance booking required for Amarant and Rubén Miralles menus / easy to book overall.
See the comparison section below for how Rubén Miralles stacks up against the region's leading tables.
For broader context on creative Spanish cooking worth travelling for, the benchmark restaurants are well-established: Quique Dacosta in Dénia is the closest geographically and the most relevant comparison for Costa del Azahar dining at the top tier, though at €€€€ it is a different financial commitment entirely. Further afield, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Arzak in San Sebastián, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, and Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María represent the leading of Spain's creative cooking, but at significantly higher price points and with considerably harder bookings. Rubén Miralles is not competing with those restaurants for the same diner , it is the right choice for someone who wants serious, ingredient-led cooking in Vinaròs without the cost or planning effort of a destination pilgrimage. Also worth knowing about for creative regional cooking in Spain: Ricard Camarena in València, Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona, Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria, DiverXO in Madrid, Mugaritz in Errenteria, and Atrio in Cáceres. For modern cuisine outside Spain worth benchmarking against, see Frantzén in Stockholm and Maison Lameloise in Chagny.
If you are planning more time in Vinaròs, Pearl also covers hotels, bars, wineries, and experiences in the area.
Yes, at the €€ price tier, the full Rubén Miralles tasting menu delivers serious value relative to comparable creative cooking in Spain. The Michelin Bib Gourmand, awarded in both 2024 and 2025, specifically recognises quality at a moderate price , that is precisely what the tasting menu offers. If you want the kitchen's full range, including the international technique and the reinvented local dishes, book the Rubén Miralles menu. If budget is the priority and you want a taste of the cooking without the full commitment, the Producte seasonal menu is the better-value middle ground. For context, the equivalent experience at Quique Dacosta costs considerably more and requires significantly more advance planning.
It works well for a low-key special occasion , an anniversary dinner or a birthday meal where the food matters more than the grandeur of the room. The setting is intimate rather than formal, and the €€ pricing means it does not carry the financial weight of a full destination-restaurant splurge. If you want theatre and ceremony to match the occasion, the full Rubén Miralles gastronomic menu is the format to book. For a more overtly celebratory setting at higher spend, Quique Dacosta in Dénia is the regional step up. For special occasions in Vinaròs specifically, this is the clearest choice in town.
There is no confirmed bar or counter seating in our current data for Rubén Miralles. The restaurant is a small dining room on a narrow street near the Plaza Parroquial in Vinaròs; the format is table service. The Debé lunchtime menu is the most casual and accessible option if you want a shorter, less structured meal , but expect a seated dining experience either way. Check directly with the restaurant for the most current seating configuration.
The restaurant is small, which means larger groups should contact ahead. No phone number is listed in our current database, so reach out via the restaurant's direct contact once in Vinaròs or check local listings for current details. For groups wanting the full gastronomic or Amarant menus, advance booking is required regardless of party size , and with a small room, the earlier you plan the better. Groups of six or more should approach this as a reservation that needs confirming well in advance, not a walk-in.
No formal dress code is listed, and at €€ with a Bib Gourmand (rather than a starred) rating, the expectation is smart casual rather than formal. Vinaròs is a coastal town, and the restaurant's neighbourhood feel supports a relaxed approach , clean, presentable clothing rather than a jacket. If you are coming directly from the beach, change first. For the full Rubén Miralles gastronomic menu, erring toward the smarter end of casual is appropriate given the seriousness of the cooking.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Booking Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rubén Miralles | Modern Cuisine | €€ | Easy |
| Quique Dacosta | Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| El Celler de Can Roca | Progressive Spanish, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Arzak | Modern Basque, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Azurmendi | Progressive, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
| Aponiente | Progressive - Seafood, Creative | €€€€ | Unknown |
How Rubén Miralles stacks up against the competition.
At a €€ price point with two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025), the value case is strong. The eponymous Rubén Miralles menu is the most ambitious of the four and requires advance booking — if you're making a trip specifically for this, that's the one to reserve. For a lower-commitment introduction, the midweek Debé lunch is available without a reservation and gives you a reliable read on the kitchen before committing to the full tasting format.
Yes, with the right expectations. The restaurant is small and the setting is intimate rather than formal — a narrow side street off Plaza Parroquial, not a grand dining room. The Rubén Miralles tasting menu or the Amarant vegan menu (both require advance booking) are the right formats for a celebratory meal. If you want a grander physical setting for a special occasion, Quique Dacosta in Dénia is the regional benchmark — but at a significantly higher price point.
The venue data does not confirm a bar or counter seating option. Given the restaurant's small size and the structured menu format, it is safest to assume table dining is the standard arrangement. check the venue's official channels at Travessia de Sant Vicent, 9, Vinaròs to confirm seating options before visiting.
The restaurant is small, so large groups are likely to be difficult. The Amarant vegan menu and the Rubén Miralles tasting menu both require advance booking, which is especially relevant if you're coordinating a group. For parties of more than four, contact the restaurant ahead of time to confirm capacity and which menus are available for your group size.
The venue is a small, independently run modern restaurant on a side street in a mid-sized Spanish coastal town — not a formal hotel dining room. Neat, presentable clothing is appropriate; there is no evidence of a dress code in the venue data. Think a level above beachwear, but there is no case for a suit.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
