Strongest point of most rooftop bars and restaurants are panoramic, often breathtaking views on surrounding areas. For this reason, their gastronomical offer, rarely matches the “feast” of the vistas. For many of us it’s OK, because this is exactly what we look for when “climbing” to the roofs – breathtaking views.
However. there are exceptions and one of them is the Vertical Sky Bar and Restaurant located on the roof and correspondingly one level below (9th floor) in the Hotel Ilunion (ex-Confortel, part of Centro Comercial Aqua) Valencia.
The restaurant, with its two large all-glass walls opening at the City of Arts and Sciences and gourmet Michelin-rated cuisine offers the best experience for all our senses. It’s a combined effect of taste (not only in a pure culinary sense, but also esthetic one based on restaurant’s interior décor), sight (visual fiesta of colors, forms and compositions of gourmet meals combined with breathtaking views on the Turia Park).
The rooftop bar is an integral part of the restaurant (interior stairs provides direct access from the restaurant to the bar). The latter you will find as inviting as the restaurants. Indeed, all efforts were undertaken to create the ambience of the real garden. But this garden bar has significant advantage over all others – the 360 degrees unobscured panorama of Valencia: Turia Park and the futuristic architectural forms of Museum of Science, Planetarium, Oceanographic Center, Opera House and the iconic harp-shaped bridge L’Assut de l’Or with the Old Town in the background to the port and Valencian shores washed by blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
Evening and sunset bring quite different scenery. You will see Space-Age structures immersing in the “bath” of gentle touches by “departing” sun, then flooded with lights when real forms are mixing with their mirror images reflected in the water – and all that veiled in the slowly falling darkness of the night. It’s a perfect time for the romantic evening with loved one or friends in a charming ambiance of the Vertical Restaurant and its rooftop bar. It’s a perfect place to withdraw from the hustle and bustle of life on the streets into the refuge from where the city and its beauty is still present but at the comfortable distance from you.
The menu and service in the restaurant meets highest expectations. The chef Jorge Andrés Salvador offers the best of local Mediterranean cuisine, adjusted for seasonality of products with various twists enhancing tastes, colors and forms. In other words – meals follow modern culinary trends where not only flavors but also compositions, palette of colors and graphical forms of presentation play an important role in your dining experience.
On top of menu “a-la-carte”, the Vertical restaurants also offers sets of Tasting Menus correspondingly for lunch: Express (€ 33) and Temporada (Seasonal) (€ 55), as well as two menus for the evening dinner: Vertical (€ 75) and Vertical Experience (€ 90). Yes, it is not cheap, but as a saying goes – you get what you pay for, but the Vertical Restaurant seems to be one of those where you get more than the bill suggests.
No wonder, the Vertical Restaurant received several awards including Michelin star in 2008 and two Repsol Suns in 2012 (the latter is a symbol of culinary excellence awarded to best restaurants and chefs by the Spanish Royal Academy of Gastronomy and Cofradia de la Buena Mesa (Good Food Guild)).
Large selection of local and foreign wines reflecting the personal vision of the Chef Javier Andrés greatly adds to the culinary experience (it may be worth to mention that in 2013 he received the National Gastronomy Award in this category).
Large selection of local and foreign wines reflecting the personal vision of the Chef Javier Andrés greatly adds to the culinary experience (it may be worth to mention that in 2013 he received the National Gastronomy Award in this category).
The rooftop complex is open daily from 1:30pm to 3:30pm for lunch and from 8:30 pm till 10:30 pm for dinner. Unfortunately, the opening hours of the rooftop garden-bar are more seasonal (usually closed for the winter). Given its top “close to heavens” location and at the same time charming beauty of “down-to-ground” earthly garden, it is a huge disappointment. Indeed, the garden-bar was designed to counter most of “winter-related” issues (for example some benches are heated).
Address:
Vertical Restaurant
Calle Luis García Berlangan, 19,
46023 Valencia
