The Lighthouse restaurant is located in the marina area of Denia, at the very end of the entertainment complex, near the sailor lighthouse monument.
It’s set back slightly from the main promenade of the marina, so you could miss it when walking past if you weren’t looking for it.
Given there are over another dozen eating/drinking options on the promenade, they will need to advertise themselves better if they’re looking to attract passing trade.
The Dining Experience Inside The Lighthouse
This is where things get confusing for me.
Like Basta (read our BASTA! review here), they have opted for a fuss-free nautical/ industrial theme for styling the restaurant. Lots of reclaimed wood, mixed with bleached tiling, stonework, stainless steel and raffia place mats.
However, this is where I get confused, it classifies itself as a fine dining restaurant – no bistro style food here.
Now, maybe I’m being slightly obnoxious here, but if I’m paying up to 30 euros for a main course, I expect a white linen tablecloth and napkins.
But maybe this is the new way to do things. Less is more…
Which leads me nicely onto the food.
The Lighthouse Food & Drink
The food is classed as fine dining meets nouvelle cuisine. First-class ingredients with provenance perfectly presented. Dishes such as guinea fowl and octopus are served with a lighter touch.
There is also an extensive wine cellar, with wines suiting most people’s palates and budgets. There are all the usual offerings of cocktails, beers and soft drinks.
Our First Time At The Lighthouse In Denia
We had just enjoyed a really lovely evening with friends at Basta, to see Lady K and the JJ’s perform and decided we would try out this new restaurant that everyone was raving about called “The Lighthouse”.
I made an advanced reservation a few weeks beforehand to make sure we could get a table.
However, I needn’t have bothered as there was only one other table taken in the restaurant, by a group of four who seemed to be only having drinks.
The entrance to the restaurant is very welcoming with flaming patio heaters at either side of the doorway – lovely when it’s dark outside. Given that our table was booked for 9 pm and we’d already eaten various nibbles in Basta, we weren’t ravenous, so decided we would only order mains, followed by desserts, if we could manage them.
Our waiter came to take our drinks order. A lovely friendly guy, originally from France, who we later found out was the manager.
My friend and I ordered a bottle of the house white wine, whilst our partners who were driving, opted for a large bottle of still water. Our drinks arrived promptly, along with an amuse bouche from the chef, a stuffed nasturtium flower.
It was truly sublime.
You could identify each of the individual ingredients – which we confirmed with the manager afterwards. He then recommended the homemade bread and butter. The way he described it sounded amazing so we opted for two portions to share between the four of us.
We were really looking forward to its arrival but were a bit disappointed after tasting, it was nice – not as brilliant as expected, but nice.
Our Mains & Desserts Experience
We ordered our main courses. The guys opted for the steak, whilst I went for the duck and my friend the lamb and we ordered a couple of sides.
After around a 15-minute wait, our dishes arrived – they were beautifully presented but seemed to be lacking in quantity.
The guys had two small strips of beef with a garnish on the side. Now for guys over 6ft tall, this won’t even hit the sides. My duck arrived and was served in a similar way and portion size to the steak and my friend’s lamb was served in a kofa/shish kebab style.
We all agreed that the food looked and tasted amazing – there just wasn’t enough of it.
So when it came to the desserts, we all asked to see the menu.
My friend ordered the baked cheesecake and our partners both ordered the chocolate dessert. I decided to just ask for an additional spoon and try a bit of everyone’s. I found the cheesecake to be slightly bland in favour and the chocolate dessert was overly rich for my palate, but the others seemed to really enjoy them.
It was empty plates all around… but I’m still not sure if this was due to the taste or because they were still hungry after their mains?
So overall, the service was excellent, and the food was mainly delicious, but the portion sizes were way too small for the price.
After a mix-up with the bill, where we seemed to have been charged for an additional bottle of wine – the total came to 160 euros, which seemed a bit excessive for a quick bite to eat with friends on a Wednesday night, especially when you’re heading home feeling hungry!
