We went to Diver XO in Feb 2013 when it was in another location.  Since then it has moved into the NH Collection Hotel and established a more theatrical food journey created by Chef Dabiz Muñoz.  They offer just one tasting menu with several optional pairings.   It was quite pricey, even the non-alcoholic pairings are 250€ per person.  We bought our own wine for dinner and started with a glass of vintage cava that turned out to be 35€ a glass.  Was it worth it – I don’t think so.  Our 2013 visit I remembered the food as phenomenal and the setting funky and fun.  They’ve gone upscale now with huge linen draped tables all surrounded by sheer curtains, large stuffed chairs in pink or cream, tons of props, designated clothing for food or beverage staff, and full color cards for each course.  No music was in the background and it was very bright.  I am a fan of food and flavor and not theater but it continues to be a trend in Michelin restaurants and this one has 3 stars.  That said, nothing was bad but nothing was killer and I would not visit again, but I had to see what all the fuss was about.  You’ll be well taken care of if you go and it’s a unique experience but enter into it with eyes open, as well as your wallet.  One more note, the staff spoke good English but some was very heavily accented and hard to understand the descriptions.

Set-up

Food

No tiny snacks they move right into the first course which was Kohlrabi, milk laksa, stewed ox tongue, tapioca and vanilla in the kohlrabi bulb .  On top was a skewer of prawn with black pepper crab and beside in the wooden spoon was a grilled hake cheek with herbs, pil pil, roasted tomatoes, Indian chutney and garam masala.  All was good with mostly mild flavor.

 

Next were two plates representing frozen oriental ceviche, one with frozen olives, raisins and corn and the other with a skewer over some sauce.  You were to eat the iced object and then use the skewer of shellfish to wipe up the extra juice.  This one had a bit more flavor.

 

A wooden board held rice with pine oil, a crayfish, nigiri, a piece of 45 day aged trout, and pork belly with mullet botarga on a pine skewer. A separate dish held a crayfish head in a bowl of Chupe (South American stew).  You were to use the crayfish head to scoop out the soup – I found it easer to drink it.  The trout was good and the rice nicely crunchy.

 

They brought out a pan showing the crabs in wine, where they are marinated while still alive to enhance the flavor.   Add to the mix chili, ginger, garlic and other spices.  What you were served was kimchi ice cream with macerated crab meat coral, crab coral foam and topped with a skewer of strawberries. You were to intersperse bites of strawberry with bites of the mix in the crab shell.  The strawberries were great but not sure they enhanced the other mixture.

 

Asturian stingray wing chop was served with parmesan whey emulsion and Melipona honey in a chile morita colored mole and semi dried tomato.  With this one you could pull the bit of meat off the wing – the rectangular piece sticking up – and then you used it to eat the rest of the plate.  It was a tasty mole and had a nice bit of spice.     They brought a moist cloth to clean up afterwards.

 

Peas from Zamora were softly sauteed in the wok and plated with “Riofrio” caviar.  Two sauces were on the side, a pistachio and jalapeño “ajoverde” and a macadamia nut with coconut and horseradish for “ajoblanco”.  The peas were excellent and all was fun to mix and match with the sauce.

 

Elvers came with al dente espardenya (sea cucumber) that had been toasted and glazed with eel jus and deglazed with sherry wine.  Red mullet fish and bitter orange made up the bouillon and the final part was a buffalo butter emulsion with Canaran potato.   Red tuna tartare was also in the mix.  This one was pleasant with a good amount of smoky flavor and a nice bit of spice.  You got a pair of tweezers for a utensil with this one.

 

Rooster was braised in its own juices and a piece of meat with very crisp skin was in the center of the bowl and a bit a fried skin of the leg was on the fork across the bowl.  Also in the bowl were Elvers or tiny eels and a couple vegetable filled pastas.  This was a savory and viscous broth, with fun chunks of spinach, kissed by the wok, in it.  The stuffed pastas were a tad tough while the Elvers had the tenderness of good pasta.  Overall, a nice amount of flavor.

 

The next one was about their evolution of the pig skin sandwich, a classic of Madrid.  It was a two bite sandwich using the skin of the pig as the bread and inside used face meat, pecorino cheese cream, wild rocket, and black trumpet pesto and was topped with egg yolk and goose and some black trumpet shreds.  The sauce was a homemade sriracha.  It was messy (another moist cloth brought) and tasty.

 

Oxtail was the next bite in the form of a crunchy ravioli with black mole, roasted bone marrow and sweet chili andniboshi (with dried anchovies and bonito).  With it was a horn containing sour and spicy Galician ox bouillon with black vinegar and Penja pepper (a peppercorn from Cameroon) infusion.  The first was a crunchy bite with good flavor and the horn’s viscous liquid had chunks and a bit of spice.  Fine.

 

Lobster was on two plates.  In the head was a Vindaloo curry with the coral.  On the tray was the tail covered with milk skin and sauces of tomato butter and masala.  The powders were from purple potato, turmeric and beet.  There was also a beet on the tray.  This course was a disappointment.  The lobster was tough and hard to cut and the sauces so strong they buried the lobster.

 

The next was the “bottom-of-the-pot leftovers” from Rescoldo Stew topped with black truffles.  It was a stew of wild boar ribs and vegetables.  It was slowly reduced and caramelized with aged whiskey and bergamot.  The accompanying bread was called the crust of the pizza and used to clean the plate.   This was small but very rich and a bit salty.  To me the bread was the best part.

 

The first dessert was Vanilla cauliflower with sour Greek yogurt, cured egg yolk and some Peruvian chocolate.  The cauliflower was in the cream with some of the frozen chocolate and the cake on the side was chocolate based.  Some curry crisps added to the texture and flavor.  It was okay.

 

Blackcurrant bubblegum was mixed with coconut ganache, black garlic, liquorice, coconut ash and yuzu ice cream.    The ice cream was very tart.

 

Japanese bonbons were the final treats (starting at upper right, going clockwise, ending middle):  cookies dunked in milk and croissant with toasted butter parfait, Coffee from La Finca and white chocolate ganache triamisu, mascarpone cream, cocoa powder and coffee tuile biscuit,  Baklava mochi with toasted pistachio, kataifi paste, butter, lemon and saffron gelee and crunchy pistachio praline; Sweet corn and vanilla core, breaded in corn nuts, tangerine ganache, Thai chili, crispy popcorn with purple corn powder; Bao tatin with apple compote, Kaffir lime, milk cream and guava candy caviar.   They were all very glutinous which made them gooey.  My favorite was the corn, maybe beccaue it had less wrapper and thus less gummy.  The coffee filling was good but the wrapper way too gummy.  These count as a miss.