Les Corones

Where the Basque Grill Tradition Meets the Costa Brava

The streets around Carrer del Coral in L'Estartit sit close enough to the beach that salt air is the default. It is that proximity, and the fish markets it implies, that gives restaurants like Les Corones their structural logic. The menu is not fixed in the way that tasting-menu restaurants operate. It flexes with the catch, which means the turbot listed one afternoon may be gone by evening service, replaced by whatever the boats brought in. For a diner used to set-piece fine dining, that variability can feel unfamiliar. For anyone who has eaten in the fishing towns of northern Spain, it is simply how the leading grilled fish works.

The connection to Getaria, the small Basque fishing port in Guipúzcoa, is the key context for understanding what Les Corones is doing. Getaria is the home of the txoko tradition and the origin of the over-the-coals cooking approach that turned its restaurants into a reference point for grilled fish across Spain. The method is specific: whole fish, live charcoal, high heat, minimal intervention. What arrives on the plate tastes of the sea and smoke in roughly equal measure, not of butter, cream, or a sauce designed to carry the cooking. Les Corones applies that same framework on the Costa Brava, which puts it in a small peer group of Catalan restaurants that look to the Basque Country rather than to Barcelona for their culinary reference point.

The Grill as Editorial Stance

In contemporary Spanish dining, the grill occupies a contested position. At the leading end, restaurants like Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María and Disfrutar in Barcelona have pushed Spanish seafood into progressive, technique-heavy territory, while Arzak in San Sebastián, Mugaritz in Errenteria, and Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria sit at the apex of creative Basque cooking. El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, about an hour inland from L'Estartit, represents the flagship of Catalan fine dining. These are €€€€ operations built around conceptual menus, elaborate service, and multi-hour experiences.

Les Corones is a different kind of argument. At a €€ price point, it is asserting that the most direct expression of coastal Catalonia does not require a tasting menu or a kitchen full of modernist technique. The grill is the technique. The fish is the argument. Where a restaurant like Humo in London or A de Totó in Trasmonte applies live-fire cooking to a broader range of proteins, the focus at Les Corones stays tight: what came off the boats in this part of the Costa Brava today, cooked the way Getaria would cook it. That specificity is not a limitation. It is the point. You can find similarly focused wood-fire and charcoal work elsewhere in Spain, from Azurmendi in Larrabetzu to Quique Dacosta in Dénia, though those operate at a very different register, and the discipline of restraint is something Spanish grill restaurants have long understood better than most.

What to Order and Why

Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025 signals consistent cooking that meets a defined standard. A Michelin Plate in this context functions as a reliability marker: the kitchen is doing the basics well, the produce is treated correctly, and the experience is repeatable. It places Les Corones in a specific tier on the Costa Brava, above generalist beach restaurants and below the multi-course destination category.

The ordering logic follows the grill-restaurant model. Whole fish cooked over direct heat is the core of the menu, and the specific species depends on the day's market. Turbot, sea bass, and John Dory are the recurring entries, each carrying different textures under heat: turbot is dense and fatty with a gelatinous quality near the bone; sea bass is leaner and cooks faster; John Dory offers firm white flesh that holds its structure well on the grill. The right choice depends on availability, not hierarchy. Ask what arrived that morning.

Outside the fish, the grilled octopus represents the Galician-Basque crossover that has become standard across northern Spanish grills. Port de la Selva prawn carpaccio introduces a specifically local note: Port de la Selva, about 40 kilometres up the coast, is known for its gambas, and serving them as carpaccio rather than grilled whole keeps the sweetness of the raw prawn intact. These two dishes provide contrast to the main fish course without shifting the menu away from its coastal, product-driven logic. For those interested in where this kind of cooking fits into the broader Spanish seafood conversation, Ricard Camarena in València and Atrio in Cáceres offer points of comparison, though in very different formats.

Planning a Visit

Les Corones sits on Carrer del Coral in the Torroella de Montgrí municipality, a short walk from the L'Estartit beachfront. The address and beach proximity make it a natural anchor for a longer Costa Brava stay. Given the €€ pricing and the Michelin Plate recognition over consecutive years, the restaurant attracts both local regulars and visitors passing through the area, which means tables during peak summer months require advance planning. The fish-market dependency also means that arriving with a fixed idea of what you want to eat is counterproductive: the menu works well when you ask what is fresh and follow that guidance. Booking ahead is the more sensible approach rather than walking in during July or August.