Il Cantuccio

If you are ever in Marbella, you MUST experience dinner made by the hands of the fantastic Bridgida!!! She custom made each meal for our 9 person party. She accommodated all my food intolerances and for the first time I ate food that did not feel dairy free, nightshade free, gluten free! We all loved every one of the 4 course meal! Do yourself a favor and go eat there!

Wonderful food, innovative and beautifully presented, fresh tastes and homemade bread, the entrees were so exciting and creative, I had a pork roast and my date had ravioli with duck

As I sat at my outside table at Il Cantuccio, perusing the large restaurant sign with the name Il Cantuccio on it with 2 clinking glasses and evidence of merriment, I wondered what the name of the restaurant stood for. Was it perhaps champagne or celebration or even wedding?
So, I asked the waitress and she told me that it stood for corner and indeed, Il Cantuccio is on a corner. The restaurant’s main seating is outdoors with tables going round the corner from the restaurant’s main entrance. When I asked what they did if it rained, my waitress said it rarely rained on the Costa del Sol
I do like eating alfresco and I did enjoy the ambiance of the outdoor setting in spite of the booming music coming from a kids’ birthday party in the neighbouring square. Hot climates means that lighter dishes go down better and as I scanned the menu, my eye was drawn to the tasting menu offering 5 course for 35 Euros, excellent value for money
A plate of amuse bouches arrived first — marinaded mushrooms and local ham. It demonstrated some nice produce from surrounding areas and was a good start
The bread arrived with 2 flavoured butters, one with garlic and the other with tomato. Already, I could tell that the kitchen was really into flavour and everything tasted clear and distinctive
1. Prawn ravioilis in pesto sauce
Generously sized raviolis were filled with prawns which were chopped but still had enough texture to be obviously prawn. The pesto sauce really brought the dish together with the nutty perfume of pinenuts and basil combining perfectly. The chef had assured me that everything was made fresh on-​site and the pesto sauce proved it — you wouldn’t get this quality otherwise
2. Duo of pates with cranberry sauce
The liver pâté was super smooth and the rougher Iberico pork pâté had wonderful texture and both pates packed a meaty punch, which was perfectly balanced out by the sweet and slightly sharp cranberry
3. Courgette soup
Such an innocuous name. A dish that I would never order off an a la carte menu. A dish which only had one main vegetable in it — courgette — and yet this was the standout dish of the evening. It was full of sweet and deep deep flavour. Anyone that can extract that amount of flavour from courgette is a genius though the cook showed me her primary ingredient — the largest courgette I have ever seen. It was more the size of a squash
4. Entrecôte of beef, potato gratin, parsnip purée & mixed vegetables
I was beginning to realise by now that in northern Europe, we just don’t have the conditions for top class ingedients. The sunshine must infiltrate the vegetables and from this dish, also the animals. This was a top class piece of beef, cooked to medium rare perfection
5. Poached pears with choocolate ice cream
I laughed when this dish arrived. After having seen the largest courgette ever in my life, I now saw the smallest pears. A lovely end to the meal
Make no mistake. This is a kitchen of the highest class. They understand good ingredients, the importance of extracting flavour, balancing different components and how to put a tasting menu together

Pleasant small friendly Italian, rather tucked away.
Closed Wednesday