Restaurante La Cava Aragonesa
Tucked into a side street off Avenida Europa, La Cava Aragonesa has been serving honest Valencian rice dishes and fresh fish to a loyal local crowd since 1985. Its arròs a banda — rice cooked in fish stock and served with alioli — is widely regarded as the best in Benidorm.
What to Order
The arròs a banda arrives in a blackened paella pan for two, the grains perfectly separate and stained deep amber from the stock. The fish that flavoured the broth — monkfish, cuttlefish, and prawns from the Villajoyosa market — is served separately as a second course with boiled potatoes and a sharp alioli made in-house.
The fideuà negra (black noodles with cuttlefish ink) is the other dish regulars fight over. It has the same oceanic depth as the rice but with a slightly firmer texture and a dramatic jet-black colour that makes for a striking table photograph.
The Room and the Experience
The dining room is unfussy — tiled floors, paper tablecloths, framed fishing prints — which is exactly the right setting for food this focused. The wine list leans heavily on Valencian DO bottles from Utiel-Requena and Alicante, and the house Monastrell is excellent value at around €14 a bottle.
Lunch is the main event here, as it is across the Valencian Community: the kitchen is at its best between 1:30 and 3:30 pm. Booking 24 hours ahead is strongly recommended for weekends, especially in July and August.
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