Disidente
Carrer del Comte de Salvatierra, 41, 46004 València, Valencia
The word disidente in Spanish means exactly what you think — dissident. The term for this is a cognate — a word that is almost the same or the same in both languages and can really help when learning because there’s a lot of vocabulary you already know even if the pronunciation is a bit different.
When the V-I team looked at the restaurant named Disidente, it made us wonder. What is it they are dissenting from? How is that a good name for a restaurant — it feels much more like it should be a goth nightclub. The menu is, however, interesting. Some of it seems normal with Patatas Bravas, Hummus, nachos and the like. There are some creative outliers like Truffle Mac & Cheese, curry and a Thai wok dish but it actually feels like a pretty normal carta and not anything that is defiant, protesting, taking issue with or the other classic definitions of the word disidente. Boy were we wrong.
We eat at a lot of restaurants in a lot of places and sometimes it seems like menus are similar enough to be a bit of a riff on the theme. New Orleans is a good example of this. A chef friend there says that NOLA is “four thousand restaurants and one menu”. This is true in a lot of places like California, Paris, London and yes, even in Spain. But that’s OK. We want familiar but we want it to have the personal stamp of a particular chef on the dishes.
Boy howdy, does Disidente do that.
Take the croquettes. Listed as “La Croquette” on the menu the name alone seems defiant. And it is. Croquettes are super crispy on the outside with almost no greasiness but a light creaminess inside. They are almost like deep-fried hummus.
They are listed on the menu as being “Creamy croquettes of “chorizo”, smoked Idiazábal cheese, truffled roasted pear emulsion”. The chorizo is in quotes because these are vegetarian (not vegan, they do have egg and cheese). The croquettes are fabulous with a slight smoky ham flavor. They are served with the slightly truffled emulsion that is sweet and topped with shredded unsweetened coconuts (that looks like grated parmigiano at first) and chives.
OK. Not a bad start at all but hang on…
Up next was listed as Burrata y Granola. That sounds a bit dissident and it is. There is a large ball of glistening burrata in the center of the shallow bowl surrounded by a granola with nuts and seeds and raisins. At first that seems odd but this is not something like we have ever had before. Anywhere.
The granola is a combination of what we suspect is quinoa and oats maybe. It’s a bit like overnight oats with some but not a lot of texture but that’s where the comparison ends because its a lovely brick red color and tasting of sun-dried tomatoes, paprika and olive oil. This is topped with generous crunchy nuts (walnuts, sesame seeds, peanuts, cashews) and raisins along with blistered cherry tomatoes (that are served cold). A sweet(ish), sticky vinaigrette holds this all together and the whole thing is sprinkled with more EVOO and some micro greens.
A bite of the “oatmeal”, a bite of the “granola, some lovely tomatoes and a bit of cheese. Repeat. Over and over and over.
If this is granola, we want it for breakfast. Every single day.
The main course dish labelled Quinoa, Garbanzos and Aguacate is equally deceptive. This is really a composed salad like a really grown up Cobb Salad.
There’s chilled steamed broccoli, hominy corn, sliced avocado, tiny garbanzo beans (super creamy and tender) and the fluffiest quinoa you will ever find. All of this is topped with a slightly spicy yellow corn vinaigrette that has a touch of lime and microgreens. The salad is served with house made laminated crackers of flax, sunflower and sesame seeds. At €14,95 it is not cheap by Valencia standards but it is a huge plate of food and all you need for dinner (or a lunch with some leftovers).
There is a bit of a letdown (whew!).
The ¡A Las Bravas! are their take on patatas bravas and are both good and great. They are served with a delicious paprika, aïoli that actually is very much like a Romasco and sour cream. This is topped with what they call praliné de “cacau del collaret”.
The cacau de collaret is a small peanut that is native to Valencia and in this case it is used in what might be described a a dukkah. It adds a bit more spice and a some crunch. This and the sauce are amazing (the great part). However, but the potatoes are only OK (the good part). They are russet potatoes that have been oven baked and lack the crispy skin that you want in a patatas bravas. If they had been roasted longer or a waxy potato used, this would be a much better dish.