Probably the best in Valencia!

Hablo muy, muy poquito español y entonces escribo solo in ingles. Por favor, no dime "¿Porque no escribes in español?"

SEE FULL REVIEW AND PICTURES AT http://www.restaurantcritic.eu/the-reviews/spain/samsha

THERE ARE REVIEWS OF TWO VISITS TO SAMSHA ON MY WEBSITE

Overall rating: 7.5/10

On my second visit to Samsha I went with the same friend, and we both agreed the level was the same as last time, although I would say that it was possibly a little bit better. After our first visit during the restaurant week (Cuina Oberta) we found out that the restaurant offers a lunch menu with three courses, a drink (a glass of wine, beer or soda) and coffee for €22 + VAT, coming to €24.20 in the end. You can choose between all courses from their 5 and 7 course dinner menus. This lunch menu is really top value for money!
We started out with the same small appetiser (and also ended with the same petit fours) as at our first visit.
One starter was “potatoes with charcoal”, which meant balls that looked like potatoes stuffed with a creamy filling. The charcoal was actually black sesame. Underneath was two sauces.

The other starter was a very prettily presented mushroom, which was actually a shell (like the sugar shells you see in confectionary) stuffed with a mushroom cream, with oregano sponges and parmesan cheese, all made to look like how it might look in a forest.

My main course was slowly cooked pork tail, braising sauce, San Simón cheese cream, small spheres of soy sauce and quinoa, and very refreshing marinated fennel that lighted up an otherwise somewhat heavy dish. Overall, a very, very good dish, and for me the best dish in both meals.

The other main course was a superbly cooked sea bass with dots of egg yolk and squid ink as well as crispy seitan (gluten of wheat). Squid stock, that really tasted like squid, was poured on. I find sea bass to be overrated, but this is definitely some of the best sea bass I’ve ever had. And what a beautiful presentation!

My friend had the same yoghurt ice cream dessert as in our last visit, as they unfortunately didn’t serve the orange and vanilla bubbles dessert that was listed in the menu for lunch.
My dessert was a volcano with chocolate and coffee sand, sparkling rocks, a spongy bread underneath, and a guava cream in a glass in the middle, which featured a bit of theatre: A piece of dry ice was placed in the glass, so when you pressed the piece of ice down, the cream spurted like a volcano. Both presentation wise and flavour wise, this chocolate volcano was far superior to the one I had at Arzak.
See a video of the volcano on my website:
http://www.restaurantcritic.eu/the-reviews/spain/samsha

Again, a very creative meal with good ingredients and expert skill. I would have liked a bit more depth of flavour in some of the dishes, but maybe this is just my personal preference. Nevertheless, for this price Samsha is truly one of the very best restaurants in Valencia at the moment – if not the best (I liked Sangonereta and Ca’ Sento better, but they are both closed now). The only real contender I’ve been to has been Riff, which was less creative but at times a bit more flavourful while at other times less successful.
At my first visit to Samsha, the spelt tabula was easily the weakest dish. At my second visit the potato balls was the weakest dish, but this was definitely better than the tabula. Again, one dish for me stuck out for me as being the best (the pork at my second visit, the squid at my first visit), but all in all the level of the food was very consistent.
Again, the service and the focus on wine was not quite up to the standard of the food, although again the pace was great. After a while we found out that our waitress spoke English, and she was very friendly and sweet. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her, but the service was simply not Michelin star level. Water was never topped up, and just after serving our starters, she said “oh, do you want some wine?”.
It’s not a big deal, but I think that if they simply improved these details they could attain a Michelin star. This is a pity because the food definitely deserves it, but they probably can’t receive a star when the service and the focus on wine is not better than this. Then again, if Grønbech & Churchill in Copenhagen and Alejandro del Toro, also in Valencia, can get a star with worse service than Samsha, then why shouldn’t Samsha?