Saltao de Mar, El Lago Club, Marbella – Review

Saltao de Mar is the new contemporary Peruvian Mediterranean restaurant from Azotea Grupo. This is the first opening on the Costa del Sol for the Madrid hospitality group, and forms the culinary heart of El Lago Club, the lakeside wellness and leisure club at Real de la Quinta in the Benahavís hills above Marbella. The menus were created by Paula Gutiérrez of Salamanca’s Michelin-starred Tayta, recently named Spain’s Best Chef of 2026, while the kitchen is led by up-and-coming Lima chef Boris Stakeeff, recognised in Peru as a reference for cooking that brings together tradition and modernity, recovering heritage recipes and ingredients.

Real de la Quinta is a new residential community inland from Marbella and San Pedro de Alcántara, a good 20 minutes’ drive up past the golf courses and then a winding road through the hills. That distance explains the creation of El Lago Club, the new social heart of this emerging area. The club faces a large artificial lake, with kayaks and paddle boards, walking and cycling trails, a six-hole golf course and a health and wellness club from Madrid’s Le Max. There’s even a ‘beach club’ with canopied day beds on a sandy shore that leads into a crescent-shaped infinity pool that ingeniously blends into the lake.

El Lago Club, La Quinta Real

This is the first chapter of a larger master plan, with further villas and apartments to come, along with the Angsana Real de la Quinta hotel from the Banyan Tree group. For now the club still feels like a new discovery, and Saltao de Mar is certainly the reason to make the drive up.

El Lago Club is a place of striking contemporary architecture, thoughtfully blended into the hilly landscape, with stylish finishing and an abundance of space and light.

Saltao, Peruvian dining

Saltao itself is calm and minimalist, facing the lake through full-height glass. Inside are gabion walls of grey stone hung with abstract prints and a long marble bar offering signature cocktails and an excellent pisco sour. Outside, the terrace is furnished with tables and banquette seating shaded by a contemporary pergola. Then on the water’s edge are sofas and day beds.

The Menu

Restaurant manager Amador welcomed us with a wonderful pisco sour, followed by soft, warm bread with butter whipped with huacatay, the Peruvian black mint.

Carla, our server, helped with recommendations, including ají de gallina croquettes, crisp outside and with a creamy saffron-coloured filling, and a classic ceviche, of course, the white fish dressed in a flavoursome leche de tigre with sweet potato and corn. We also enjoyed the anticuchos of Iberian pork secreto, glazed and lightly charred, and patacones of crisp plantain topped with bluefin tuna tartare. The plates arrived on beds of purple corn.

One of the restaurant’s signature dishes is the solomillo ‘Saltao’ de vaca, the beef tenderloin that gives the house its name. Saltao means sautéed, and this plate is a delicious take on Peru’s beloved lomo saltado, with cherry tomatoes, red onion and potatoes, served with buttered rice with corn.

The surprise of the lunch was the glazed Angus short rib, a dish I would not normally order, expecting the sticky, sauce-heavy American style. Here it is all about the meat itself, tender and full of flavour, presented simply on the plate with the bare bone and house pickles, as well as warm triangles of flatbread served alongside to assemble yourself at the table.

Desserts include a light cheesecake with lúcuma, the caramel-like Andean fruit, with chocolate, and a refreshing passion fruit, mango and coconut dessert that was perfect for an August afternoon. For those with a sweet tooth, there is the Alfajor XL, an oversized version of the classic South American dulce de leche biscuit.

Relaxing location

I particularly like the setting, which is relaxing without the intensity of people, music and movement you often get at the coast’s restaurants on the water. The drive rewards you with what is now a tranquil destination, and you could be tempted to make a day of it.

The Luxury Editor dined as a guest of Saltao de Mar, for review purposes.