At Sant Feliu de Guíxols, overlooking the Mediterranean, the Villa Más restaurant has earned a cult reputation for one ingredient above all others: tomatoes. Here, diners are presented with no ordinary salad, but a dazzling array of fifty varieties, harvested daily and combined in inventive dishes that blur the line between garden and gastronomy.
Behind this singular focus are Carlos Orta, the original visionary grower from Barcelona, and chef Roger Co, from Matadepera, who joined forces with maître d’ Agathe Arnaud of Toulouse. Together they have transformed Villa Más into one of the Costa Brava’s most distinctive dining experiences. Orta cultivates his crop on a 7,000-square-metre farm, producing around 100 kilograms of tomatoes every day during the season. Co then turns them into artful plates: five tomatoes to a dish, arranged by colour and character, sometimes accompanied by freshly picked crudités or even worked into cocktails like a Bloody Mary spiced with mezcal and gochujang.
A Culinary Partnership
The partnership between grower and chef is key. Orta decides what to plant, Co what to cook, and the results are dishes that celebrate balance and seasonality. Tomatoes may be paired with Palamós prawns caught by the Bonomar boat, or contrasted with the intense flavours of escórpora (scorpion fish) from the local market. The approach is resolutely Mediterranean: simple produce, impeccably sourced, treated with imagination.
Wine, Heritage and Atmosphere
Villa Más is also notable for its setting: a restored modernist house filled with character, where the walls echo with conversation and the wine cellar is as remarkable as the menu. With 1,500 references and 50,000 bottles, curated by head sommelier Paula Cuenda, the list is particularly strong in Jura and Burgundy wines, appealing to oenophiles as much as food lovers.
The restaurant reflects a broader trend in Catalan gastronomy, where local ingredients, sustainability, and culinary storytelling are prized as highly as technique. The region, home to legends such as El Celler de Can Roca and the legacy of Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli, has long been at the forefront of global fine dining. Villa Más, with its singular devotion to the tomato, adds a fresh chapter to this narrative.
A Taste of the Costa Brava
For diners, Villa Más offers more than just a meal; it offers a philosophy. To eat here is to understand how a humble fruit can be transformed into a centrepiece of haute cuisine. It is an ode to land and sea, to Catalonia’s restless creativity, and to the enduring pleasure of a dish perfectly in balance.
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