Michelin-Starred Restaurants in Marbella: The 2026 Guide, Star by Star

Marbella's starred kitchens are fewer and more specific than most online lists suggest. Several of those lists still name restaurants that lost their star, changed their name or closed, and hardly any give the prices or the booking rules. In the 2026 Michelin Guide, Marbella has four starred restaurants, Skina with two stars and Messina, BACK and Nintai with one each, plus Sollo in Fuengirola 30 minutes east; menus cost from €140 to €599 a head.

Our concierge team books these tables for clients of our Marbella Escorts Agency through the year, so this guide covers what each room is like, what to order, what it costs in 2026 and the terms you accept when you book. If the starred dinner is part of a longer evening with a companion, our guide to how booking a Marbella escort works covers the other half.

How Many Michelin-Starred Restaurants Does Marbella Have in 2026?

Four, holding five stars between them: Skina has two, and Messina, BACK and Nintai one each. Add Sollo in Fuengirola, half an hour east, and five starred kitchens sit within easy reach of the Golden Mile, half of the ten that Málaga province holds in the 2026 Michelin Guide.

The 2026 List at a Glance

Prices are each restaurant's published 2026 prices, VAT included, before drinks unless stated.

Who Lost a Star, and Who Never Had One

Several names still appear on older lists. El Lago in Elviria is open and good, but holds no star in 2026. Kabuki Raw at Finca Cortesín is now REI, also without a star. Dani García's restaurant at Puente Romano won a third star in the 2019 guide and closed that year; his Leña steakhouse fills the space with no star, and Smoked Room is in Madrid and Dubai, as our Dani García guide explains. Nobu holds none. Michelin still lists Leña, La Milla, Casa Eladio, Candeal and Areia without stars, and our date restaurants guide covers that tier.

Skina: Two Stars and a Cellar of 6,000 Wines

Skina is the one to book for an occasion. Sommelier Marcos Granda opened it in 2004 with four tables and ten chairs in the heart of Marbella; it won a first star in 2009 and a second in 2020, and now occupies a restored farmhouse at Avenida Cánovas del Castillo 9, opposite the Parque de los Enamorados.

What to Order at Skina

Chef Mario Cachinero, whom Michelin named its Young Chef in 2021, rewrites classic Andalusian recipes. The Evolución menu costs €349, or €499 with a wine pairing: Málaga quisquillas in a Thai broth, the dish the Michelin inspector singles out, then squid with onions, carabinero with calçots and yuzu, Galician sea bass with beurre blanc, Joselito Iberian pork loin, and a dessert called Infancia Andaluza. At lunch only, a shorter menu of three dishes of your choice costs €295, or €349 with wines.

The Grand Cru Menu and the Cellar

Skina is a sommelier's restaurant first. Its list runs to more than 6,000 wines across two cellars, and the Grand Cru menu, at €599, pairs a shorter run of dishes with Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque 2014, Egon Müller Scharzhof 2016, Vega Sicilia Único 2015 and Château d'Yquem 2016. For a wine lover it is the simplest way to taste Único and Yquem in one evening, and it is the menu we suggest for a big anniversary.

Booking Skina

Every reservation is confirmed with a credit card, and if fewer people arrive than booked without warning, the missing places are charged. Its booking hours for dinner are listed as 18:30 to 20:30, Monday to Saturday, and it closes on Sundays. It allows thirty minutes' grace before releasing a table, says it is not the right place for children under twelve unless they eat a menu, and offers valet parking at the door. There is a private room with its own terrace for a small group.

Messina: Dinner Only, and a Chef's Table for Four

Messina has been Pía Ninci and Mauricio Giovanini's restaurant on Avenida Severo Ochoa since 2003. It serves dinner only, from 19:00 on Monday and Wednesday to Saturday, with two tasting menus at €140 and €180 and an à la carte whose mains cost €45 to €52.

What to Order at Messina

Giovanini has moved well beyond his Argentinian roots, and the open kitchen works with juices, concentrates and creams. The sea bass in three preparations, €47, is the dish to order: belly pickled like a boquerón, loin in lard with mole, loin in its emulsified broth. The langoustine comes three ways, Thermidor, natural and in a Tom Kha Kai soup, for €32, and the Málaga milk-fed kid with oloroso sabayon is €47. Fifteen grams of Riofrío caviar adds €60 to the carabinero or the sea urchin fagottini, and cover is €6 a head.

The Tasting Menus and the Chef's Table

The shorter Degustación menu costs €140 with a €70 wine pairing; the longer Menú Messina, which adds the langoustine and the kid, costs €180 with an €85 pairing. For four people, the Chef's Table puts you beside the kitchen, and the restaurant's development space, InsIDe Messina, can be booked for private dinners. Both menus open with herbs infused in a roasted-pepper consommé and close with a frozen apple strudel. The calendar on Messina's own site shows real-time availability; it closes on Tuesdays and Sundays.

BACK: The Starred Bistro You Can Order From

BACK is the relaxed one. Chef David Olivas and sommelier Fabián Villar opened it on Calle Pablo Casals in 2016 and won the star in November 2023. It is the only starred room in town with a full à la carte, mains from €30 to €57, beside the €168 Universo Andaluz tasting menu.

What to Order at BACK

Two dishes have been on the menu since the opening year: salt-cured scallop with an artichoke pipirrana at €19, and four carabineros with their own croquette at €39. After that, half a blue lobster with coastal greens costs €57, the rested sea bass with a clam gazpachuelo €44 and Málaga goat cheek in an Andalusian curry €30. A one-kilo Black Angus rib for two is €90. Desserts are €14 to €16, and the “lemon, lemon, lemon” does what its name says.

Trolleys, Wine and Booking Terms

Villar, voted best sommelier of the Málaga and Costa del Sol region in 2014, runs a list strong on Andalusian bottles, and the cheese and liqueur trolleys make the end of the meal part of the show. BACK's booking terms are clear: a card is taken, €50 a head is charged if you cancel less than eight hours ahead, children under eight are not admitted, and tables of more than six should call first. It closes on Sundays and Mondays.

Nintai: Ten Seats and a Starred Omakase

Nintai is Marcos Granda's second starred room: ten seats around a wooden bar on Calle Ramón Gómez de la Serna, all served at once. The Ayumi omakase costs €275 for around thirty creations; dinner runs Tuesday to Saturday from 20:30, with a €155 Zen lunch on Fridays and Saturdays.

How the Evening Runs

Doors open at 20:00 and the whole counter starts together at 20:30, so punctuality is part of the meal. The itamae cuts and shapes in front of you, sushi rice sets the pace, and hot and cold courses alternate, with pairings of sake, in which Michelin rates the list among the best in Spain, or of Champagne. After forty minutes a late booking is cancelled, and a cancellation needs 24 hours' notice to avoid the penalty. Nintai closes on Sundays and Mondays.

Nintai or a Sushi Counter Without a Star?

Nintai is the only Japanese restaurant in the province with a star, and its menu is a fixed run of courses, not a sushi dinner you pace yourself. If you would rather order piece by piece, PurOsushi and TA-KUMI are both in the 2026 guide without stars; PurOsushi, inside Puente Romano, now runs an omakase counter and an à la carte lounge from Tuesday to Saturday. Nobu is the lively option. Our sushi guide compares the counters, prices and booking rules side by side.

Sollo: The Caviar Chef, 30 Minutes East

Sollo is the outlier. Diego Gallegos, Brazilian-born and known as the caviar chef, cooks river fish raised in his own aquaponic system at Reserva del Higuerón in Fuengirola. The Caminho 2026 menu costs €180 with an €85 pairing, and each booking takes a €50-a-head deposit that comes off the bill.

What Is on the Caminho Menu

Expect freshwater fish few diners have eaten: a taco of cured trout loin, a sturgeon morsollo, tuna and tilapia ceviche with tiger's milk and caviar, a smoked-milk flan with salted caramel and caviar, catfish tripe, a green curry of smoked eel and sturgeon cooked Rossini-style. The fish and more than 2,000 plants come from a closed circuit of over 12,000 litres beside the restaurant, by Sollo's own figures. Extra caviar starts at €30 for a spoon with a glass of Champagne.

Getting There and Booking

Sollo is at Avenida del Higuerón 48, off exit 1008 of the coast motorway, about half an hour from the Golden Mile, so book a driver rather than drive after the pairing. Its booking page takes the €50 deposit online and states that it is not refundable; changes need 48 hours, the whole table eats the same menu, and it cannot adapt the menu for vegetarians. Staying on that side of the coast? Our companions in Fuengirola are closer.

Worth the Drive: Málaga City and Ronda

The province's other five starred rooms are within 75 minutes. Bardal in Ronda holds two stars, one of only four two-star restaurants in Andalucía, and Málaga city has four with one star each: José Carlos García, Kaleja, Palodú and Blossom. Málaga is 45 minutes along the coast; Ronda about 75 minutes inland.

Bardal, Ronda

Benito Gómez's restaurant in Ronda is the second two-star kitchen in the province. The Menú Bardal costs €195, with a wine pairing at €100, and the Gran Menú €230, with pairing at €115; both run through quisquillas with chard and Andalusian majado, monkfish in adobo and young lamb. Pair it with a winery visit, which our Ronda wine day guide plans, and stay the night rather than drive the A-397 home in the dark.

Málaga's Four

José Carlos García left the port's Muelle Uno on 28 September 2026 for his parents' old Café de París premises in La Malagueta, beside the Centre Pompidou; the star was won at the old address, and Michelin has said it will inspect the new room. His tasting menu costs €159.50, and there is now an à la carte. Kaleja is Dani Carnero's coal-fired kitchen in the old Jewish quarter near the Picasso Museum. Palodú, run by Cris Cánovas and Diego Aguilar, offers menus at €135 and €115 and closes Sunday to Tuesday. Blossom, Emi Schobert's room on the fourth floor of the Palacio de la Aduana, has menus of nine and fifteen courses. Our Málaga city guide covers the evening around them.

Which Star Suits Which Evening With a Companion?

Skina for an occasion, BACK when you want to choose your own dishes, Messina for a chef-led dinner, Nintai for two people side by side at a counter, Sollo for a drive and a story. With a companion, a starred dinner is a dinner-date booking: a minimum of three hours, so from €900.

Matching the Room to the Evening

Seating changes the evening. At Nintai you sit side by side facing the itamae, which makes conversation easy and staring impossible; at Skina you face each other across a long menu, so allow three hours or more. BACK is the least formal and the easiest first starred dinner. How to choose and brief a companion for three hours at a tasting menu is covered in our guide to Michelin dining with a companion, so we will not repeat it here.

Booking the Table and the Companion

Book the table first, because it is the less flexible of the two, then send us the restaurant, the date and the sitting. We suggest companions from our dinner date list who enjoy a long, quiet meal. If the evening runs from a tasting menu to a drink afterwards and beyond, tell us when you book: extra hours are €300 each, paid on the spot in cash or by transfer, and an evening that runs into the night is an overnight at €3,000 to €4,000, depending on the companion and the length. Most of these rooms are minutes from the hotels covered on our Golden Mile companions page.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Michelin-starred restaurants are in Marbella in 2026?

Four: Skina, with two stars, and Messina, BACK and Nintai, with one each. Sollo in Fuengirola, about 30 minutes east, also holds a star, and Málaga province has ten starred restaurants in all in the 2026 Michelin Guide, including Bardal in Ronda, the province's other two-star kitchen.

What is the cheapest Michelin-starred meal in Marbella?

BACK's à la carte: a starter, a main course and a dessert come to about €80 a head before wine, with mains from €30 to €57. The cheapest tasting menu is Messina's €140 Degustación, and Nintai's €155 Zen lunch on Fridays and Saturdays is the cheapest way into a starred omakase.

Is Dani García's restaurant in Marbella still Michelin-starred?

No. His restaurant at Puente Romano won a third star in the 2019 guide and closed that year. Leña, his steakhouse, now occupies the space without a star, and his two-star Smoked Room is in Madrid, with a second branch in Dubai, not in Marbella.

Can children eat at Marbella's starred restaurants?

Rules differ. Skina says it is not the right place for children under twelve unless they eat one of its menus, and BACK does not admit children under eight. Nintai's single ten-seat sitting suits adults best. Ask when you book, because the guarantee applies to every seat you reserve.