More than just a paella port

Eating is a serious business in Valencia. Restaurants are everywhere. The locals treat dining with the utmost importance, and the city's eateries attract a wide range of customers. These venues were making a healthy living until the crisis began to bite. What's more, many owners of the best restaurants are well-known figures in the city.

Justly famed for the world-famous rice dish paella, the city of Valencia offers gourmets much more. The coastal plains and the inland mountain areas have two distinct cuisines. Fish, seafood and rice are the mainstays of seaside fare, whereas meat dishes including game, lamb and kid goat are common in the mountains. Both areas can lay claim to their own ollas (or, stews) that can include seafood, vegetables, beef, pork, lamb or other meat, dried meat, bacon, beans and/or sausages.

Spain's third city is home to five of the country's oldest restaurants, all offering a wide range of cuisine for the inquisitive gourmet.

Venta L'Home offered travelers between Madrid and Valencia good food for four centuries until a motorway was built to connect the two cities. These days few cars pass by, and as owner Xemi Baviera admits, the 17th-century inn is largely overlooked.

Three years ago, illness forced Baviera to reduce the time he spends there, which has meant that the magnificent kitchen with its vast open fire is barely used. Baviera has tried to attract a summer clientele by installing a freshwater swimming pool in the back. There is also a collection of goats and ponies out front.

But sadly, the lack of customers has seen a dramatic decline in standards, and the place has earned a reputation for poor service and less-than-impeccable presentation. Undaunted, Baviera says he will hang in there, and believes he can restore the place to its former glory.

Pedro Castellano, now in his 80s, has run La Marcelina, on the Arenas beachfront, since 1972. The artist Joaquín Sorolla may have frequented this venue, which opened in 1888, as he spent many summers painting along Valencia's beaches.

The interior is pleasantly cool and dark in summer. One of its spacious dining rooms offers views of the Mediterranean. But the best place to sit is outside at a terrace table. La Marcelina has become one of the most sought after caterers for wedding receptions, business dinners and other special occasions. The wine list has a decent selection and the restaurant's reputation has spread far and wide. Its facilities have expanded to include new private dining rooms and air conditioning.

A few doors along on the Paseo de Neptuno is La Pepica, which also dates back more than a century. Like its neighbor, this family-run enterprise takes great pride in using locally sourced ingredients, and offers a range of paellas.

Less formal than La Marcelina, its walls are filled with snapshots of the great and good that have graced its tables since 1898, among them bullfighter Manolete and writer Ernest Hemingway.

Back in the heart of the city, in the Eixample, Francisco Sanmiguel is the fourth generation to run the Palace Fesol. Photos of film stars, bullfighters, and other celebrities line the walls of Palace Fesol (or, Bean Palace) in Valencia's commercial centre. Opened in 1909, the restaurant became famous for its namesake specialty of lima beans, but today many more excellent dishes grace the menu, with local Valencian paella high on the list of lunchtime favorites.

Sanmiguel admits that the crisis has hit the restaurant business hard, but, like the city's other survivors, he believes the Palace Fesol will live to see better times. "What we do here is maintain tradition, but at the same time, we are in transition," he admits.

Casa Montaña, located in the former fishing village of El Cabanyal, dates back to 1836. Famed for its wine cellar, the cuisine here was traditionally Castilian, when Emiliano García and his son, the current owners, bought it more than 30 years ago.

Since then, the Garcías have earned a good reputation for their tapas, along with fish and seafood dishes, and also regularly organize wine-tasting sessions.