Hiu

Who Should Book Hiu — and When

If you are travelling the Costa Dorada with a serious interest in food and want something beyond the region's strong but predictable seafood-and-rice circuit, Hiu is the right call. It is the kind of restaurant that rewards the curious diner: a fusion concept in Cambrils that draws on Southeast Asian technique and local Catalan ingredients in equal measure, priced at €€ and holding a Michelin Plate for both 2024 and 2025. Book it for a long lunch when you want to eat something genuinely unlike what is on offer at every other table in town, or for a special evening when the tasting menu is your format.

A Concept Built Around Sourcing

The name Hiu translates from Thai as "to be hungry," and the kitchen's ambitions match that framing. The most interesting thing about this restaurant is not the Thai-Catalan fusion premise — it is the sourcing logic that underpins it. The chef grinds and blends his own curry mixes rather than buying pre-made pastes, which is a meaningful distinction: house-milled spice blends carry fresher aromatics and allow the kitchen to calibrate heat and complexity dish by dish. Walk into Hiu and you will catch the layered scent of toasted spice before anything else , the kind of warm, dry fragrance that signals a kitchen working from whole ingredients rather than shortcut.

More notable for a restaurant at this price point is the use of sea fennel, a coastal plant harvested locally along the Catalan shoreline. Sea fennel has a flavour profile somewhere between anise and brine, and it almost never appears on restaurant menus in the region despite growing within reach. Finding it here is a signal that the kitchen is actively looking for local ingredients that most chefs overlook, then asking how they connect to Southeast Asian flavour logic. That approach , foraging from the immediate coastline and cross-referencing it with Thai fermentation and spice tradition , is what gives Hiu its coherence as a fusion concept rather than making it feel arbitrary.

The kitchen also works with fermented products and kombucha vinegars as seasoning tools. Fermentation is one of the few techniques that genuinely bridges Thai and Catalan culinary traditions: both cultures use it to add depth and acidity, and in Hiu's case it connects the chef's personal flavour references to the local ingredient base. For a diner interested in how technique shapes a menu, this is worth paying attention to.

Tasting Menu vs. À La Carte

The tasting menu is where the sourcing philosophy and the chef's personality come through most clearly. Michelin's own description notes that "creativity and personality shine even more brightly on the tasting menu," which is a useful steer: if you want the full picture of what the kitchen can do, commit to it. The €€ price range puts Hiu at an accessible level for a tasting format , it is not the kind of commitment required at starred restaurants like Quique Dacosta in Dénia or El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, but it delivers a comparable level of kitchen ambition at a significantly lower price point. For the Costa Dorada, this is a good-value proposition for what you receive.

Ratings and Trust Signals

• Google Rating: 4.8 out of 5 (381 reviews) , a high score on a meaningful volume of reviews
• Michelin Plate 2024 and 2025 , recognition for good cooking that does not yet carry the weight of a star but confirms Michelin inspectors consider the kitchen worth noting
• Price range: €€ , mid-range for the category and the region

Booking and Practical Details

Reservations: Booking is rated Easy, so you are unlikely to need to plan weeks in advance , but given the limited seat count typical of a concept restaurant at this level, booking a day or two ahead for weekends is sensible. Address: Av. del Baix Camp, 2, Local 12, 43850 Cambrils, Tarragona. Budget: €€, making it one of the more accessible Michelin-recognised tables in the area. Dress: No dress code is specified; smart-casual is appropriate for the price tier. Cuisine: Fusion, with Thai technique as the primary reference and local Catalan ingredients integrated throughout.

How It Compares

Further Reading

For broader planning, see our full Cambrils restaurants guide, our full Cambrils hotels guide, our full Cambrils bars guide, our full Cambrils wineries guide, and our full Cambrils experiences guide. If you are exploring other high-ambition fusion restaurants in Europe, Jae in Düsseldorf and Soseki in Winter Park are worth comparing. For broader Spanish fine dining context, Cocina Hermanos Torres in Barcelona, Arzak in San Sebastián, Azurmendi in Larrabetzu, Martin Berasategui in Lasarte-Oria, and Aponiente in El Puerto de Santa María represent the range of what Spain's restaurant scene can deliver at higher price tiers.