Magoga

A Michelin-starred dining room in Cartagena where the menu pivots on what the Mar Menor lagoon and the surrounding farmland are doing that season. The kitchen describes the cooking as an embrace between sea and land, which sounds like marketing until the food arrives. Contemporary Spanish, with tasting menus that trace the flavors of the region without turning into a geography lesson. The room runs with a warmth and lack of ceremony that fine dining often promises and rarely delivers.

One honor, in evidence: