Elviria

Elviria spreads across the wooded hills at Marbella's eastern edge, a green, low-rise pocket of villas and pine that ends at one of the coast's better beaches. It is residential and quiet, but it punches well above its size at the table thanks to El Lago, the long-standing Michelin-starred kitchen that built its reputation on the produce of inland Málaga and the salt lagoons nearby. Around it, a small clutch of ambitious rooms like Subtil draws diners out east, away from the town-centre churn. The appeal is the combination — serious cooking in a calm, leafy setting, with the sea and the Sierra Blanca both in view.