Sollo

The story

Sollo: Michelin-Starred Modern Cuisine in Mijas, Spain

Sollo: Where the River Meets the Sea

In the hills above Fuengirola, in the municipality of Mijas, Sollo is a restaurant built on a radical idea: that a kitchen can be almost entirely self-sufficient. Chef Diego Gallegos, a Brazilian-born cook who found his home in Málaga, has created a style of Modern Cuisine that is both deeply personal and rigorously sustainable. His work earned Sollo a Michelin star and the Michelin Green Star, recognition that feels less like an accolade and more like a confirmation of his path.

Gallegos is known as “the caviar chef,” a title born from his research into reviving the Andalusian sturgeon. But his vision goes far beyond a single ingredient. At Sollo, the menu is built around freshwater fish—African catfish, tilapia, tench, pacú—and vegetables grown on-site using a closed-loop aquaponic system. This “gastroacuaponía” integrates fish and plant cultivation in a recirculating circuit of over 12,000 litres of water, housing more than 2,000 plants and several species of river fish. It allows Gallegos to control every variable, from seed to plate.

A Creative Lab in the Kitchen

Before guests sit down to the tasting menu, they are invited to tour the aquaponic system, the organic garden, and the I+D laboratory that Gallegos calls “La oficina de Diego Gallegos.” It is here, in collaboration with the University of Málaga’s Aula del Mar, that he experiments with river fish species and develops new techniques. The restaurant claims that 90% of what appears on the plate comes from its own resources—a rare degree of traceability in fine dining.

The result is a cuisine that feels both Mediterranean and entirely original, rooted in the flavours of the region but freed from convention. Gallegos’s Modern Cuisine is not about novelty for its own sake; it is a direct expression of the ecosystem he has built. Each dish tells the story of a closed loop, of water and fish and plants, and of a chef who chose to grow his own ingredients rather than source them.