Who Really Owns Marbella’s Restaurants: The Footballers, the Chefs, and the Ones That Didn’t Last

La Sala is exactly what it looks like from outside: live music every night, a menu spanning meat, fish and vegan options without trying too hard to be a serious kitchen, and a room built for being seen rather than for eating quietly. It’s genuinely footballer-owned — David Bentley, former Arsenal, Blackburn and Tottenham midfielder, retired in 2014 and co-founded Sala Group, still listed as an owner as of late 2025. The group has since grown to include La Sala by the Sea, OAK next door, Mahiki Beach, a Havana bar in San Pedro, and a Gibraltar outpost.

OAK is the quieter, more serious sibling to La Sala, founded under its current name in June 2023 (previously Oak Garden & Grill). It’s an open-air steakhouse tucked beside the more famous name next door, with ribeye and chateaubriand grilled over oak wood, live entertainment but at a much lower volume, and a room built around a historic oak tree with views toward La Concha mountain. If the Sala name draws you in but La Sala itself sounds too loud, this is the actual answer.

Casanis Bistrot sits on Calle Ancha in the heart of Marbella’s Old Town, founded by Guy Sirre and grown since 2018 in partnership with former professional footballer Zazou Belounis, who started in Marbella as a waiter before becoming CEO of what’s now Casanis Group — four venues on the Costa del Sol, one in the Sierra Nevada, a Saudi Arabia pop-up, and, as of the past year, expansion into Madrid and Doha. Belounis is upfront about the story being personal: “Casanis is everything to me. It is my baby,” he’s said of the group.

The food itself is genuinely good — Mediterranean bistro cooking with French and Belgian roots. The beef Wellington and the Cajun prawns are the dishes I’ve come back for, and the seasonal menu built from daily market produce is where the kitchen earns its reputation. But there’s a pattern I’ve run into more than once: bread, water and service charges showing up on the bill without being clearly flagged upfront.

BiBo sits inside the Puente Romano resort and represents the direction García chose after closing his three-Michelin-star restaurant (on this same site) in October 2019 — giving up the stars deliberately to focus on accessible, casual cooking instead. It’s “tapas with a twist”: whimsical presentation, innovative serving vessels, and dishes like the Cojonudo Brioche (pulled Ronda chorizo, sweet onion, chipotle, fried quail egg) and tuna preparations across tartare, carpaccio, tataki and grilled á la plancha.

This isn’t the cheap version of a still-running starred restaurant — it’s a different concept entirely, and it doesn’t always land. I’ve had a €36 hake dish arrive poorly executed and overpriced, and I’ve had nights where the terrace was the best part of the evening and the food never caught up. The Cojonudo Brioche and the tuna are what keep me coming back.

Opened in 2017 along Marbella’s Golden Mile promenade, Lobito de Mar pays homage to Málaga’s traditional beach bars — fish, shellfish and grilled sardines — filtered through García’s technique. It carries a Michelin Guide selection (not a star, but a recommended listing with the Guide’s own red knife-and-fork symbol), and the inspector’s note calls out its dedicated red tuna section and rice dishes specifically.

The seafood is the reason people come back — the red tuna programme and the rice dishes are genuinely different from anything else on the Golden Mile. The pricing is where it bites: I’ve paid €52 for a single prawn and €18 for a small shrimp salad, and fine-dining-level pricing for what actually arrives is a real thing here. The quality is real. The bill just needs watching.

Leña is García’s meat specialist, built around a custom Josper grill and premium cuts — Tomahawk, T-bone, txuleta — plus a tableside Caesar salad prepared with slices of mature beef in front of you. It was named the most beautiful restaurant in the world at the 2021 Restaurant & Bar Design Awards, and the concept has since travelled: outposts now operate in Madrid and Dubai.

BiBo isn’t the cheap version of a still-running starred restaurant; Leña is arguably the closer emotional successor — it occupies the same physical space that once housed García’s three-Michelin-star restaurant before its 2019 closure, and the Josper-cooked burger on the menu is a direct callback to a dish he served there.

Skina held a single Michelin star from 2008 and added a second in 2023, making it Marbella’s top fine-dining address by a wide margin. In 2025, celebrating its twentieth anniversary, it moved from its original cramped Old Town site to a 19th-century farmhouse on the Golden Mile — a significant change worth knowing if you’ve been before or seen older coverage referencing the old Calle Aduar location.

Owner Marcos Granda isn’t a chef by trade — he’s a sommelier, and describes his approach as “camarero propietario,” an owner who thinks like a waiter rather than a chef. Day-to-day cooking is led by chef Mario Cachinero, working Andalusian classics through a return-to-tradition lens with dishes like quisquillas in Thai broth. The wine list runs past 6,000 selections.