Over 2 years since our last trip, Matt and I were extremely excited to head to Roca Nivaria all-inclusive hotel in Tenerife. We chose Roca Nivaria for their beautiful sea front location, stunning infinity pools, and most importantly, because they offer a great selection of vegan options. Roca Nivaria is perfectly situated with panoramic sea views from most rooms, a beautiful beach cove close by and a very short taxi ride from Costa Adeje, where there are lots of beaches, restaurants and a harbour perfect for boat trips. The hotel staff went above and beyond on our trip to ensure we ate an incredible variety of vegan food, whilst looking out at the most beautiful views; it really felt like a vegan paradise and I’m so happy to share all of the details of our stay with you all.

DINING OPTIONS

Roca Nivaria’s main restaurant, Garoé Restaurant, is open for buffet breakfast and dinner with stunning views of the pool area and sea. Lunch is served buffet style pool-side under umbrellas or in a very cool cave area if you prefer to be fully shaded. Roca Nivaria also has two à la carte restaurants – one serving Italian cuisine, and the other Spanish.

The lovely manager Sarah showed us around on our first day and introduced us to restaurant managers: Frederico, Jesus and Martin, and to chef Sergio. Sarah informed them we were vegan and they were all absolutely incredible, ensuring we had a constant flow of vegan food throughout our stay; we’re talking 2 large plates full each seating, 3 times a day! We were so impressed by head chef Sergio’s creativity, he served us the most exciting and varied dishes, and was excited to create new things for us to try, even when the vegan buffet options were great.

In this post you’ll find a summary of the vegan food we ate during our stay, across the hotels’ restaurants.

Breakfast Buffet – Garoé Restaurant

The breakfast buffet had lots of vegan options including an abundance of fruit, soya yoghurts, churros with maple syrup, and then the classic vegan breakfast options: toast, baked beans, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. There was also soya milk for tea/coffee or cereal. As you can see, Matt enjoyed a very generous serving of toast, beans and hash browns every day, whilst I enjoyed churros drowned in maple syrup with a side of fruit.

Lunch Pool Bar Buffet – Ahemón Bar and Restaurant

The lunch buffet had great vegan staples every day: a huge selection of fruit and salad, fresh bread, rice, chips/fried potatoes, veggies and the most delicious tomato sauce I’ve ever eaten! In addition to this, the wonderful chefs kindly made us vegan pizzas every day which were absolutely delicious. We were also super happy to find a vegan paella on the buffet one day – paella is Matt’s favourite food so it was definitely one of the food highlights of our trip.

Dinner Buffet – Garoé Restaurant

The dinner buffet has a veggie/vegan corner with new dishes every night. Most nights there were great vegan items in this section, but on the occasions that most items contained dairy or eggs (and even often when they didn’t), chef Sergio prepared a special meal for us. The creativity of his dishes continued to amaze us throughout our trip. We enjoyed such a huge variety of delicious, nutritious meals and found ourselves having two to three plates full each night as the food was just too good!

Some of our highlights from the veggie/vegan corner of the buffet included: seared seitan and tofu with brussel sprouts, chips and salad, nachos with guacamole, mushroom and seitan stir fry with rice noodles, and vegetable stew with rice, grilled aubergines and salad.

Some of the highlights from our specially prepared vegan meals included: grilled seitan with guacamole and sweet potato puree, mushroom truffle pasta, and thai green rice noodles with seitan and edible flowers.

We also enjoyed some delicious deserts including: mango mousse, chocolate mousse and, hear me out on this last one, it sounds weird but tasted incredible – tomato cake with soya cream and berry ganache!

Spanish Restaurant – Burgos

The Spanish restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating with stunning views over the pool. The menu didn’t have many vegan-friendly options so the chef very kindly created a special vegan menu for us, and oh my goodness, were we in for a treat!

For starter, we had leek and potato soup and a tofu and caramelised onion dish served on a bed of salad. Both were absolutely delicious but the soup was definitely our favourite – it was so creamy and flavourful.

For main, we had a veggie pasta, and then what Matt described as “one of the best things I’ve ever eaten”: creamy mashed potato served with tomatoes, mushrooms, sweet potato crips and an incredibly flavourful sauce. The veggie pasta was delicious, but definitely overshadowed by the mash which had the most wonderful combination of flavours and was one of the food highlights of our trip.

Italian Restaurant – Verona

The Italian restaurant has the most beautiful outdoor seating under a pergola decorated with climbing flowers, next to a gorgeous fountain, making you feel like you’re in Italy. The team adapted some of the items on their menu to create a wonderful vegan meal for us. For starter, we had cream of asparagus soup and bruschetta. The avocado puree was such a great addition and twist on traditional bruschetta, and the soup was so creamy and delicious that we could have happily eaten a couple more bowls each! For main we had a hearty mushroom risotto with crispy onions and mushroom focaccia bread on the side. I’m not usually a big fan of risotto but absolutely loved this dish!

Hotel Facilities

Not only was the food and service impeccable, the hotel itself was absolutely beautiful. We had the most relaxing time swimming in the infinity pools, looking out over the ocean view, and enjoying cocktails whilst listening to live music every evening.

We vlogged our entire trip so you can see more of the hotel facilities, the delicious food and everything else we got up to in Tenerife.

We’re so incredibly grateful for the wonderful hospitality and divine food we experienced throughout our stay. Roca Nivaria very kindly gave us a press discount to stay and review the vegan food, but as always all opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own, and as a vegan visiting Tenerife, I cannot think of a better place to stay – we will definitely be returning to Roca Nivaria on our next visit to Tenerife.