Temple Restaurant in Alicante's old town: our honest take
Temple holds a 4.6 from 1,641 Google reviews in Alicante's old town. Here's what it's good for and when to skip it.
Ask anyone who eats out in Alicante's old town where to go for a proper dinner and Temple comes up fast. It sits on C. Periodista Pirula Arderius, 7, holds a 4.6 on Google across 1,641 reviews, and takes cooking more seriously than most of the streets around it. Here's what it's actually good for, and when I'd point you somewhere else.
What you're getting
Temple Restaurant does contemporary Spanish cooking with creative international touches, and the menu changes with the seasons. The room is elegant without being stiff, closer to an intimate dinner than a big noisy night out. It's the kind of place you book for someone you're trying to impress, not the place you grab a quick plate before the bus.
The rating is the headline. A 4.6 from 1,641 reviews is hard to fake. Anyone can keep twenty reviewers happy. Holding that score across that many visits means the kitchen is consistent, and consistency is the rarest thing in any old town dining scene.
One thing to know about seasonal menus: the dish you loved in spring might be gone by autumn. Some people find that annoying. I'd argue it's the point.
The numbers game, and why sample size matters
Here's a useful comparison. About 45 minutes south in Torrevieja, Casa Del Mar holds a perfect 5.0 on Google, from exactly 3 reviews. On paper that beats Temple's 4.6. It doesn't.
Three happy visitors tell you almost nothing; 1,641 mostly happy ones tell you nearly everything. Casa Del Mar itself is an intimate, seaside-feeling spot away from Torrevieja's busier restaurant strips, and if quiet is what you're after it deserves a visit on its own terms. Just don't pick it over Temple because of the number.
Also in Torrevieja, on C. Ramón Gallud, Bibliotekcafé is a different animal entirely: a café built around a library, books in several languages lining the walls, many donated by customers, and no television anywhere. It's one of the calmer places to sit in town. You wouldn't book it for an anniversary, but it shows how wide the choice runs on this coast. Temple is the special-occasion end of that spectrum.
We pulled apart review counts once before, with Oustau de Altea and its 3,410 Google reviews, if you want more of that kind of number-crunching.
The catches
Don't drive. Parking near the old town is somewhere between painful and imaginary, so walk in or use a paid car park on the edge and stroll the last bit. Book ahead for Friday and Saturday nights: the old town fills up from about 9pm and a room this well reviewed doesn't sit empty on weekends.
And if what you want tonight is fast, cheap and familiar, skip it. An elegant seasonal menu is the wrong tool for that job.
The verdict
If you've got one proper dinner to spend in Alicante's old town, Temple is where I'd send you. The numbers back it, the cooking earns it, and the location means you can walk it off afterwards. If you'd rather turn dinner into a road trip instead, we've also asked whether Restaurante La Finca in Elche is worth the drive.
Book a weekend table a few days out, and leave the car at home.