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Recent trip to Spain

FrankM_3301

This was inspired by my recent trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian.

Grilled octopus, tomato tartare....

Restaurants of the trip... If you are nearby, these are not to be missed:

El 58 - a small tapas bar in Barcelona, Pablanou neighborhood - so good we went twice! Inexpensive, friendly, creative food, fresh...perfect.

Assador Extabarri http://asadoretxebarri.com/ -unbelievable, 3 hour, lunch/tasting.

Elkano http://restauranteelkano.com/ -by far the best fish we have ever eaten, hands down...and we eat fish everywhere...and....barnacles! Fantastic and highly recommended! We will dream of this place.

Our least favorite was (what was supposed to be) our highlight dinner at Azurmendi https://www.azurmendi.biz/ . Good "show", excellent service, some excellent dishes, some big misses.

Lots of great pinxtos in San Sebastian. If anyone is heading that direction, I can give numerous recommendations.

Frank

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Comments

tshewman

No plans as yet, but I'll take all recommendations and comments. Am curious about all you visited misses included.

FrankM_3301

As someone wrote when I requested recommendations a few weeks ago, "you can fall over and find good food in San Sebastian." It's mostly true. We generally ate pinxtos while there. I am disappointed that we did not make it to Rekondo, a restaurant that delivers typical Spanish fare, but is mainly known for its unbelievably large and more than fairly priced wine cellar (@Hammered Chef). Old vintages of rioja, as well as French classics can be had at reasonable prices. Some highlights for us were the amazing jamon at Bar la Cepa. Atari Gastroteka for a lot of variety and quality...some excellent fois here, as well as a terrific beef cheek. I believe Sirimiri is run by the same folks, but it has different selections and a different vibe...also very good. Zazpi Bar had some excellent fried artichoke, as well as other creative and delicious pinxtos. Museo del Whiskey is a terrific bar for a cocktail...quite a place. We also just wandered, grabbing a class of wine and a small plate in numerous locations. This is the first trip in quite a while where we stayed at a hotel (gotta love the Starwoods points), as opposed to renting an apartment. On the positive side, we basically stayed for free. ..downside, I couldn't cook...and the markets are pretty impressive, especially the seafood.

Matthew_Snyder_68770

Upvote for Atari.

tshewman

Thanks! What were the +/- of azurmendi?

FrankM_3301

If you haven't done much modernist dining, on the + side is the "show". Upon arrival you are presented a glass of white wine (very good) produced there. You start in a greenhouse sort of room with a picnic basket. Three items inside are very good bites. You move into the kitchen, everyone says hi, you get a bite of fois/hazelnut thing. Then you move into another greenhouse type room, someone pours some LN in a terrarium and you are taken around the room for three more bites. All good. Then you are taken into the dining room and seated for the remainder of the tasting. Service was excellent. As far as the tasting goes, much of it was good, but used lots of fairly common (to us) modernist technique. There was a sea urchin dish that I found very challenging...right on the line for me. There was also a dish of cod tripe, which I ate, but really disliked. It had some sort of sticky gooey-ness that coated the inside of my mouth in an unpleasant way. A lobster dish was cooked perfectly. ...I don't know...in total, just not perfect. My wife and I agreed that, overall, it was just "OK." We ranked it in the company of Brian Voltaggio's Volt in MD...good, but no need to go back. For comparison, our favorite meals in the US have been Stone Barns at Blue Hill (been twice), Le Bernardin in NY...Brooklyn Fare (though I can't recommend any longer after reading about the chef's racist behavior). Maybe we are finding the modernist thing played out, since I play with a bit at home.