Superb restaurant specializing in Basque cuisine.
I was invited by my Basque hostess along with several others who are organizing the conference I'm in Bilbao for. Unfortunately I misremembered the date (I thought the dinner was tomorrow) and showed up two hours late, just as the last few courses were being served. Let me assure you, that was more than enough!
The first dish I tried was a local specialty - poached egg on a bed of sheep's milk cheese, with chanterelle mushrooms. The cheese tasted quite salty, and I was encouraged to mix it all up. That made it umami-licious, but the texture became quite glutinous (I'm certain our ten year-old would have turned it away).
This was followed by bacalao, another local staple, and steak and potatoes, which I washed down with glass of Spanish Roja.
Finally, dessert - caramelized flan with toasted nuts and ice cream - likely the best I've ever tasted!
Everyone else was looking quite satiated and just picked at this sublime dessert, which surprised me. Then I realized they had been at the dinner two hours longer than me, and probably had about 8-10 more items than I had. I guess getting the date wrong worked out just fine! read more