The view of Bilbao is absolutely breathtaking from this venue. Accessing the restaurant from downtown does require a taxi Uber or car as it is not walkable. There is designated parking although it's very tight. Reservations are highly recommended as this restaurant is in high demand.
The restaurant itself consists of small rooms/dining areas, many with wonderful views down the side of the hillside. We were pleasantly welcomed and directed to the wine cellar where we were encouraged to have a glass of wine and partake in some various charcuterie options. While they do have a full bar there is no dedicated bartender and ordering a specific cocktail tended to be a bit of a challenge and encouraged to have wine. There is no sommelier, so guidance with wine is somewhat self directed. This restaurant could benefit from having a dedicated bartender/ sommelier to enhance understanding of what appears to be a very robust wine collection; our server could only provide high-level information.
Once we were done with drinks, we were encouraged to move upstairs, where we were directed to our dining room table. After sitting down, we were presented with the dining room menu that was conveniently available in English and Spanish.
Here's where a potential five star experience went off the cliff: Our highly excited waiter immediately appeared, seriously he acted like he just shot ten expressos, and seemed to be in a bit of a rush for us to order despite us just getting the menu. He was quite insistent that we order wine and food, despite the fact that we had questions about the menu, and had not decided what we were going to choose. We asked for several minutes so we could figure out what we wanted and then choose an appropriate wine. He returned within two minutes and was quite agitated that we still had a few questions. We went ahead and ordered, but by this time a second person, I believe it might even have been the chef from the kitchen was standing alongside, and with the notepad, wanting to know what we wanted to order. It was, by far, the most stressful situation I've experienced in a restaurant.
We received our wine, and we tried to relax and forget the experience we had just encountered. Again, the view was fabulous, seats were wonderful, yet we watched as the comedy continued with the servers literally running in a nervous manner back-and-forth from the kitchen to the dining room. Not sure if they were understaffed or just poorly trained. We honestly did not know what to make of it. The food began to come out, and the food was very good (scallops were excellent, balance of entrees were nice). We all agreed that it was honestly a shame that the service impacted our experience so traumatically that it overwhelmed the food.
We ordered some coffees and dessert. The menu cards were literally thrown on the table and at this point we just laughed. Unfortunately, the dessert order was wrong and we could only seem to get one cup of coffee for the table. Trying to catch one of the waiters as they ran by was a bit of a challenge.
At this point, we finished our desserts, and asked a waiter for the bill. We had a long lunch, yet it took more than forty (40) minutes and several additional requests to have our bill finally delivered to the table.
Ambience : 5
Food : 4
Beverages : 1
Service : -1
Despite the beautiful view and the good food, beware for exceptionally subpar service should you choose to try this location. read more