This is a great French Basque restaurant in the old part of Hendaye. The old part is very quiet and…read morea little small but really gives you the feel of being a small beach town. It is also a nice break from the busy beach area. The food was great and the selection for the menu of the day was terrific with lots of seafood as well as lamb and beef. The service was very kind and they spoke both Spanish and French as well as Basque. We had the muscles with french fries and a nice rosé. They were kind to separate the lamb entrée for our kids. I had a lovely gateaux Basque and café. Given all we had, the price was reasonable but not cheap. The place is about a half mile from the train station and completely worth a stop.

Kind and friendly service. The place is cozy and decorated with a nautical theme. There are…read moreoutdoor tables also. The kitchen treated the fish with much respect and our dishes were well prepared.

We spent 3 weeks in Spain on a roadtrip and Mikel's place stood out among all of the restaurants we…read morewent to. The service was outstanding and the food had just so much flavor. Every single dish we had was simply amazing. Drinks were very generous too and price was fair.

Food is excellent, well prepared with a great customer service.. definitely worth coming back every…read moretime I visit

From the owner: Las mejor cocina tradicional vasca con producto fresco especialidad en menús para grupos grandes,…read moreraciones y platos combinados. También ofrecemos menú del día, hamburguesas y bocadillos excelentes. La mejor calidad precio disponemos de terraza cubierta con servicio de mesas.

Exceptional on all fronts: food, service, ambiance. One of our Top 10 dining experiences in Europe…read more Topa! RS

Reservations are a must for Casa Camara. I suspect that the increasing number of tourists wanting…read moreto dine there has lead them to institute a policy that they will charge a fee of 30 Euros per person for missed reservations. I received a confirmation email and a phone call the evening before the reservation to confirm. Pasaia is a lovely village and well worth a visit while staying in San Sebastian and is just a 15 minute bus ride away plus the 1 minute ferry ride. The staff at Casa Camara are amazing. They are the picture of efficiency. Everyone knows their roles and they all get the job done well. Service was really good and they have no problem answering questions in English. From the long specials list, we chose the grilled cigala. It's like a langostine. It was perfectly grilled and salted. They were so delicious. The monk fish was firm, flaky, and sweet. Our table was next to the lobster tank below the restaurant floor. As lobsters were ordered, staff would hoist the cages up to choose lobsters for the clients to confirm that it's what they want. For dessert, we shared a cheesecake. It was fluffy and light with berries inside. It was a wonderful lunch at a lovely place. Make a reservation so you don't miss out on the experience.

From the owner: Dans une authentique cidrerie de producteurs, venez découvrir le Sagarno (vin de pomme), la plus…read moreancienne des boissons du Pays Basque et tout le cérémonial de sa dégustation : le TXOTX ! Vous pourrez déguster d'autres boissons à base de pomme avec ou sans alcool, produites à la cidrerie. Et pourquoi ne pas prolonger la visite par le repas typique des cidreries basques avec ses viandes grillées à la braise en salle.

Mugaritz is iconic! It is not the best meal you'll ever eat, it is not the most comfortable you'll…read moreever be in a dining setting, and it is certainly not the most enjoyable time you'll have at lunch or dinner. But we're here for art - Mugaritz is truly an expensive piece of art that you get to experience if you so decide to go! I've been to Mugaritz twice, and each time has been extremely unique. Not one repeated course, and the experience overall felt different. The attention to detail and care with which they make the meal at Mugaritz is just stunning, and the overall ability to interact with a staff that so clearly loves their job is so fun! Most recently we had everything from pig snout to roasted bees to a soup that we made a as a group of diners. Every dish was plated beautifully, had a story behind it, and felt like true performance food art. The wine pairing is such a treat because they bring you wines that are mainly collaborations, and you get to try so much during your journey. If you want a good steak go to Casa Julian, if you want to save money eat pintxos in San Sebastian, and if you want the best meal ever go to Azurmendi - but if you want an experience that is truly worth having, spend 4 hours at Mugaritz - you will not be underwhelmed.

Has anyone seen the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia scene where Frank Reynolds pretends to be an…read moreart collector? That scene exemplifies Mugaritz. To be fair, the service and ambiance were on point. The whole experience has a sense of theater, and we genuinely liked the mold water at the beginning. They clearly know how to create a vibe. But if you're going to turn food into art, the food still has to be legitimately good. Here, it ranged from bland to genuinely awful. Of the entire tasting menu, only two savory courses were actually enjoyable: the sweetbread and the pesto-wrapped item. At one point they served what they described, more or less, as their take on glue: a white, multi-textured concoction topped with caviar. I took a bite and my immediate thought was, "Well, you nailed it." Unfortunately, that isn't really a compliment. Who wants to eat glue? That was also roughly the point where I started wondering whether Ashton Kutcher was about to walk out and tell us we were being Punk'd. We've eaten at plenty of Michelin-starred restaurants. We understand experimentation, and we don't expect every unconventional dish to land. But a .250 batting average is decent in baseball. It's disastrous for a tasting menu. Ironically, one of the best things we ate was dessert. And surprise, surprise, it was created by a guest chef. Mugaritz absolutely succeeded at being interesting. It just rarely succeeded at being delicious.

Hondarribia is an extraordinary town with a gastronomic explosion…read more Few tourists (contrast with Saint Jean de Luz). Little urban blight (contrast with Donastia) Picturesque everywhere. (The ugly stuff was foisted off on the neighboring town of Irun.) And magnificent restaurants everywhere. Ironically - Cafe Exteberria is NOT one of the famous restaurants. If you want the places the New York Times or the food critics love - go down to the waterfront. The critics say - probably correctly - you will eat like a king. Cafe Exteberria is a neighborhood joint. It is in the old city within the ancient city walls. An unusual (and highly desirable) feature of the old city is that there is VERY LITTLE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT anywhere in the old city. There are not only few tourist stores. There are no stores period stop the end. In the Middle Ages, walled cities had the houses people lived in, a castle and nothing else. If you did business, you did it in the streets. Hondarribia has kept things exactly that way. Not a single house has been knocked down or cleared out for modern business. The houses have been upgraded for modern comforts. (They now have flush toilets instead of people dumping their bedpans in the street.) Everything else has been maintained. So if you want to eat, there are only two choices. There are some tavernas off of the central square. In the southern part of the old city far from the central square, there is Cafe Exteberria. It pretty much only takes care of the locals. It is a wonderful establishment. It carries a small but wonderful assortments of global microbrews. (None from the U.S.. but intriguing examples of Mexican, Danish and Scotch artisanal beers.) There is plenty of Spanish/Basque food and drink. They keep a local red vermouth in a barrel and serve it with fruit and ice. That is a fine fine beverage and I endorse it heartily. They have a nice little menu of sandwiches and pinxtos. We went with the omelet with tuna and the deep fried hot peppers. Fine dishes both. Two additional marks of class. a) The television was set to the Mainland Chinese channel (with Spanish subtitles.) While we ate we watched Chinese telenovelas. The middle aged owner of a business was scheming against his brothers and being morally corrected by the rest of his family. b) The owner has a first rate jazz collection - mostly in vinyl - which she plays as the background music. Great vermouth, fine basque food, Chinese telenovelas, and late fifties jazz vocals. What's not to like?