It has taken me a long time to blog about the wondrous, wondrous meal we had at Martin Berasategui in San Sebastian because I was waiting to get Eunice's wonderful photos of the place. It was probably the best meal I've ever eaten. Sorry mum.
We ended up here by accident I guess. Everyone who goes to San Sebastian tries to get a reservation at Arzak, probably the best known restaurant in the region, but even Peter's concierge service couldn't get us in. Never mind, there were plenty of other Michelin starred places, it's not as if they would be bad, right? I've never heard of Martin Berasatgui before, but he seems to be some kind of mini Basque celebrity; he also runs two of the restaurants in the Guggenheim, and his face endorses several food products we saw in Basque country a la Jamie Oliver.
The restaurant is tucked away in a suburb somewhere outside of the centre of San Sebastian - don't ask me where, Mr TomTom took us. But upon entering the place, you start to sense the magic. There are little stairs surrounded by lovely landscaped gardens leading to the front door. Inside the restaurant itself, I still can't decide whether I liked the decor or not. We decided it did feel as if we were part of a murder mystery evening: the furniture was just a little bit too ornate and too big. But the tables were wonderfully spaced, and it was really nice to see that the majority of the clientele were in big groups of 8+, just illustrates how differently the Basque people like to dine.
It was here that my little foodie crowd decided on a new criteria for marking restaurants: you start with a score of 100, and you take points away for things that niggle, annoy, or are just downright offensive. You can't add points, no matter how good the service is. I will say now that Martin ended up with 96. Of the four points deducted, I think three was for the super super scary maitre d'. It was obvious that he was the culprit of the murder mystery. It was almost like he was daring us to misbehave and not like something.
Like my review of the Fat Duck, I feel like there's no point in me trying to explain the dishes, and instead I will just present them here. What I will say is that Martin manages to deliver such delicious food without all the hocus-pokery that is so trendy with restaurants these days, food that is all about flavour, with amazing combinations. His signature dish of mille feuille of foie gras and smoked eel leapt straight into my top 5 dishes I've ever eaten, and the cooking was consistently good throughout. There was only one 'duff' dish, the warm vegetable hearts salad with seafood, with a jelly concoction which disturbed me somewhat.
As always, thanks Eunice for being able to steal your photos, as well as your format for the menu!Lightly Smoked Cod with powder of hazelnuts, coffee and vanilla
Mille-Feuille of Smoked Eel, Foie Gras, Spring Onions and Green Apple
Peach Gazpacho with Cockles and txakoli
Squid Soup, creamy squid ink ravioli with squid crouton
Little Pearls of Fennel in raw, risotto and emulsion
Cheese and Carabana Oil Bubble with endives, red onion juice and Iberian bacon
Fam's Egg with beetroot and liquid herb's salad, carpaccio of basque stew and cheese
Warm Vegetable Hearts Salad with seafood, cream of lettuce hearts and idionised juice
Roast Red Mullet with crystals of soft scales and juice of white chocolate with seaweeds
Roasted Araiz Pigeon, fresh pasta with mushrooms and spring onions, touches of truffle cream
Warm and Cold of Apple and Roots
Coal Crumbs with frozen yoghurt and little acid touches of strawberries, lemon grass and passionfruit
As a Cold Soup, banana and vanilla stew, with citrics and ice cream
And if you're thinking that our scoring system is harsh, you'd be pleased to know that Martin had so many little touches that if he was allowed positive points, he would have easily knocked any competition out of the park. Tiny little things like little stools for your handbags, feminine products and toothbrushes (!) available in the toilet, the maitre d' noticing that we were pretty young and therefore not recommending any ridiculous wine... And the biggest plus point is that they take any food allergies/dislikes here very seriously, important given that Eugene claims (hee hee) he is lactose intolerant, and Eunice hates oysters whilst I hate bananas. The substitutes were often as innovative and creative as the 'normal' tasting menu.
The poor man came out to greet all the diners after the dinner, and I fear that our bad and slightly drunk French may mean that I now have a restraining order at the place. Martin je t'aime, oh yes.
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