Gastronomy is a major reason to visit the northern coast of Spain. At Donostia-San Sebastián, we tried the restaurant Arzak.

Arzak received and held onto three Michelin stars since 1989 and is ranked no. 21 on San Pellegrino’s world 50 best restaurants (in September 2016).

Juan Mari Arzak earned the stars and is now joined by her daughter Elena who won San Pellegrino’s Best Female Chef award in 2012. She came to our table and chatted with us for a bit.

He is one of the heros of the region who started the Nueva Cosina Vasca (New Basque Cuisine) movement in the late 70s.

They have interesting ways to serve appetizers.

We were lucky to get a table only a few days before that evening.

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We all chose the 7-course tasting menu (excluding various amuse bouche and desserts).

Scarlet prawn with krill

Fish of the day with patxaran and purple corn

Red space egg – one of the famous dishes here.

Monkfish Cleopatra (hieroglyphics in pumpkin and chickpea)

The idea of printing edible hieroglyphics is laudable but it was not that special tasting.

Lamb with cypress aroma

At this point, none of the dishes stood out as particularly memorable.

Square moon

Additional desserts

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Overall, it was very delightful and delicious, lots of imagination has gone into creating the dishes. However, given a certain degree of anticipation, none of us was surprised or overwhelmed by the dishes.

Check out their pretty and dynamic web site here.