Arzak, San Sebastian
Years ago, I spent a week in San Sebastian to attend a Spanish language immersion class. It was a great week, the classes were fun, I still struggle with the language, but it opened my eyes to one of the great cities in Spain. Located a few minutes from the French border, on a beautiful bay, it could be considered a temple for food lovers with a Michelin restaurant, seemingly, on every block. But not just high-falutin food. There’s a tapas scene in the old part of town that’s like a floating cocktail party.
On an impulse, a newfound friend from class and I decided we wanted to go to one of the best and most established 3-star restaurants, Arzak. So, we called them up and asked for a reservation for that evening. Of course, not expecting to cop a res for six months, we were pleasantly surprised when they graciously said come on in!
Arzak was amazing, to say the least, and I raved about it for years to my wife until finally we were headed back to Spain and just had to go there.
As soon as we decided to go to San Sebastian we immediately went to the Arzak website to grab a lunch reservation which we were lucky enough to get. (I’ve decided this is one of my favorite restaurants in the world - up there with Noma, Gaggan, and the French Laundry).
The food at Arzak is sophisticated by not fussy. That’s important. They don’t try to make one food look like another one. Like serving an apple that looks like an orange. They have a four-course lunch but they encourage you to order half portions which means you can try more items on the menu.
We had four tiny appetizers that we were able to share like artichokes with suckling pig, lobster in a lavender sauce (imagine what lavender smells like, that’s what it tastes like), and so on. A fish course followed with delicate red mullet in coconut powder and red algae and monkfish in a Basque whiskey sauce with fish skins and avocado. For the meat course, we shared roasted lamb with folds of orzo and roasted pigeon (no, not the ones from Central Park) with orange and ginger sauce.
There were four deserts that were consumed so fast that we didn’t even know what they were. (Fortunately, at the end they present you with a menu of what you ate, a nice touch.)
Chef Elena Arzak
And the most pleasant surprise was the appearance of Juan María Arzak the owner-chef since he started the restaurant in 1966 (in a house that his grandparents built in 1897) and his charming daughter Elena, voted the best female chef in the world, who is running the kitchen now. Selfies all around.
