Chez Eugénie Biarritz — Restaurant in Bayonne

I don’t know where to begin. This place was recommended by the lovely staff at Hôtel de l’Océan, and it was an amazing surprise.

Without any expectations, we were welcomed by the delightful team; the young lady and Nicolas were incredible.

We followed their recommendations, which turned out to be an excellent decision—from the red wine selection to the food choices.

Nicolas took the time to explain the dishes and their ingredients.

We started with the beetroot and croquettes.

The beetroot with goat cheese was delicious; it wasn’t just simple beetroot—this one was marinated in cider.

The croquettes were perfectly cooked, soft inside, and surprisingly even better than those in Spain.

For the main courses, we had the hake and the pancetta.

My wife, who loves fish, was impressed by the presentation; it was super fresh, and the combination of textures with the fish eggs was amazing.

As for the pancetta, I have no words to describe it; you expect a certain taste and texture, but it was something else entirely—surprising in the best way.

The meat was incredibly tender and flavorful.

I’m still thinking about it two hours after the meal.

For desserts, everything was delightful with just the right amount of sweetness.

The rice pudding with dulce de leche and the crumble with lemon sorbet were perfect.

Perhaps a hint of cinnamon in the rice pudding would have been a nice touch, as it’s such a traditional Spanish dessert, and we tend to expect that flavor.

In a nutshell, we will be back and will bring our family soon.

Great atmosphere, superb service, and incredible food presented at a level akin to...

We have been to this restaurant before, but our August 2025 experience wasn’t great. The food was odd. Over-wrought recipes - unnecessary and non-complementary ingredients yielded weird food. Examples - 1) the chicken dish was just strange, included peanut butter and lots of other flavors that didn’t want to agree, a polenta cake that was too big and had a sauce that didn’t do anything for the polenta cake, the chocolate mousse. It wasn’t just mousse, in fact, had very little mousse - had some white creamy stuff (not chantilly or whipped cream) and was COVERED with chopped peanuts. Not good. The one dish that was good was the Hake.

We were seated outside, across the sidewalk from the restaurant and the seating wasn’t particularly nice and the service was slow, even compared to other French restaurants. I won’t...

Food without taste, tow tiny peaces of fish dried out and hardly warm, and four miserable dried out mussels that should be in the trash can a week ago. A "pasta" side-dish made out of several different types of dried pasta in tomato sauce, dried out peace of fish wrapped in bacon and thick white sauce - in the same plate... Atmosphere - none: no table cloths and paper napkins. Only three items per serving to chose from, very limited list of wines by the glass. Specialize in "sea food" - big deal throwing shellfish on the plate full of ice cubes... no need to be a chef to do that. Basically - to avoid, no locals will eat there twice. So sorry for tourists who don't...