Restaurante Ajonegro — Restaurant in Logroño

Looking for a quick bite before our drive back to our Relais & Châteaux hotel in La Rioja, my family and I found this modern and appealing looking bar/restaurant in Logroño. We glanced at the menu and thought the tapas seemed fresh and unique. Upon ordering, our waiter Raúl frowned upon our limited number of choices, and would have had us order triple the amount. This annoyed us on two fronts: one, we were really just looking for a light dinner, and two, based on the prices (about 9 euros per tapa), this would have been quite an expensive dinner. And there's even more to the story than that! We wanted to order a liter of sparkling water, but Raúl told us he only could offer us half a liter. Fine, so we ordered two half-liter bottles, and instead received two third-liter bottles. Raúl brushed it off like it was nothing. Meanwhile, each third-liter cost about the price of the each glass of wine we ordered. Still dismayed by the minimal quantity of our five plates, Raúl tried to upsell us with pa amb tomàquet, and then stood in front of our table for at least 2 minutes adding the cost into his tablet. To make matters even worse, he had a smug attitude when he brought the salad we ordered wrapped in plastic cellophane and made a of show of cutting off the top. We could tell he was proud of his display, but we just felt that the restaurant was trying too hard. Well, let's just say that when the check came we were not impressed, mostly because we were charged a whopping 3 euros for the extra bread. This is the most we've ever been charged for bread after spending over a week in Spain, and let me tell you we've been to several fancy and sophisticated restaurants. I do not expect this month-old restaurant to stay...

We visited some Michelin restaurants on the occasion of our trip in La Rioja. This is also the case with the Ajonegro as the newest address, awarded a Michelin star. We were very interested in the tester's description of the connection between Mexican and La Rioja cuisine. We decided on the tasting menu with wine accompaniment. In summary, the quality and ideas behind the individual courses must be judged as good. There are definitely chefs at work here who understand the craft they have learned. However, the owners of this restaurant seem to be so busy with their kitchen that we only had contact with the staff throughout the evening. Unfortunately, the staff delivers an incredibly poor service for this level. Here, apparently, an attempt was made to train many employees to the Michelin star level in the shortest possible time. However, the experienced guest already notices this in the poor greeting of the guest. As a highlight of the evening, we were able to observe again and again how the plates of the next tables were cleared right next to our table and how the leftovers were scraped together on a plate like at a pub – disgusting and definitely not worthy of a Michelin star! Finally, I would like to mention the wine accompaniment, where good wines are served that harmonize very well with the menu. However, the guest is poured a homeopathically small amount into the glass and the service staff does not ask whether it can be a little more. All in all, a big disappointment for us and proof that this kind of modern fusion cuisine has its justification, but only deserves a Michelin star if the service stuff can...

The food was very good. We decided not to go for the tasting many and chose what we felt like having from the standard menu. It didn't disappoint us.

Our favourite dishes were the Lubina ceviche, Puerros (leeks), tacos al pastor. Our less favorite dish was the steak, but still good (the potatoes served on the side of the steak were not up to the standard of everything else in the menu)

The service was very good. The young brunette lady who served us was very nice and well mannered!

Price wise is fine. We spent just over 110 for 2 of us (we ordered quite a lot of food) and the glass of wine my husband ordered was surprisingly very cheap yet...