Juanito Kojua — Restaurant in San Sebastián

First dish (kind of salmon mousse on toast nobble) arrived with a big black hair on it.

Then the 'seasonal' menu arrived. Tinned asparagus (?) under a crab bake, with so little crab that it was hard to discern. The other entree was a langoustine/salmon dish where the seafood was grey and dead on arrival. The green salad was umm... only just ok.

The mains: rubbery salt cod in an indecipherable green sauce. Meh. The rice clams dish was more promising, but was so salty, I almost shrivelled up after three mouthfuls. The texture of the rice was very excellent, though. The (only) four clams? Questionable freshness.

Dessert: cheesecake nice, but came with additional frou-frou 80s raspberry sauce decoration silliness. And came with an inexplicable surcharge. Huh? Steamed pear in red wine was ok. Texturally. The Ice cream was the best part. Overall terribly sweet (teeth-hurtingly).

I was not all that impressed. Clientele were non-locals. Telling.

Place is dated and menus could be freshened up a bit. I know this is 'traditional' but that doesn't mean it should be stale.

Clincher? Menu says taxes included, but they added it anyway. €97 for two for a pretty ordinary to very average meal. Not good value. Not very 'seasonal'.

Hard to recommend. Sorry guys: you need honest feedback from discerning diners. I wish I could have been...

Establishment with ok food and ambience, good service. There are MANY other options with increíble food.

Extremely rude owner. We were singled out by the owner, as we literally entered the restaurant for our reservation, because we have small children. The owner, without any provocation, told us we could only sit where we had reserved IF our children knew how to behave properly. All of this without even knowing WHERE we would sit, or having spent more than 30 seconds in the restaurant, and we already felt completely unwelcome.

The owners of this restaurant surf on past reputation. You will not miss out if you go elsewhere. San Sebastián is a paradise for great gastronomy.

+++

Un local con trato extremadamente desagradable y maleducado del dueño del local.

Ayer, 11 de julio 2022, sin siquiera haber estado TREINTA SEGUNDOS en este local, uno de los socios (calvo, flaco, con nada distinguible mas allá que vestido de azul con pantalones cortos) nos interceptó al entrar y advirtió que “normalmente no aceptan reservaciones en la sala principal con niños a menos que se comporten”. REPITO, teníamos reservación, no teníamos más de treinta segundos en el restaurante….entramos para pedir nuestra mesa, y este individuo que claramente no es quien mantiene la reputación del local al público día tras día (y estaba en el local como acto de presencia), interviene sin NINGUNA necesidad, para únicamente señalarnos personalmente por tener niños, y nos hace sentir claramente que NO SOMOS BIENVENIDOS en su sala a menos que nuestros hijos “sepan comportarse”. Todo esto sin que aún sepamos donde nos vamos a sentar finalmente. Eso si, este dueño se siente en la gloria juzgando a sus clientes cuando le conviene, ya que la mesa de al lado donde queríamos estar, con 12 hombres de cena de negocio, bebiendo copas a todo dar y hablando en voz alta da igual…lo que molesta son las familias de otros…jamás será la suya cuando le toca salir de su casa con su hijo, pareja y/o amigos.

Siendo una familia con tres niños pequeños, somos conscientes de lo que implica salir de casa. No es fácil. Está claro. Pero de ahí a que un desconocido prejuzgue nuestra aptitud como padres y el comportamiento de nuestros hijos sin siquiera haber “existido” en su local, no es solo una falta de respeto, es un acto maleducado y mezquino por parte del dueño.

Con lo cual quiero dejar claro que todas las Señoras y Señores que luego nos atendieron, y nos pidieron repetidas y muy encarecidas disculpas por el comportamiento del socio/dueño del restaurante, son la razón exclusiva por la cual al final no nos fuimos, ie, fueron amables, educados, siempre con trato cordial y cariñosos con nosotros y nuestros hijos. Todo lo contrario al caballero que se plantó en el restaurante como uno de los dueños del restaurante.

En resumen, este es un establecimiento demasiado caro, en una ciudad donde comer cocina muy buena e innovadora es fácil, y que desafortunadamente es gerenciado por personas no interesadas en la gastronomía o el trato al público, sino en hacer dinero.

Primera...

For several reasons I tried to send this as a private email/message but i could not find the email of the restaurant or the group……. So this is my only avenue to voice my concerns. My family ate dinner yesterday at this restaurant. We had the seasonal menu (2 adults) and the daughter had the grilled hake(merluza).Good experience. But today me and my wife were with a terrible case of food poisoning, our daughter is fine. We checked everything that we did and ate the day before and the only thing that our daughter did not share with us was the dessert (Tarta de quesos vascos). I undestand that is not easy to “prove” what caused the problems but this is a highly probable culprit. I do not want do “point the finger” , demerit the staff or reparations. I understant that this things happen. I just want to voice my concern to the restaurant so that they double check everything with that particular dessert so that no one else goes through what...