Sukaldean Aitor Santamaría — Restaurant in San Sebastián

BAR La Capella de Sukaldean review. This was an unforgettable experience which I hope to share many times with my clients. It could be BETTER if the food, service and communication by Instagram is improved.

The bar is in the chapel of the former St Martin Convent. It’s a spectacular setting for drinks and snacks. I found it through my phone app, “Pintxos - the Starred Chefs List”. Google Maps does NOT have a marker for the bar, only the restaurant and the hotel. Fortunately, the restaurant website provides a user-friendly menu!

I sent a message by Instagram to the restaurant to ask if I needed a reservation for the bar. No reply. I asked my host, Pension Ur-Alde, to call for me. They were told that the bar does not require reservations.

On Saturday at 1:30 pm, the bar was staffed by only 1 gentleman. He worked hard and was busy busy all the time. He did his best to prepare drinks, take orders and serve the snacks but it was really too much for 1 person. He needed help.

To make things easier for everyone, I pointed at the list of pintxos and ordered “2 of everything”.

The server delivered our orders, two by two, but he didn’t say what he was giving us. It would have been very easy - and very helpful - to just say the name of the dish. Sometimes it was obvious (like the Gilda olives on the cute tree), but other times we were guessing.

A few things were mysteries to us. We didn’t know the name and there was no particular taste. I will title those pictures as “Mystery food”.

Somehow, my 93 yo mother enjoyed this experience the most! She appreciated the creativity and craftsmanship. She really...

I was really stoked to try this restaurant, as it has all of my favorite foods (sushi, steak, cheese, etc)… and all I read were raving reviews.

We arrived on an early weekday (Tuesday) so the restaurant was pretty empty which was a little awkward. They decided to place us next to the two other couples that were dining there, which wasn’t ideal. I asked for a better table but they did not accommodate.

First things first, it was absolutely freezing in the restaurant, and the lights were super bright which didn’t make it very romantic.

Continuing on… the sushi was great, but the tuna was a little tough and looked a little off (should have been more red). But the Hake pepper roll was delish. And the salmon and steak nigiri were phenomenal…

The soup and lobster app were nice, but nothing to write home about.

The main issue I had with this restaurant was the quality of the steak. It’s the most expensive main course on the menu, and it was just poor quality. They brought it out to us and at first it was extremely undercooked for medium rare, which is not a big deal because they cooked it longer for us, but after chewing the meat it was so tough and there was barely any fat…which means it doesn’t really qualify as a great ribeye. I didn’t eat anything after the first two bites.

The waiters were very friendly. They also took the steak off of the check which was kind. But through and through, I definitely had higher expectations. Last night in San Sebastián and was hoping to make...

Utterly disappointing. We took a late reservation for 10:45 (because of a late meeting). When we arrived we were told there was no chef’s menu. And several items (eg: oysters) were no longer available. We were rushed to place our order because the kitchen was closing in 15 minutes. We hadn’t even looked at the menu. We asked the server for his recommendation. Since we would not be able to do the tasting menu, we wanted to know what not to miss. He looked at us with a blank look on his face and then annoyingly mentioned we could do a starter and a protein. Yes - plain and simple like that… no joy for the menu or favorites from the staff. No highlights of the stars of the kitchen. The food was okay. Maybe it was good… but the service was so bad and rude that the bad taste in our mouths tainted everything. Reader, I realize we came in as the last table of the evening. I know it’s hard for a team to keep going. But if you don’t want to serve someone at 10:45, then close your restaurant at 10. That client deserves all the attention that the 9pm patron does. I should mention that we speak fluent Spanish… so this was not a case of “lost in...