Arzak — Restaurant in San Sebastián

Fresh off the high of excellent fine dining in Barcelona (Disfrutar, Tickets, Enigma), I was looking forward to my first three Michelin star experience in Spain. Not only does Arzak have three stars, it’s one of the rare World's 50 Best Restaurants to be headed by a female chef (no. 31 of 50). I even skipped Mugaritz (no. 9) the day before to give my stomach a break and fully appreciate the tasting menu at Arzak.

Unfortunately I was very disappointed with my lunch tasting menu experience. The food was fine, but not amazing - I enjoyed the small plates and desserts much more than the main courses which felt too flashy, yet uninspired and dated. A course came out on a color-changing tablet - money that could have been better spent on say, nicer wine glasses instead of their clunky ones.

What really let me down though were the sexist undertones. The sexism of the restaurant industry and general condoning of abusive behavior is no secret, but this was the first time I've actually felt uncomfortable as a diner at a fine dining establishment.

In contrast to confident females that were our primary servers at the other aforementioned restaurants, the female staff here seemed relegated to second-class citizens. They barely made eye contact or spoke, only serving to fold napkins with spoons (no hands allowed) and clear plates. A female stage chef hinted at her unhappiness and how she needed to think carefully about where to continue her career.

As for myself, I also experienced some interesting moments. I was taking notes in a small notebook, and the male maître d' asked my husband if he were a chef. Now it isn't a huge leap to see a diner take handwritten notes and assume they work in the industry, but I was the one taking notes here, not my husband. I guess I was the secretary?

Throughout the meal, the same maître d' was very alpha in his mannerisms. When I didn't finish the overcooked monkfish, he absolutely insisted I have another fish course. He was so confident I would eventually find one I liked.

After the multi-fish course ordeal, came the pigeon nonsense. When ordering, I said I wasn't a fan of pigeon, but the maître d' asserted that the pigeon was their star dish, so I got pigeon as my second main course. The female server that cleared my plate showed the nearly untouched remains to the maître d'. Of course he then came over and wanted me to have another course, but this time I had enough and didn't give in.

Right after this, Juan Mari Arzak (joint head chef with his daughter Elena) came over to greet the table, and Mr. Maître d' whispered into his ear (in front of us and twice!) about the pigeon. Juan didn't seem disappointed by that though, he was too busy calling me "nice" and pinching my cheek - yes he actually pinched my cheek! Elena, who I actually wanted to meet, was out of town.

After this experience and the forgettable food, I can't recommend Arzak. For other fine dining in San Sebastian, Asador Etxebarri is at the top of my must-try list. It's about an hour outside of the city and has nothing but rave reviews from everyone I've talked to personally, including the head chef at Enigma. My husband also enjoyed his solo experience at Mugaritz...

If you want amazing food, a cozy environment and the best, most exceptional customer experience, please head to Arzak.

My wife and I were on vacation and quite literally forgot what day it was and showed up at the restaurant on the WRONG day. The folks at Arzak were so kind and offered to call us a taxi and gave us each a glass of Champagne (really!) even though they were incredibly busy at the start of their evening. So kind. It was just the beginning.

Just as the taxi was about to pull up the manager apears again and informs us they were able to fit us in today if we were interested in dining. Of course, since we were dressed up and hungry, we said yes.

What we did not know as we sat down at our cozy table in one of the nooks in the restauant was that the exceptional and adaptable service we received when we arrived (and threw a wrench in their plans for the day) would permiate throughout our experience.

Please don't get me wrong, the food was exceptional and the creativity off the charts. However, it was the people that made the difference this day.

Everyone who served us food wa charming with impeccable timing and observant beyond expectation. They knew just when to engage with us and when to allow my wife and I to have our time.

The captain of our section/table could not have been more friendly and accomodating. While my wife is food "adventerous", my food "lanes" are much more narrow and we were debating how to ask for some subsittutions. He must have seen our discussion and came up, introduced himself and asked if we had any food allergies or wanted to make substitutions. He already new and eliminated the awkwardness. Since I know felt comfortable, I politely rejected 2-3 subsitutue options for the main protein until we landed on one I knew I would enjoy. The entire time, rather than being annoyed with my pickiness, our captain actually took to the chalenge with a combination of patience and even a little amusement and seemed to revel in the challenge. The level of accomodation was astonishing.

At the end of the evening, the chef/owner came over to our table and thanked us for showing up on the wrong day (really, thanked us for dining) and spent a few minutes. What a wonderful human being. No doubt she is one reason her entire team enages with their customers so incredibly.

The food was amazing and the wine pairing perfect (including the extra champagne as a pre-starter). The butter "walnut" was a flawless start and I still don't know how they put 4 different flavors into that small shape. Each course was well thought out. Oh, and my substitute main course...exceptional A well thought out alternative just in case I showed up. I will post picttures.

Our time in San Sebastian ranks in the top 1-2 of our all time vacations and our Arzak experience was a key part. We will be back to the area for vacation again soon and almost certainly go back to Arzak....and maybe show up on the...

My partner and I decided to visit Arzak whilst visiting San Sebastián from London. Naturally we had high expectations given that Arzak has 3 Michelin stars and has a rich family history.

It is safe to say that we were both blown away. We got the tasting menu which was wonderfully introduced to us Mai and Adolfo. They were both so attentive and Adolfo gave us great recommendations. We wanted to try as many things as possible so we decided to get different options and split everything. We highly recommend you do the same if you are visiting in a pair.

Each dish was beautifully presented, was fragrant and was so flavourfully complex. We tasted so many flavour profiles, each felt like an ode to the Basque Country. There was fish, crustaceans, citruses, a wonderful range of peppers, beautifully dotted emulsions of fresh fruits and veg - all things you’d hope for in such an ingredient rich area. There were a few elements that we were not very familiar with (being from London) and Mai very gracefully explained to us where they originated and what common uses were. Kokotxas, for example, being a part of a Hake’s chin was totally unfamiliar to us but was so tender and delicious. Another one being aji, a pepper that was in a sauce of a raw shrimp dish that we devoured in 2 bites. Mai was lovely, informative and diligent.

Elena Arzak clearly is a well travelled woman who implements flavours from all-over into her dishes. For example, we ordered a butterfly shrimp dish that had a mango miso sauce. It’s a combination that neither of us expected but that we both loved, it was sweet and earthy but also bright - a wonderful coupling with the shrimp. A few other dishes included yuzu as a citrus, a tell on her appreciation for other cultures. She actually shared her love for travel with us as she was walking around the restaurant chatting with diners and asking us for our unfiltered opinions. We overheard her chatting with one of the kids in the restaurant about their thoughts on the food and she took every word very seriously which we found charming. She was extremely inviting, curious and made an effort to make sure that we were comfortable.

As we had the tasting menu we were treated to several of the desserts. Our favourite was burnt sheeps milk ice cream that had the butteriest dulce de leche either of us had ever tasted. It was so tasty we jokingly (but not really) told Toni, another wonderful server, that we were going to lick the plates clean. Toni was absolutely hilarious, extremely knowledgable about the Basque area and treated us to another ice cream. He indulged in our banter, but was also clearly very serious about delivering the best possible dining experience.

We left Arzak feeling completely and...