Restaurante Akelare | Pedro Subijana — Restaurant in San Sebastián

Take a deep dive into the mind of Chef and I wanted off the ride about halfway through. My poor pallette. Let me tell you...I love michelin restaurants and try to go to a few per year. So I know the procedures and what to expect, atleast as much as an amateur can.

The atmosphere was lacking. They were leaning on the view that was provided by the beautiful Atlantic coastline. The interior was a contemporary asthetic that really didn't wow or inspire me in a way that a 3-star michelin restaurant would. I give it 3 stars because of the exterior. We were provided with a table that was not on the window side so all photos that we took included other people and slowly eroded our love for the location.

The service was awful I tried my best to let the team know before-hand that it was a birthday-honeymoon. They provided us with nothing. Not a big deal but its a detail that I would have appreciated. We noticed that there was an empty table by the window which we requested when making the reservation, but the service team said we have a large table and wouldn't move us..It started the evening on a little bit of a sour note where were felt dismissed. We recording the waitstaff because we couldn't understand what they were telling us. They sounded mumbled, and even on the video we can't make out what is being said. They were unattentive, when they asked how a course was we said we weren't fond of it. The waiter replied "Oh good thank you". Which was his go to response. Another time when we had the razor clams we said it was too ocean-y they responded with.."you need to be radical..." which we didn't really appreciate. A lot of the times at Michelin and bib restaurants the server guides you through the experience and builds a rapport, which did not happen at all. We were a little surprised by that. The only good thing the service did was clean our breadcrumbs on a regular basis. Given the overall lack of care or attentiveness, I really wouldn't be surprised if I never receive a response from them here. It seems to be a trend on the Google Reviews. My thoughts on that are that it shows a business doesn't care. Finally, what really hit the nail on the coffin for us was when we said we had an allergy and they brought out the wrong dish because of said allergy. They brought out this green-mess of flavors instead of what we had actually ordered. The waiter then quickly returned with the requested dish. I really felt like I wasn't being guided through an experience so much as being guided to pay the bill.

The food started well. I really enjoyed the beginning dishes. Flavorfull, complex, overall fantastic. Then the fish course happened. It all went downhill from there. The razor shelland the iodine content in it completely ruined my pallete. All we tasted after that, even throughout the meat dish was iodine. We were desperate for a pallete cleanser, which never came only more iodine. It ruined both of our courses. The remaining dishes including the duck, and the suckling lamb (which we were most excited for) were too salty for their own good. Imagine having to spend over a thousand dollars on a dinner tasting menu and not being able to taste anything beyond the fifth course. We kept letting the service team know we needed time or we weren't enjoying a dish and they just kept brushing us off. It was brutal.

Then finally the dessert. We made very well certain that there was an almond allergy at the table. So we stayed away from the Apricot dessert and were given a green-grass mess that I would have been embarrassed to serve. Finally, after hearing the love-hate of the gin and tonic pie we can absolutely see why people hate it. It was an earthy-pinecone-juniper overload. We left food at the table unfinished and unimpressed.

Finally a man came to see that we pay the bill and we left. Upset and sick of what we just ate. We would later realize that we were both experienced food poisoning and were toiley-ridden for the next day. We didn't eat anything out of the ordinary that day so we can reasonably say it...

We went for an engagement celebration. I emailed ahead to ask if I could arrange something special for the occasion and the restaurant didn’t even bother to email me back. I would have happily paid for something extra to add a little touch, but to disregard the message and not even make a comment or a congrats is poor.

The food is, as you would expect, excellent in quality. However, 10 courses all the size of a large starter is an insanely large quantity and far too much. You will leave stuffed, and not in a good way.

Zero engagement from the sommelier. He simply planted wine in front of us with no option to discuss what you like or even to introduce the wines and why they were selected with each course. In this day and age, where you get such engaging wine experiences in even humble wine bars, this was particularly weak and immensely patronizing.

The service was punctual, but very stiff and formal. The restaurant has a very cold feel to it (whisper because it’s so quiet). The view was spectacular but the vibe was dull, with zero staff engagement.

The menu selection of opting in and out of certain dishes is totally bizarre and a very weird and overwhelming experience as a consumer. You’re the experts - you should make the tasting menu choices way simpler!My fiancée, who expressly explained she doesn’t eat truffle, was later served a truffle dish, after we had spent 5 minutes discussing no truffle with the waiter - in a restaurant of this price and supposed standard that is inexcusable.

The pace of eating, given the volume and dish size, is very fast. You will start to feel rushed.

The price is about the cutting edge food, but €700 for two is simply not justified given how mediocre the overall experience is. It just doesn’t feel special or exciting or fun. If you compare it with Bocuse, Waterside Inn, Sketch this is a million miles away.

At the end of the day, you’re in one of the global food hotspots that is San Sebastián and this place just doesn’t make the cut if you’re looking for an engaging, memorable experience. Yes, the food was good, with a couple of standout dishes. However, after being force fed my dessert and rushed out the half empty restaurant clutching my belly for lack of space, it all just felt a bit underwhelming. The chef is obviously at the top of his game, but any regular diner will tell you they are way off on the client experience.

I would be interested to try the other Michelin * options next time I’m in town, because this almost felt like a bit of a tourist trap.

Soulless. Tedious. Far from flawless execution. Hard pass from us - you can do...

If you are a vegetarian, RUN in the other direction. I have always believed that mark of a great chef is to be able to apply their understanding of flavors and ingredients to vegetarian or non-vegetarian food, even though their specialty may lie in one or the other. Instead of winging it with a disappointing experience costing vegetarians €260, Akelarre should simply not present a vegetarian menu in the future.

One goes to a 3 star Michelin restaurant to be transported into a new world of intriguing tastes, innovation, exciting explosions of flavor profiles you never expected, and to revel in the never ending waves of subtle flavors crashing in your mouth one bite after another. Needless to say, one expects all of this in addition to the food being executed perfectly and tasting delicious. I could critique all my 7 vegetarian courses but I‘ll just describe my last savory course as a reflection of my disappointing experience last night.

After a flurry of dishes that were bland, un-seasoned or overly salted, and mockingly small in portion compared to the meat courses, I joked with my partner that “watch, they are going to serve me mushroom risotto haha”, and my partner quipped back, “we’ll just get up and leave then lol”. Risotto for a reason that escapes me, has become the universal staple that restaurants of all cuisines (regardless of having no connection to Italian cuisine) will slap on their menu as an insincere and lazy accommodation for their vegetarian eaters. I did not expect a run of the mill risotto for my 3 star Michelin experience but lo and behold, they served me pesto risotto (I was almost right haha). That’s it, no creativity, no innovation, no adventurous exploration of different flavor profiles or ingredients. Your standard basil/parmesan/pine nuts pesto with risotto. Oh and dare I mention it still wasn’t executed well which stuns me. The pesto was watery and diluted instead of tasting luxuriously rich and silky.

All I will say is, it is possible to showcase one’s skills in vegetarian food as well, and 3 Michelin star restaurants like Per se and l’arpege are great examples of that. I feel a sense of duty to put this out there as it is unfair for restaurants in a progressive world where vegetarianism is increasingly becoming the ethical, economical and environmentally friendly way of eating, to treat them as second class citizens whilst charging them the same...