Simon_S

Despite its current troubles (and they are legion) I'd struggle to leave Ireland for good. Its foodie reputation is often justifiably low, but we really have some top-drawer produce here, the equal or better of that from more well-known food havens the world over. Besides, there's just nowhere else quite like it. That said, when I win the Euromillions I'll be buying a house in San Sebastian asap. I can't think of anywhere in the world I prefer for food and atmosphere. I'll also spend significant amounts of time in New York, San Francisco and Paris (*not* London) for the city vibe.

"We" may not, but I do! If somebody gives me some mallards they've shot, I'll hang them in the garden shed for a few days before plucking.

Yep, very surprised that Ludovic didn't go through, but he himself seemed to know that he just hadn't done enough. I had him down as a possible winner, though. Now, I'm thinking that Ryan is probably the one to beat.

Thanks Jay. Are we to take it that you're not involved in later rounds? Shame if not...

I agree that the standard is very hit and miss, and some people have been eliminated who'd certainly be in with a shout of winning another episode. Still, I enjoy watching GW trying to come up with alternative ways of saying what MRJ just said, and I love when MRJ says a flat "no" to a dish. He's only just short of rolling up a magazine and smacking the contestant on the nose. I think the guy who won last night's quarter final is in with a shout, Ludovic also, and there have been a few others along the way who look interesting. I still can't get over some of the mistakes made, though, and I'm no cook myself. The elimination round especially is a real eye-opener.

I think that's a very apt analogy, but "appropriate" attire for funerals is another thing that varies with age and other factors, at least in my experience. Many younger acquaintances are of the opinion that when it comes to funerals, their presence is the only important aspect, their attire is irrelevant. I can disagree (and I do), I can judge (and I do!) but ultimately these are not absolute questions. What you consider appropriate restaurant attire (sports jacket) would have been considered *very* casual by the standards of previous generations. These things shift over time. Basically what I'm saying is, you're getting old!

I dunno, I quite enjoy this game. Even when dining alone, my wife and I regularly play it, occasionally getting down to a mere crumb before one or other of us has to take the last "piece" and thereby run a gauntlet of scorn, derision and taunts of selfishness. We wouldn't have it any other way!

Great pictures. I ate in Akelare last year and I would agree with your assessment. There are some new dishes there by the look of things, but I also found the red mullet to be the weakest course. Regarding Akelare vs Mugaritz, I certainly enjoyed Akelare more...

The idea that metric and weight must go hand-in-hand certainly doesn't hold true in the UK and Ireland. Perhaps this is changing for my generation and younger (I'm 33) but even still I don't have good intuition for grams or kilos, it's much better for pounds and ounces. Most cookbooks I've seen have weights in ounces and in grams, and you can take your pick. My mother, for example, would never have measured in grams, always in ounces. The "Americans don't use scales" argument probably holds more water, IMO.

I'm sorry, what? I've never seen such a thing... (And yes, shepherd's = lamb mince; cottage = beef mince).

Small bowl, side plate (or other receptacle) for pips, occasionally cocktail sticks. No messing around.

We put ours in the dishwasher every so often. Then again, it's not 50 years old.

So, over the river in Gros, we found a different kind of atmosphere to the old town, less obviously "touristy" in many ways and certainly more spread out, but with a wide variety of pintxos on offer. Crawling in Gros just isn't as much fun as the old town, so you need to be committed to it. Speaking honestly, the first time we ventured across the river (to Alona Berri) we had pretty much decided we wouldn't bother returning. I'm glad we changed our minds. Alona Berri: This is THE place I was adamant we were taking in on this trip, having missed it last time myself, and having read so much about it here. I knew in advance we were going to do the sit-down pintxo taster, and we did, but I can't help feeling that we may have missed something in taking this approach. Not a bad start, but probably not what you'd do if you were a regular or a local. In any case, there were lots and lots of really good dishes here. I won't go through the list (it's online anyway I think). I don't want to grumble, but I think I may have expected too much. I went in expecting something approaching 3-michelin-star food and, with all due respect, it's not that. Still, for creative pintxos it's a must-do. Okay, the rest of the Gros pintxos were consumed in one mammoth lunch crawl. This crawl started with 3 pintxo bars in the old town (see La Mejillonera, Zuruko and Txondorra from previous post) so I'm really going to struggle to remember what was what here. It doesn't help that we had a txacoli in every bar either... Garbola: The todopintxos site told me to have the shark so I had the shark. 'Twas fine, not earth-shattering to my palate. Hidalgo 56: I had the volcano of black pudding which was seriously rich, quite large, but pretty damn good. Hazel had prawns in the lightest batter imaginable, and she claims that they constituted her most memorable "simple" pintxo outside of Gandarias' solomillo. Praise indeed since she craved those solomillos like crack cocaine. Anyway, while I recovered from my black pudding volcano, she valiantly made her way through the stuffed squid. Lovely dish, but large and rich again. I was flagging, she was getting her second wind. Bergara: With Casa Senra mercifully closed I got to walk a few more paces before our attack on Bergara. Hazel had Txalupa, I had gratinada de pisto (a kind of ratatouille). Then I ordered a dish called "duck delights" on the English version of the menu, which turned out to be little pieces of duck breast and apple on a pastry base. It didn't work for me, tasting like apple pie sprinkled with diced duckbreast. Still, nothing if not interesting. Hazel had something else that I believe we have a photo of somewhere. We also have a photo of me looking twice my age at this point. I was REALLY struggling. We had been recommended Narru and the barman at Bergara pointed us in the direction. Or at least, we thought he did. Instead we found El Lagar: I'm sorry we didn't find this place earlier as it had lots of interesting-looking menu items. I had the Salmorejo Cordoba, a cold tomato soup with ham and sliced boiled egg. It was lovely, but it was also the final nail in the coffin for my eating ability. I can't remember what Hazel had, I'm sorry to say, but I remember she was also impressed. We asked our extremely helpful barmaid where Narru was, and she pointed us in the right direction. Or so we thought. We once again couldn't find it, although by that stage it was probably just as well. A brief stroll across the river led us back to the old town and one last solomillo and glass of Emilio Moro for old times' sake at Gandarias. What a day. Please note, most of the pintxos mentioned here can be seen on the most excellent Todo Pintxos site. I'd strongly recommend this site as an aid to planning. I remembered to check it far too late in proceedings, but when I return to San Seb I'll know exactly what I'm doing. Okay, what about Mugaritz? It was great, but we're just not sure it's for us. We had the menu Naturan and sure enough the cooking and execution were faultless, the conception incredible, the techniques seriously impressive, the ideas boundless. But it just didn't excite me. It had all the hallmarks of an excellent meal, but I didn't go away with that sense of joy that an excellent meal normally engenders in me. I can only put it down to a question of taste. I know Mugaritz polarises people, and I was almost intrigued to see on which side I'd fall. Well, now I know. I'm still very glad I went, still very glad I experienced this cooking, but I think I know more about myself now. One other thing, we had some misgivings about the service and the atmosphere conjured up in the room. On arrival, we were asked if we'd like an aperitif, we said yes, and we were ushered toward the garden. Except we weren't seated in the garden due to the changeable weather, we were instead shown into a bar area in a separate building on the grounds. This was not a comfortable room, benches and chairs were laid out in a way that left no privacy whatsoever, and the magazines scattered around sealed the impression of a high-end dentist's waiting room. We got our drinks, we got our potato rock appetisers (which I thought were very poor, by the way) and we got our menus. Then we were neglected for 35 or 40 minutes. Another lone diner had been there on our arrival, his glass already empty, and he only received his menus and appetisers when we did, and was only shown to his table when we were. I don't know how long he had waited, but he was obviously growing pretty impatient by then. I felt sorry for him, but after a while I started to feel sorry for us too, as the tension spread across all the waiting parties. Annoyingly, when we were eventually rescued and led to the dining room, the garden was filled with couples enjoying their pre-dinner drinks in the very areas we had been told they wouldn't use due to the weather. Once we got into the dining room, the atmosphere from the staff was reverent, cold and clinical. They certainly loosened up a little as the evening continued, but it was really very strange at the beginning. Since I'm carping, the envelopes left on our table to "submit" or "rebel" didn't mean much to us as they were in French. When I asked about them, one member of staff brought us English ones, but I thought this was an odd lapse. There we are then, 5 glorious days in San Sebastian, a lot of eating, a lot less room in the waistband of my trousers, and it goes without saying that I can't wait for my next visit.

I'm recently back from a trip that included 5 days in San Sebastian, so I thought I might share some thoughts as best I can remember them. With budget a little tighter than ideal we kept mainly to pintxos, although we took in Mugaritz as well. First things first, I insisted on a return visit to Gandarias. On my stag trip to San Seb last year we spent a silly amount of time in Gandarias, and I wanted to see if it was as good as I remembered. Of course, I also wanted to introduce it to my wife. We started with 2 glasses of Belondrade y Lurton and a plate of ham. The wine was everything I had been led to believe it would be, and such a bargain at just over €5 a glass. That ham was, to my palate, as delicious as ever, although Hazel was less convinced. She thought it was certainly very good, but maybe not as good as she'd been expecting. We had a quick foie gras a la plancha (good, but I've had better foie there) and a solomillo (just the one, for now...) and we were off! However, over our 5 days there we returned to Gandarias for at least one solomillo each per day, generally washed down with a glass of Emilio Moro. We just couldn't resist those little tastes of heaven. The little piece of sirloin, salt, thin slice of jalapeno and bread just packs so much delicious flavour into a small package. Simple but so so effective. Okay, here are some other pintxo bars that we sampled and my thoughts. Details may be scant (a LOT of txacoli was consumed!) We'll start with the Old Town: A Fuego Negro: hands down my favourite pintxo bar, and one we returned to again and again. It was our goal to eat our way through the entire menu, and while we didn't quite accomplish that, we sampled a healthy (unhealthy?) proportion of it. We also found the friendliest service in here, and by the end of our 5 days were getting comped glasses of wine and various other concoctions. A Fuego Negro has the honour of providing me with the most memorable bite of the entire trip: Ham and almond "coffee" with sweetbread crisps. The "coffee" was a thick soup tasting the very essence of iberico ham and topped up with steamed milk to look like a latte. Chunks of sweetbread were coated in corn-flakes and fried to make crisps to be dipped into the "coffee" and eaten. Which I did. With relish. Repeatedly. Other triumphs here were thinly-sliced scallops with black truffle crumbled on top (there was another ingredient which I have annoyingly forgotten) and a dish involving a cauliflower curry cream. The foie terrine was delicious here also. In fact, the only thing that did nothing for me was the "baca-bits" dish. Deep-fried, uber-greasy, chewy, the effect not unlike day-old prawn crackers. Everything else? Fab. La Cepa: Had the ham. Lovely, better than Gandarias. Nothing else floated our boat. We left. La Cuchara de San Telmo: This place had been recommended to us before we left by people I trust. It's recommended regularly on eGullet. It's recommended on the pintxo sites. Random strangers, quite literally, recommended it to us regularly in San Sebastian. However, for some reason it just wasn't for us. Thinking our first experience was not representative, we went again. Still didn't really get it. The food wasn't in any way bad, quite the contrary, but we found it more expensive than warranted, and it seemed that many of the dishes were covered in the same generic brown sauce. Certainly, there were good moments, don't get me wrong, but it didn't really suit us. Others love it, and I wouldn't argue. We did, however, get the slight feeling that the place knows it's firmly on the raider and thinks it's a little too cool for school. Maybe that's unfair, but we just didn't find it as welcoming as some of the other pintxo bars. Borda Berri: This is, according to something I read somewhere, a sister bar to Cuchara de San Telmo, but strangely we loved this place. We had the veal cheeks (gelatinous, rich and lip-smacking, even if that generic brown sauce looked familiar...), meat croquetas, pig's ear, any amount of chorizo/blood sausage, octopus, foie gras etc. Basically, we liked this place. One of Hazel's favourites of the trip. La Mejillonera: We went for patatas bravas. They were pretty good, nothing to write home about. We left. Txondorra: We found this place pretty late in the trip, but had a great time here. The menu looked pretty extensive, and I was sorry we couldn't sample more than we did. In the end we had Crunchy Katafi of leek, a volcano of rice with foie gras and ceps (?), some form of deep fried something that we pointed to at the bar that seemed to contain cod and a prawn, and then there was another dish that I can't remember at all. Could have eaten far more here. Strangely, the place was inundated with tourists who genuinely hadn't a clue what they were doing. We were like seasoned pros in comparison, even with our pathetic attempts at pronunciation of the menu items! Still, we seemed to entertain the bar staff with our efforts. Zeruko: I don't know what to tell you about Zeruko. Some of the best pintxos I had all week were here. I was loving the place, thinking it one of the best bars of the lot, when Hazel was served a chicken dish whose insides weren't just undercooked, they were downright raw. So raw, I just can't quite get over how it could have happened. We didn't have the Spanish to explain the problem, and detailed communication had been difficult here anyway (although the smiles were genuine) but I was very surprised when we left it, opened but uneaten, suggestively displayed on the counter in front of us and nothing was said, even when they cleared it. So confusing. Anyway, it's a one-off that I feel compelled to tell you to disregard, because everything else was so worthwhile. The famous pintxo here is "La Horguera" (the bonfire) which is a piece of fish (cod again?) over a smoking grille. You decide how much you want to smoke it and then assemble the rest of the dish (bread, a sauce) and eat. Great fun, very tasty, totally worthwhile. Other great pintxos were: crumbled blood sausage on a deep-fried basket, topped with a quail egg; a cracking foie gras terrine on a sweet crisp that just blended seamlessly (a photo may follow!), excellent solomillo de buey with seared foie gras. In fact, the foie gras here was some of the best I had. Go to this place, just watch out for the chicken! This post is getting too long. I'll continue with the Gros pintxos bars in the next.

The problem arises when the staff and/or kitchen are ill-equipped to get you fed and watered within the allotted time. My usual response to "we'll need the table back by 9" is to point out that my ability to leave before that time is entirely in the hands of the staff.

I think it says that most people don't care who cooks their dinner as long as standards remain high. If standards slip, then the problem may or may not be that the "named" chef didn't cook your dinner, and that should certainly be addressed. In that case, maybe the chef really does need to spend more time there, but I don't take that as a given. Of course, if standards don't slip, then I don't care whether the man whose name is over the door ever sets foot in the place.

Thanks Patrick. I came damn close to booking Berasategui (even though some friends of mine had a mixed experience there) but I ended up doing the same as yourself and booking Mugaritz. To be fair, Mugaritz had long been my first choice, but I got distracted by Arzak due to, of all things, Masterchef. I'm happy enough with the decision now. I really want to see what all the fuss is about!

This is good to know. Thanks Pedro, it's definitely on my short-list. Actually, that was a query from a previous trip, and I can confirm that it's eminently possible to eat your fill of pintxos on a Sunday night!

Does anyone have any recent reports on Fagollaga? I know it dropped a star a year or two ago, and obviously that's not a great sign, but I'm looking for a high(ish) end restaurant option that isn't uber-creative. I have nothing against the lotions and potions at all, I'm just looking for something a little different this time, and I keep coming up with the usual names. Obviously Etxebarri is an obvious choice, but the menu listed on Fagollaga's website also appeals to me.

Yep, that's the time we'll be there as well. Googling around, it seems that this is a constant problem at Arzak -- I'm not sure that a non-smoking section actually exists at all! I've now decided that I'm going to cancel, and I probably won't even bother replacing Arzak with any of the other big-hitters. San Sebastian has so much good food that I don't think I'll feel cheated.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. As it stands, I'm probably coming down more on the side of canceling. While you can obviously be lucky, I'm reluctant to leave such a thing to chance. If we were back a couple of years prior to paycuts and jobloss fears I'd just go for it, but now money is too tight to have an expensive meal potentially spoiled. I'll mull it over some more.

My wife and I will be in San Sebastian for a few days in early July, and I have booked Arzak for dinner one night. Due to financial constraints, this will probably be our major blow-out meal of the trip. I requested a non-smoking table but in the booking confirmation I have been told that the non-smoking section is full, and that we will be seated in the smoking section. It's a long time since I've had to think about smoke being an issue in restaurants, and my tolerance for same has seriously diminished. This might be a deal-breaker for me. Is smoke a problem at Arzak? Is this something I'm going to encounter at all the high-end restaurants in San Sebastian? I've no problem with smoke in more casual surroundings (i.e. pintxo bars), but I'm reluctant to fork out hundreds of Euros for a meal if I'm going to be breathing so much smoke I can't smell or taste properly. I may see if the non-smoking section is free some other night, but if not, should I look elsewhere? Would be grateful for any learned comments!

Thanks Jim. I think I've seen you mention previous Pieropan offerings, and I've certainly tried more than a few of them. I have yet to taste the '05 La Rocca. I wish I could try it at €24!!! That Pinot sounds interesting as well. Wonder is that available over here...

Yes, I'm really very sad to see it go. Mint was certainly my favourite restaurant in Ireland, and to be honest was one of my favourites in the world. I craved that food and that cooking like you wouldn't believe. Mint's closure certainly leaves an enormous hole in the Irish dining scene.

I think what's interesting about a list like this is that it exposes non-foodies to names they wouldn't otherwise hear. I had never heard of el Bulli until the list got quite a lot of mainstream media attention a few years ago. Ditto French Laundry and many others. Even people who have very little interest in food for 364 days of the year have mentioned this list to me. In those early years it certainly helped to open my eyes to the diversity of restaurants on the planet, it led me in a roundabout way to eGullet, and it helped to foster in me a still-growing appreciation of fine dining. Certainly for those in the business of ticking boxes (and I'm occasionally guilty of this myself) the list takes on a significance all of its own. This is not always a good thing, obviously, as lots of good places aren't recognised on the list and lots of less worthy establishments are boosted by their inclusion. El Bulli is harder to get into than ever, and I firmly believe that its well-publicised "World's Best Restaurant" status is the major factor here. Whether that accolade is deserved or not is a separate issue (and for the record I think it probably is) but it's definitely going to have an effect outside our food-fanatical circles. Simply put, this list matters. Irrespective of whatever misgivings any of us might have, and irrespective of the assurances that it's all just a bit of fun, it matters. For places like Alinea, which may be famous among certain circles but nothing resembling a well-known name in this part of the world, this is surely an important listing. I can well understand why Mr. Achatz would make the journey.