Etxebarri in a nutshell - A Food Lover's Dream. The second best meal of my entire life, the best being Tetsuya's in Sydney. This was estupendos! you will never think the same about grilled food ever again. It's not just the food, it was the whole experience. A great day trip out of the city into the countryside, blue skies, picturesque scenary and riedel glassware. Ha! i have never drank from riedel glassware before, can't say the water tasted any better :-) We drove from Bilbao with our little matchbox GPS connected via bluetooth to the Nokia mobile phone which had Tom Tom loaded with the map of Spain. a LIFESAVER i tell you. Got us there even when it got lost because of a new roundabout that was not on the map. As mentioned in other posts, there is a guy who speak english there. He is the sous chef. He comes from Australia. He is very friendly and was not in a rush to spend time talking to us about the produce... he emphasised alot about the freshness and the quality of the produce. The degustation was not on the menu so you need to speak to the chef. Once the price was agreed we got very excited and became worried at the same time. It was much more than our budget and through the excitment we forgot to ask how many dishes we were getting... Well...here it goes.... Wine: Pazo de Señorans Seleccion de Añada 2002 Albariño 1. Chorizo De Caserio Homemade chorizo. 2. Mantequilla Lets not get confused here, its simply grilled bread with a heavy handed portion of butter. I swear it tasted like foie gras, but it's just butter! 3. Cigalas Langoustine, half portion each, most expensive langoustine I ever had, best we ever had. Unbelievable seafood-sweetness. I noticed the shell as very soft - slight tougher than a prawn but still your able to crack the shells using just your fingers. The chef said they deliberately catch it at this stage because it gives maximum flavour. Due to my upbringing, I sucked on the shell and the head with glee, oblivious to my surroundings. Nothing, nothing was wasted at all. 4. Ostras Oysters on seaweed. I asked the chef where he sourced it, its was massive. Came from France. Size 00 !!! 5. Caviar Brasa Before the grilled Iranian cavier arrived, we were brought a palate cleanser - something milky in the glass. The grilling brought on a hint of smokey bacon. 6. Espardenyas Can't give you a direct translation - but it was so devine and super sweet, tasted like a razor clam/squid but it's not. From looking at other egullet posts i believe this is the sea cucumber. 7. Chipirones Brasa The dish I had been waiting for, baby squid is in season. How can i describe the ink: sweet, seafood like and the texture is creamy smooth. The charcoal smell brought a smokey bacon flavour. 8. Hongos Brasa OH WoW. Here comes grilled cepes and aubergine. Out of this world. Sorry the photo does not do this dish justice. 9.Ventresca de Bonito Grilled bonito (spanish tuna) and tomato. Simply succulent. 10. Chuleta What were they thinking? Final course was a hunka chunka grilled steak from Pays Basque served with green salad and a plate full of chunky chips. Tender but not in the same league as argentian or wagyu beef. 11. Infusion de fruots Homemade vanilla ice-cream with red berry sauce. Followed by coffee and petit fours. Inside the dining room. Front entrance to the grill house. The courtyard And finally... the good stuff.