The entry coutyard.

The courtyard doorway.

The hidden side-doorway to the upstairs dining room area.

The main dining room. Rustic and elegant.

The menu cover.

If you ever make it over there, you MUST order all of the extras, as they only feature the seasonal ingredients. I was lucky enough to land here during baby eel (angulas) season!

A nice tea to greet me at the onset.

Intro first bites - Anchovy, salted; house-made Chorizo. Served with a nice broth.

Two dairy products prepared daily in-house - Buffalo cheese; Goat’s milk butter. I was instructed to eat the cheese quickly to get the maximum flavor, before moving onto the butter.

The buffalo cheese.

The goat's milk butter.

Cockles & fresh bean juice. Bear in mind that each course - both the savories and the sweets - would have been touched by the grill in some fashion (more on this in the recap).

Variegated scallop, seaweed green sauce.

Prawns of Palamos (along the Costa Brava, northeast of Barcelona). These are highly valued for their flavor and size. I held my hand next to the prawns for reference; I remember a Carabinero being about the size of my full hand, and these are about 2/3 of that. But if we’re talking richness of flavor... these are a bit sweeter and more robust.

Closeup of the tomaley. So juicy!

Baby squid, its ink, with caramelized onion. So pristinely tender, and the caramelized onion perfectly intensified the sweetness of the squid.

The famous Kokotxa & pil-pil. Cod cheeks; the sauce is made from an emulsion of its natural juices.

The famous egg Revuelto. The menu identifies this as Scrambled egg, with chanterelles and white truffle... but that egg was clearly not scrambled in the traditional sense. The yolk had a thick consistency... again, barely cooked... by the wizard behind the grill. And the chanterelles and white truffles just absolutely took this over the top.

Aubergine and king bolete. Such a meaty pairing and a killer combo.

This extra course is about 3/4 into the menu, but I gotta share it with you now since it blew my mind! Elvers (or “angulas” in Spanish) are baby eels. I’d read about this delicacy and Etxebarri serves it as a supplementary course... these are only in season from November to May. Once I got over the fear factor of eating a bowl of baby slithery sea creatures... OH MY GOD... they were sublime. These were just grilled with a tiny bit of txakoli wine spray. The flavor and texture is delicate but distinctly like unagi... minus the bonyness... and the smokiness is intense. It’s served with a bone fork, as metal would alter the delicate flavor.

Sea bass and vegetables. The fish was so juicy.

The pièce de résistance... the famous txuleta/chuleta. Beef chop. This is a portion for one, and served with a big heaping plate of lightly-dressed lettuce and onion. When this beast dropped on my table, I thought there’s no way I could get through even half of this giant portion... but it was SOOO GOOD... and I was in a zone. Granted, I’m not even a steak guy... but this was THE MIC DROP... and I definitely finished off this bad boy, worth its weight in gold. I tried to photograph it from different angles to get the best shots of the glistening fat and rare meat.

Pre-dessert extra — Apple cream with yuzu. The dessert was cold, and I wanted to call it ICE cream, but then I remember where I am dining and know that EVERYTHING here gets a grill treatment. Thus, I’ll stick to the server’s description.

Their signature dessert - Ice Cream with beetroot juice. I wish I could’ve slowed down time as I was enjoying this. Somehow, Chef Victor has figured out a way to “grill” ice cream to impart a smokiness into it, and the beet juice was the perfect complement.

The menu says Soufflé with walnuts, but the star of this dessert was pear. Again, it would take a genius to figure out how to make a soufflé of this caliber from a grill.

Mignardise - Mini-muffins. No special ingredients here... just moist cake. The perfect ending to an absolutely world-class meal.