One of Spain’s iconic restaurants so we had really high expectations. Our dinner table was reserved 2.5 month in advance. We have both had the tasting menu, with 5 starters, 5 main meals, 4 desserts and wine recommendation.
By our opinion the dinner for a 3 Michelin star restaurant was average at its best. Lack of sophisticated flavours, the amuse bouche were nothing special and mostly average ingredients were used with most courses.
Two dishes are worth mentioning. One of the starters, mackarel with txakoli and smoked melon and one of the mains, monkfish with black bean sauce were both exeptional. And this is where the Arzak story ended for us. Service was not friendly, everyone seemed to be working on autopilote mode. As the result of that the ambiance of the whole evening was not relaxed. We have finished our dinner in 2 hours 15 minutes.
Our visit did not match the criteria of a 3 Michelin starred restaurant and certainly not the fame of Juan Mari and Elena Arzak