Just terrible. Cannot figure out how this restaurant made the Michelin guide other than the fancy surroundings or the wine list. We made a reservation for Monday lunch, which is the same menu and high prices as any other time, so no excuse for it being an off day. We love high-end dining, and at 77 Euros for a lunch of a starter, two entrees, and two glasses of wine, I expected this to be nothing but.
The starter we ordered - txangurro (crab) rolls - were greasy with a filling having the taste and texture of cat food, only yellow and also very salty. To add insult to injury, Chef served it with a vegetable purée as a dipping sauce, also yellow and salty with not much else going on. So, yellow goop dipped in yellow goop... what happened to contrast? 22 Euros, please. When our server noticed we did not finish and asked if we liked the dish, I clearly said "no," it had a bad texture. And that was the end of that: no apology, no offer to bring something else, no offer to take it off the bill.
When our server returned with my main - steamed hake, Asian-style - he set down the bowl and joked that the fish was under the tiny pile of vegetables. NOT the time, Dude! Out came the bland fish from the steamer basket in his other hand and away he went. Now, hake is a lovely fish - one of my favorites in Spain, in fact - but it needs to take on the flavor of what it was cooked in. Absolutely no attempt was made here, as the fish was steamed solo, perhaps with a brushing of oil. To make matters worse, the fish and vegetables were cooked with olive oil to accompany the straight-from-the-jar oyster sauce around the plate. Olive oil and Asian cuisine are a very tough match - every chef worth his/her salt knows that. So, in summation: bland fish, bland vegetables, oil from Spain, sauce from China... with no attempt made to marry them whatsoever.
But, hey - always end on a positive note, right? The venison loin main was quite good, but more for use of good ingredients than anything else. Thankfully Chef couldn't screw up a nice piece of grilled meat. read more
