2026 Spain Trip: The Tasting Menus, Pt. 1 (Azurmendi)

Azurmendi

1.) First four bites - The Picnic Basket of Caviar Roll, Lemongrass Custard, Bilbainito Brioche and Marianito

The picnic basket is the famous way Azurmendi greets you in, serving you four delicious little bites (or sips, in the case of the last one). All are just great - the favorite being for me the little brioche, though they didn't really explain what a Bilbaonito was. Of course, a caviar filled roll is damn good too.

2.) Tomato Pulp - Corte Helado

The next section is you get a series of bites in the kitchen, with this time all featuring tomato in different ways, which of course terrified me. The first was a little ice cream cracker type thing, which was just awesome. Yes, the tomato taste was fairly pure, but was still reasonably not just a raw tomato. Thank God Azurmendi avoided taht as a dish. The cracker had more of an apple flavor which was great.

3.) Tomato Skin - Bloody Mendi

The best part was actually the pickled piece of celery on top, which as I told the cook was the best celery I have ever had, so tart and brilliant. The actually play on a bloody mary was nice and refreshing as well.

4.) Tomato Flesh - Talo

This was tremendous - in many ways, I actually like burnt tomato like this - the crisp was just brilliant (I'm as much a fan of Talo as I am Taco). The little details on this bite were just awesome, including honey, a little bit of roe and those little flowers.

5.) Tomato Serum - Flor de Agua

Last bit of tomato - finally (I kid, this section was generally quite tasty and not scary as I imagined when they brought me to the table with all types of Basque tomatoes splayed out). The last bit was this gelatinous flower made out of tomato water. if anything, this had the most tomato flavor, but also a nice anise flavor and was quite perfectly jiggly.

6.) Apple Tree & Leaf Broth

The last bit of pre-table is in teh greenhouse, which is now more stylized than an actual hot greenhouse (as it was in 2021), but the concept is the same where they walk you around the room and things that appear initially to just be flowers or something are dishes. The first this time was a lovely appre tree & leaf broth - a more mellow, tart version of apple cider.

7.) Sweet Potato Ice Cream

The best little dollop of sweet potato. My favorite part is they left the tartness a bit of the sweet potato in there - it wasn't too sweet, just a little bit of magical gooeyness. The cone, made from sweet potato, was also perfectly crisp.

8.) Asparagus Bun

While this looks like the little Bilbaonito from before, this was a brioche made from asparagus flour (whatever that is) and the middle being creamed asparagus. It tasted like a perfectly boiled, roasted white asparagus.

9.) Anastasia Nectar Bomb

The last bit was this little iced bolinho with passionfruit inside. Not the msot complex, but a nice palatte cleanser if you wish.

10.) Txipiron Pelayo

The menu was seafood heavy, as is what it in season, including another series of four fairly small bites of perfectly cooked seafood. First was a tartare of squid and a burnt squid sauce underneath. The two complemented each other perfectly. 

11.) Bilbao Style Sardines

I feel like I am saying this for most of them, but this was another bite of perfection - but then again Azurmendi is a three-star Michelin restaurant, priced as such. The sardines themselves with that dollop of whatever on the sides were so perfectly, lightly cooked - a great mix of spice and freshness.

12.) Clams

Lest you think I am going to overly praise every Azurmendi dish, this one was jsut OK. Again the clam itself and broth were excellent, but there wasn't too much more to it. Would've loved a bit more weirdness here, but to some degree Azurmendi mixes 50/50 restrained well cooked simplicity and creative brilliance.

13.) Nori & Roe

It's amazing how after I learned at EMi how prevalent seaweed is in Spain, it just started appearing everywhere. This, much like the prior clams dish, wasn't the most mind-blowing from a ceative point of view, but the roe itself was unctious and exploding and brilliant.

14.) Blue Fish Tart with Pickled Pipparas

The blue fish was great, really well seasoned and fresh, but the real star is the glass of the most deep, strong, smoky bit of pickled fish broth, pickeld with the pipparas pepper local to the basque region - a truly special broth. Weirdly, with this and EMi - the broths are sometimes the real stars of the show.

15.) Oyster and Seaweed Granita

Ok - this was magical. Three large, salty, seawatery oysters underneath this granita of seaweed, with other seaweed pieces mixed in. Some of the weirdest flavor combinations with the added mix of temperatures. It was a strange dish, but somehow it all worked.

16.) Shrimp, Herbal Notes & Shrimp Emulsion

There was a similar dish last time, mainly because these little incredibly buttery, fatty, perfect little shrimps native to the basque region are one of the best things you will ever eat. The blue dots are sauces made from the shrimp heads. This is just one of the star bites - which makes it so reasonable why Azurmendi has kept something like this on the menu forever basically.

17.) Spider Crab, Sea Crisps and Manzanilla

Manzanilla is a sherry, which is what the foam is made of, with the added bits of lavender combining to a brilliant topping of a weirdly brillaitn soft/crunchy mix of snow crab and fried bits of seaweed (again!) underneath. Another just incredible mix of textures and flavors.

18.) Chargrilled Pepper in Txistorra Paste

No lie - this had my single favorite component of anything I ate during my time at Azurmendi, which was the sauce, which was based on the Txistorra (little thin sausages). The pepper itself was lovely if simple, but Jesus that deep, brilliant sauce. I know describing it as a sausage in a sauce may seem weird, but my God did it work.

19.) Lobster with Pulses and Weed Butter

Not sure what weed butter (its the foam in teh dish) was, but it was great. The lobster itself was maybe the best cooked lobster I have ever had. The pulse sauce underneath was great as well, but let's get back to that lobster. It may be cliche for that to be the main seafood course but when you can absolutely cook it to that level of perfection, why not play the hits.

20.) Pork Castaneta with Murcilla, Pork Belly and Duxelle

Well, on the plus side it isn't just a brilliantly cooked piece of beef. On the even more plus side, this was one of the more creative main dishes I have ever had. The middle is the pork castaneta, which is the salivary gland, this really interesting texture and deep pig flavor. The side elements, from the two bits of blood sausage, to those paper thin pieces of pork belly, to the duxelle sauce at the bottom was all just so awesome. A great, if truly unexpected, way to end the meal.

21.) Honey & A Thousand Flowers with Custard

Looked more interesting than it tasted, mainly because it looked like heaven. The ice cream of honey was great, as was the custard. A simple, elegant palate cleanser. 

22.) Pistachio Six Ways

As the waiter said to me when serving it, "I hope you like pistachio." I do, and this was brilliant for the last actual course - six different preparations of pistachio, from crumble to ganache to gels to gelatos, to the underlying sauce. They were all excellent, deeply pistachio-ish, and just one of the best desserts I have ever had.

23.) Petit Fours

Sadly, these were all brilliantly tasty, if a bit unmemorable - in the sense they could've been the petit fours at so many tasting menus I have been too. Again, all of them were excellent and crafted well and great ways to end the meal, but you do wish they could've been more interesting, at least matching the largely brilliance that came before it.

2026 Spain Trip: The Tasting Menus, Pt. 1 (EMi & Islares)

EMi

1.) Tuna, Yellowtail & Lacto-Fermented Chili

Love this little tartlettes - such a great chewy, brilliant way to to start the meal. This was also a perfect start to the combination of Spanish proteins and vegetables, and Korean spices, rubs, etc. Just a better combination than you would think.

2.) Gim Bugak, Rice & Nori

The Gim Bugak is a freid rice topped in this case with raw, lightly buttered shrimp, which was just incredible. The Nori itself so crisp - apparently, Spain being the largest producer of food-grade seaweed in teh world, of course most of which is sent away.

3.) Venison, Croustade & Korean Mustard

Another little bite - they brought these out quickly, the last being tartare of venison. Maybe wasn't a huge fan of all three of the little starting bites to be raw preparations, but still they were all tasty and such interesting flavor combinations - I think that became the running theme of the place.

4.) Jerusalem Artichoke & Sage Broth

Man o man was this broth special, just perfect. So smoky, so crisp the artichoke flavor and the sage flavor. It was simple in design but just an incredible way to warm you up before the mains began.

5.) Hamachi, Sea Grapes and Pear

I wouldn't say there were really any misses in teh menu, but this was the msot forgettable in a way, another raw preparation (which would largely change here on out), but the interesting bits were the graps and pear - it was a truly lovely sauce and combination along with the hamachi.

6.) Scallop, Parsnip & XO

The scallop was so slightly seared and smoked, and the aprsnip fried bits were an awesome combination. Not really sure where the XO came in, it was nowhere near as spicy as XO traditionally is, but not sure I needed that as it may have overpowered it.

7.) Wild Boar Aebelskivor

What is an aebelskivor? Well, its a little fried Danish bolinho, normally a dessert, this time filled with perfect shredded wild board, and mushroom sauce below. There was some notes of sweetness as well, fulfilling what an Aebelskivor normally is. Overall, another stand-out dish and the first cooked meat preparation of the day.

8.) Chantarelles & Maracona Almond

Overtime, I start getting more glad of trestaurants like this throwing out a random all veg course. Just stop me about the places taht are largely veg (Indian tasting menus excluded). Here we get just perfectly cooked chantarelle mushrooms, with a great almond sauce. Simple, but beautiful and a nice change of pace.

9.) Foie Gras, Duck, Lobster & Gochugaro

Lavish as hell dish - I guess as their way to overcompensate for the missed meat in teh last dish by tripling up here - from the two pieces of seared foie, one over duck breast and one over lobster. My word it was indulgent, adn fatty and sweet and brilliant.

10.) Besugo, White Kimchi & Squid

The foam was the best part, for a reason - it was foam of lightly cooked shrimp. The fish itself was great, with its crisp skin. For the main fish dish, it was still excellent, if a bit simple I guess. Well, maybe not - teh squid foam is in no way simple.

11.) Venison, Pickled Kohlrabi, Chantarelles & Lobster Curry

As I've grown older and more accustomed to these spots, I have also noticed that often the main meat dish, the final savory, is good but a bit too meat heavy - the old lets give you a perfectly cooked piece of high end beef, with a lovely sauce (lobster), some sides (kohlrabi and chantarelles) and call it a day. Every bit of this dish was cooked perfectly, but still I feel like I had it ten times over.

12.) Cherry, Sake & Acorn

I've not had this ten times over. This was a lovely palatte cleanser, using almond and cherry bits frozen together over a sake crisp. Just an insanely complex dish for what is usually a simple gratin.

13.) Boletus, Seawood Caramel and Matcha

Maybe I shouldn't call the earlier one a palatte cleanser - they certainly didn't. It was mainly just the first of two desserts, and the second one here had some lovely combinations of tastes - the seaweed, the matcha, so much else, but was still a bit of a come down from the prior.

14.) Petit Fours

And Oh, what and ending, with maybe the most visually stunning and diverse set of petit fours. all foru different textures, different plays on various normal Korean desserts. On teh whole, EMi was a really nice spot, if a bit less Spanish as maybe you like. Still, the combination worked wonderfully.

Islares

1.) Small Bites: Sorropotun Broth, Limpet with Seaweed, Octopus with Galician Garlic. 

I put these four together because they were served as four simulatenous bites, and they were all quite interesting. Not too much fancy about them, except for how lovely that broth was, but just a graet way to start the meal just featuring ingredients from Northern Spain (not just Basque Country, but Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias. 

2.) Spider Crab & Lobster Salpicon

A perfect spiral of lobster on top, really well sauced crab underneath. I'm not sure what Salpicon was, but every other part of the dish was nice as well. Really nice real start to just some great Spanish seafood and more than that flavors.

3.) Tigre Spicy Mussell with Galician Chorizo Empanada

And this two parter really took it up a notch. Not sure if it is a good thing when your favorite dish of the day is dish #3, but these two were unreal. The tartlette of mussels was wonderful, but that "empanada" of chorizo and pepper was one of the best things I have eaten in quite a long time. Just a perfect three combined bites.

4.) White Tuna with Basque Bell Pepper Stew

This is the first of many times over the course of Islares, and then Azurmendi to come, that red pepper was featured. Here, the pepper was a spicy, sharp addition to a really well cooked piece of tuna. The dish itself was simple, but truly Spanish in the best way.

5.) Langoustine & Cider-Basque Saustage Stew Talo

Talo is something like a Spanish version of a taco - same principle, and it was lovely to roll this up with great cider braised sausage and foam. Another simple dish but really exhibited the heart of Spanish cuisine. At this point I was really starting to wonder weather the more Spanish-forward approach of Islares would end up with me liking it more than EMi, the latter of which is probably technically more refined.

6.) Karrantza spring ongion, Magano squid and Nokoro Coffee

Hey, look it's another middle of the menu turn to a vegetarian dish, this time with a brillaintly sweet, charred onion. There in theory was squid in teh sauce, but it was baby squid taht was basically pulverized into it. The coffee flavor was way stronger, and was a weird combination but did kind of work.

7.) Erandio Tomato Puff Pastry, Garum and Seaweed Butter

Many know that I don't like raw tomato. I barely like cooked/charred tomato, but I slightly do more than raw, which made this dish edible in my eyes. More than just edible, it was quite, quite good especially with all the other elements. The seaweed butter in particular was such a uniquely umami flavor. All the flavors were helpful to drown out the tomato a bit.

8.) Fresh Summer White Beats with Chicken Skin Stew

The first of two bean-forward dishes and let me say this. I know well cooked beans are really well respected, and tough to do, and beans are a common local star ingredient, but I'm not sure if that beans are for me. The chicken skin stew was awesome, so the dish still ate like a lovely soup, but yeah, I can take or leave beans a bit.

9.) Clams with Asturian White Beans

Hey, it's beans again! But luckily the star was the perfectly, lightly cooked clams and the green sauce which made for another just incredible little soup. Beans probably didn't need to be featured on two of the dishes, but the clams made up for it.

10.) Cantabrian Beef with Anchovy Marinade

Hey look, another perfectly (and in this case I mean perfectly) cooked piece of beef, from a dairy cow local to Cantabria, with a vegetable. The star was the beef, certainly, but nearly as good, or at least as notable was the anchovy sauce (the dark thing) which was sweet and pungent. Great dish.

11.) The Flan

If I sound a bit down on the last three dishes, that would be fair, but this made up for it - a simple flan but easily the sweetest, lightest, fluffiest, most brilliant flan I have ever had. Honestly, this was the best single dish of either of the menus so far.

12.) Valdovino Oxoco Chocolate with Seaweed

A seaweed heavy dessert (both teh green thing and the white blobs were seaweed based)? Sign me up. The chocolate and seaweed combination (and this is real seaweed flavor, not just sea-salt) is a great one.

13.) Goxua & Espelette Paprika

The Goxua was a really dense but flavorful cake underneat the white sauce, and the top gelato had pepper sauce and pepper sprinkles. This was a really weird taste, that mix of sweet, denseness and spiciness, but each bite got better and better. Lovely dessert. Islares knocked the deserts out of the park.