There's a few conceits about the place. First off, the serve the meal in stages, with three mini courses of many small bites in different rooms ahead of sitting down. It's all centered around the concept of sustainability, the garden and other stuff that seems corny on paper but was absolutely lovely in person. The setting of Azurmendi is stunning, high up a hill about 20 minutes outside Bilbao. The entrance has a giant glass facade, a bit meaningless given it was pitch black outside, but I can imagine how beautiful it is in normal times.
Anyway, the meal starts with us getting a glass of Basque-country wine on the house, and sitting in the entrance area we're greeted with a picnic basket of little bites, all kept inside the basket, neatly created and just a truly beautiful way to start the meal:
The Welcome Picnic
1.) Piquillo Ice Cream: I have no idea what a piquillo is, but it had this great sour, sweet taste and the ice cream just melted in your mouth. Granted... I guess that's what ice cream is supposed to do.
2.) Smoked Fish Brioche: This was amazing, just a little roll of smoked fish which was truly delicious, though a bit hard to handle. We would soon learn the breads here are just bonkers
3.) Tartar of "Iberico" Ham, which was maybe my favorite of the four, just a little roll of pork tartare, which I didn't really know was a thing. Once again the presentation for this little bite was just perfect.
4.) Piparra Mitxelada: Not sure where the idea came from to have a michelada (traditional mexican drink) in the menu, but it was made using a basque Piparra pepper, which was a little sweeter and less shocking than a normal michelada (read: better)
After the picnic, we were taken into the kitchen, a giant space with far less noise than you usually see in kitchens, even in restaurants like these. I have to say, the kitchen was pristine. Anyway, we were brought to a table up front to get some truffles.
5.) Truffled Meringue: probably the best small bite in the start of the meal, but just a nightmare to hold and get a picture of. It had just the perfect amount of truffle and everything else in it was perfect. Just a stunning bite.
6.) Vermouth Marianito: this tasted fine, quite sweet, and drinking up the foam ("air" they called it) was nice, but in the end of a bit more style than substance.
7.) Truffled Egg: this was a lot of style but with more than enough substance. When we entered we saw a chef take a syringe and pull out some egg from the yolk and then inject a truffle sauce. I have no idea the chemistry behidn this. It seemed like magic. But it worked, and it was great.
The last pre-table part was being taken to the "greenhouse" which was set-up with five little bioramas on the sides all set up for further dishes. Again the presentation here was just ridiculous.
8.) Daiquiri Rose: it tasted and looked great, but the best part is the surprise. We were first taken to the little display of roses where they poured a rose water smoke which was great. Then, the chef just plucked five roses which happened to be the iced daquiris. That was something.
9.) Fermented Apple: this was a very pungent cider - a bit of a mixed bag and oddly two of the group had a far blacker color than the one I had.
10.) Grilled & Roasted Red Mullet: The presentation here was great but honestly this was the one disappointment. It still tasted great but it is the only thing on the menu I could make. I'm a good cook, but I couldn't dream of making anything else. This? This I could - probably not as good but a reasonable facsimile.
11.) Smoked salmon roe and mori with lemon zest: this I couldn't make, so delicate, so zesty (that little bit of lemon zest worked wonders), so good.
12.) Kapiritxa: They called it a "surprise", a little red ball with flowers on top that would explode in your mouth. It for sure did and they never told us what the surprise was. This was probably my favorite of the greenhouse dishes and the second best overall in this pre-table part of the meal.
At this point we were finally seated at our table, with a clear view of the kitchen through its floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
13.) Summer Leaf: This was dried tomato turned into a leaf, which tasted a bit too much like tomato for me to love it, but was just a stunning little piece of decoration initally put on the table as the centerpiece.
14.) Asparagus: though it was asparagus three ways, no idea what the ways were. This was one of the best vegetarian bites I've ever had. I like asparagus, I have no idea how this was asparagus, why it was, anything. Just mesmerizing.
15.) Spider Crab burger: again a bit of a nightmare to hold but just really tasty with the softest, tastiest bread that would make a reappearance very shortly.
16.) Bilbaina Fish taco: this was excellent, fish tartare, little purple edible flowers (the edible flowers here was just mastery all around), with just a perfect crunch.
17.) "Limon Grass" which was a little foi gras of lemon (what?) inside of a lime, with again just perfectly placed little flowers. This was just a bonkers idea, again I am just in awe of the consistent creativity at these places.
18.) Sea Txakoli: which was some combination of txakoli (basque white wine) and chocolate in a little tea like substance. No idea how this worked but the chocolate was so subtle and good.
19.) Idiazabal "Shortbread": Which was a cheese bread with a little cute sheep printed on it. So adorable but so cheesy, with just a fantastic, salty aftertaste.
20.) Marinated langoustine & caviar: maybe the simples dish (I guess in theory I could do a reasonable version of this). The one thing that I could never get was how buttery soft and sweet the langoustine was. The green citrus sauce was also "lick-your-plate" tasty.
21.) Tempura oyster with olive juice and flowers: Ok, this was just a brilliant dish, presented on an upside down bowl. The idea was to take the oyster (2 bites), run the olive 'juice' (really some ash like thing) and the flowers together and dig in. It was incredible. Probably my favorite single dish in terms of both presentation and actual taste. The actual olive juice in a cup was also so smokey and great.
22.) Shrimp with gelatinized vegetable juice: I have no idea how the presentation works here. The gelatin veggie juice was so still, but lightly nestled the flowers and shrimp. Again the shrimp here was just perfectly buttery.
23.) Cod tart: This was another brilliant one, though a bit messy. Cod is so much better in the Iberian Peninsula (both here and Portugal) than anything I can conceive of back home. The dish here just had a fantastic, smooth taste.
24.) Roasted lobster with pepper juice and purple onion: The lobster is great, obviously, but for me the real star were these crunchy little 'purple' onions, which is an ingredient I want to work with immediately.
25.) Hake "kokotxa": So first they served us just an empty plate and then a guy came aroud with a pan and poured a piece of hake collar and a thick sauce on top. It was very "homey" for a 3-star restaurant but tasted so good. I truly wish I could have a whole pot with some rice.
26.) Iberian Pork, idiazabel cheese bonbons and pesto: this was the most 'traditional' in a sense but was just perfect. The pork was velvety soft. The cheese bonbons were a delight. The pesto was just the right level. Just a great way to end the main part of the meal.
27.) Iced Mojito: This was a wine based mojito made live from mojito granita, flowers and other stuff. Just a great idea, though in the end, all it was was an iced mojito.
28.) Herb infused curds and honey: just a delightful little scoop here, with a great combination of the honey foam and curd cream below. I'll say this, Azurmendi deserts were as good as the rest of the meal, including the continued amazing use of flowers.
29.) Black olives and cocoa: Olive apparently is a key ingredient here, with an olive ice cream and other little chocolate bites. Just a perfect way to end the meal.
At the end, Azurmendi probably is still below Gaggan for me, but I probably have it above Maido on sheer quantity and audacity. It was a once-in-a-lifetime type meal, one I would hope to have again one day. I posed photos on Instagram during the meal, and to my surprise head chef Eneko Atxa liked them during the meal. That was the cherry on top of just a perfect experience.
