Mugaritz, San Sebastian | Spain

Mugaritz Restaurant is located on the outskirts of San Sebastian/Donostia, Spain and is considered one of the best restaurants in the world. San Sebastian in (Spanish) and Donostia in (Basque), is an absolute must for food lovers and chefs. They are famous for their small, bite size, complex, bar finger foods, pintxos. You can call them tapas as well.  You walk into a bar and on the bar is a buffet of small bites you can enjoy. You are handed a small plate and you eat as much as you can and the bartender surprisingly keeping track of everything everyone eats.

Since I was already in San Sebastian it made sense to make the effort to visit the top restaurants. Mugaritz and Arzak and  are the most famous in this area. I failed to plan ahead and was not able to get into Arzak 🙁 which is ok because that meant spending $300usd at each restaurant per person. I will save Arzak for another trip.

The trip to Mugaritz starts by taking a taxi drive 20 minutes out of the city center into the country. I was such an eager beaver that I was the first to arrive and arrived too early. Luckily, like French Laundry, Mugaritz has a back yard filled with herbs, vegetables and fruits that they use for their menu. Once the staff spotted me, they invited me into a cozy lodge, served me champagne and had me relax until the table was ready. A few minutes later I was taken into their finishing kitchen, greeted by the staff, introduced to the chefs and given a special treat. It looked like a chocolate macaron and when I finished it they unveiled what it was: a macaron made with pork blood instead of egg whites. My mother often speaks about drinking pig blood when she was younger. When a pig was freshly killed on the farm, they collected the blood and drank it. I am not quite there yet but if I was going to consume pig blood, forming it into a delicate french macaron is certainly the best way for me to do it.

You don’t really get a menu until the end and even when you get the menu it’s more riddle and poems than an actual menu. The title of the dishes are below each photo. The entire meal lasted 4 hours and even though each course is tiny, it is difficult to eat everything.