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12 restaurants in Spain you need to dine in least once in your life

For globe-trotting foodies, this is the ultimate bucket list: the best restaurants in the world chosen for their elegant dining rooms and delicious cuisine.

Published: 8 August 2019 09:01 CEST
12 restaurants in Spain you need to dine in least once in your life
Amelie Vincent with Joan Roca, one of the 12 restaurants in Spain she included in her book. Photo: The Foodalist

In a new book, 150 Restaurants You Need To Visit Before You Die (Lannoo Publishers), foodie, author and influencer Amélie Vincent, travels the world to choose the best dining experiences and of course that included a stop in Spain where she chose 12 Spanish eateries.

Six of them are located in the Basque Country, another four in Barcelona and one in Girona, and the last in Madrid.

Let’s take a look ar her choices.

Etxebarri in Atxondo, Basque Country


Photo: Anders Husa

Writing about the chef Victor Arguinzoniz, Vincent writes “He is one of the most respected and inspiring chefs of his generation using exclusively the fire, live coal. And embers from oack and vines to cook the very best of the regions ingredients.

Nerua in Bilbao, Basque Country


Photo: Andoni Epelde

Housed in the legendary Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, overlooking the river, Michelin starred Nerua serves innovative Basque cuisine in a sleep contemporary setting with fresh white walls and swirl-backed chairs.

All the audacious dishes by Chef Josean Alija are served on simple white plates with just two or three ingredients, using Mediterranean produce to which he is not afraid to add unusual flashes of inspiration, like green coffee essence, pumpkin seed praline and ‘spicy marzipan sand’.

Mugaritz, Errenteria,  Basque Country
 


Photo: José Luis López de Zubiría / Mugaritz
 

“You will be surprised by dishes that make sounds and appetizers that melt in the mouth,” writes Vincent on her reason for including this restaurant on the list.

“Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz’s philosophy is to balance his theatrical instincts with technical cooking and to touch on all of the senses by playing with perceptions,” she writes.

Elkano in Getaria,  Basque Country


Photo: Amelie Vincent
 

“The best time to visit Elkano is in April or May,” writes Vincent, “when wild Atlantic turbot is at the peak of its season and you can hear chef Aitor Arregui’s passionate stories about the fishing season and the work they do with the local fisherman.

Azurmendi in Larrabetzu,  Basque Country


Photo: Amelie Vincent
 

Perched on a  hillside, Azurmendi tells the story of the Basque Country’s finest produce through an all-encompassing culinary experience.

“This environmentally friendly restaurant recycles its own waste, as well as harvesting rainfall and cooling itself using geothermal energy,” she writes.

Arzak in San Sebastian,  Basque Country


Photo: Amelie Vincent

Another restaurant in the Basque Country, this time in San Sebastián, Vincent says “It is beautiful and quite unique to watch a father and daughter combination in a kitchen.”

El Celler De Can Roca in Girona, Catalonia


Photo: Amelie Vincent

Celler de Can Roca the Catalan restaurant has scooped the title of Best restaurant in the world several times, and maintains three Michelon stars is not surprisingly on the list. Run by the three Roca brothers, who blend their skills of chef, pastry chef and somellier, it is considered one of the best restaurants in Spain.

Disfrutar in Barcelona, Catalonia


Photo: Adria Goula

Disfutar meaning enjoy in Spanish is a beautiful Mediterranean restaurant in Barcelona, with clay ceramics and a white dining room that flows out onto the terrace, referencing the small fishing villages of Catalonia.

It is here where you can enjoy the spheres that look exactly like olives but which are filled with mandarin flower essence, a famous dish inherited from El Bulli.

Enigma in Barcelona, Catalonia


Photo: Pepo Segura

Albert Adrià, brother of world-famous chef Ferran and former El Bulli chef is behind the restaurant “located in a majestic space that combines Japanese minimalism with vintage science fiction, Enigma is definitely not a conventional restaurant.

“Diners do not remain static during the unique experience: they move through the seven  distinct dining spaces, each one with its own theme, from La Plantxa, featuring a teppanyaki-inspired set up with a flat-top grill, to the 41º cocktail bar.”

Hoja Santa in Barcelona, Catalonia


Photo: Amelie Vincent

“Hoja Santa is the perfect place to discover the savour of cactus nopal juice mixed with an oyster, pinapple, lemon and olive oil”.

Another restaurant opened by Albert Adrià, here Mexican chef Paco Méndez showcases the very best of what contemporary Mexican cuisine has to offer, thanks to his experience at El Bulli and Tickets.

Koy Shunka in Barcelona, Catalonia


Photo: Pedro Cortacans

“At Koy Shunka, local products are prepared in an inventive Japanese way,” writes Vincent of this gourmet Japanese eaterie in Barcelona's Barrio Gótico. “The main selling point is the produce which is precisely cut and cooked with purity and simplicity”.

DiverXO in Madrid


Photo: DiverXO

The author warns that “to book one of the 30 seats at DiverXO, the hottest restaurant in Madrid, is  not without challenges.” But those luckily enough to secure a reserveration “will have a surprising Spanish-Asian arty performance in a wittily decorated room.”

For more take a look at the '150 Restaurants You Need to Visit before You Die', Amélie Vincent, € 25,99, published by Lannoo Publishers and available HERE

 

 

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FOOD AND DRINK

Why do they pour cider like that in Spain’s Asturias?

The green northern region’s drink of choice is cider but it’s the method waiters have of pouring it from a great height that catches the attention of ‘out-ciders’.

Published: 29 February 2024 15:40 CET
Why do they pour cider like that in Spain's Asturias?

They say Asturian blood is 50 percent water and 50 percent cider, and given the 40 million bottles produced every year in the region, it doesn’t seem too hard to believe.

However, it’s the method of serving cider in Asturias which really captures the imagination. 

The bottle will either come attached to a contraption which sucks up the cider and splurts it into a wide but thin-rimmed glass.

Or the waiter will come out every few minutes to grab your bottle and glass, lift the former high up with one arm and the latter down low around waist height before pouring some of the cider into the glass from at an arm’s length. 

There’s even a verb for this action – escanciar – to decant.  

The objective is for the cider to be shaken and aerated so that its natural carbon dioxide ‘awakens’.

When it is poured from above and hits the glass, carbon dioxide bubbles are produced that make the aroma of the cider come alive.

It’s good and normal for there to be splashback when pouring Asturian cider, but the aim is still to get most of it in the glass. (Photo by MIGUEL RIOPA / AFP)

These bubbles go away quickly so once served, the customer should quickly drink the culín (small bottom) up in one swig. 

The action of escanciar imitates how cider would be traditionally served when it went directly from big oak barrels to the glass, as cider has been the drink of choice in Asturians since before Roman times. 

READ ALSO: Why Spaniards’ habit of drinking alcohol every day is surprisingly healthy

This is after all natural cider which doesn’t come with the sugar, additives and pre-carbonated mixes of brands such as Strongbow, Magners or Kopparberg.

“It took me some time to get the hang of pouring cider, I missed the mark a lot, and my arm used to get very tired at first,” a Latin American waitress at a bar in Gijón told The Local Spain. 

Many sidrerías (cider houses) and restaurants have cylindrical tubes on wheels where escanciadores (the waiters in charge of pouring cider) can put the glass in to avoid making a mess on the floor or splashing customers, as there is always some splatter even if they don’t completely miss the mark. 

A waiter pours cider for customers at a cider bar in the northern Spanish city of Oviedo (Photo by RAFA RIVAS / AFP)

The more old-school chigres (cider house in Asturian) prefer to have sawdust all over the floor to absorb the spilt cider.

To pour, tirar (throw) or escanciar (decant) cider like an Asturian, you should tilt the bottle slowly from above and aim for the cider to hit the top part of the inside side of the glass, which has to be held at a 45-degree angle. It’s this that brings out the effervescence out in la sidra natural.  

So when you visit the beautiful region of Asturias and you tuck into their famously ample servings of fabada asturiana (Asturian bean stew) or cachopo (meat, cheese and ham all together in breadcrumbs), washed down with one or two bottles of sidra, now you’ll understand what’s behind this eye-catching tradition.

READ ALSO: Eight fascinating facts about Spain’s Asturias region

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