{"id":893,"date":"2015-05-29T14:33:03","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T06:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/?p=893"},"modified":"2019-02-03T17:38:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-03T09:38:26","slug":"mugaritz-fun-but-a-bit-strange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/29\/mugaritz-fun-but-a-bit-strange\/","title":{"rendered":"Mugaritz – Fun but a Bit Strange"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Sebastian’s Michelin two-starred Mugaritz gets polarising reviews and I wanted to find out why so I went recently to try out the restaurant. The best way I would\u00a0describe the food is that it’s exploratory and really tests diners’ boundaries in some cases. So, while I didn’t enjoy all the courses, I really had a good time because on the whole it was fun. The wine probably helped in this case as did going with open-minded and adventurous friends.<\/p>\n

\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Mugaritz’s\u00a0pretty patio \u00a0– desserts and coffee were served here as it was a nice day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The restaurant is\u00a0degustation \/ omakase (no a la carte) only, with our lunch comprising around 21\u00a0courses and three different desserts. It sounds like a lot but each course is largely bite-sized. The cost of the meal was\u00a0EUR165 per person. Most of the other diners\u00a0there were like us, visitors from other countries. I can imagine that Mugaritz is not the type of restaurant that one frequents regularly so it wasn’t that surprising that there weren’t many locals there.<\/p>\n

\"Mugaritz\"<\/a>
Prepping in one of the kitchens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mugaritz is\u00a0around 20\u00a0minutes drive in the hills in San Sebastian’s outskirts, and this gives the restaurant a beautiful setting. It has its own garden, which they encourage visitors to walk around in, and a very pleasant patio where we had dessert and coffee. So for those who smoke, the patio is a welcome retreat.<\/p>\n

\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Part of our Petit Fours<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Service was friendly and enthusiastic\u00a0– it’s nice to see wide smiles from the team. One of the highlights was being able to see the kitchen. Also, we had arrived with all our luggage and the team helped store this for us during lunch. The sommelier was very helpful and\u00a0his recommended\u00a0wines (we asked for local wines) went well with the meal. In fact, the kitchen adjusted the order of our courses to best compliment\u00a0the wines we had ordered.<\/p>\n

We started with Rafael Palacios’ As Sortes 2013, a crispy Galician white; and followed this with two good Catalonian reds -Espectacle del Mont Sant 2010\u00a0and Rene Barbier Manyetes Clos Mogador Priorat 2002. We ended with a\u00a0french champagne –\u00a0NV Savart Premier Cru L’Accomplie Brut – to go with our dessert.<\/p>\n

In the end, I am glad I came. It’s a unique experience although\u00a0there’s probably not enough of the food that I liked to entice me to\u00a0return again. But, if you’re adventurous, I think it’s worth a try.<\/p>\n

Contact Mugaritz:<\/strong>\u00a0http:\/\/www.mugaritz.com\/en\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Our Meal in Pictures:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Cockscomb with spider crab paste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Dry sausage with tomato and olive tapenade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Trio of fishes: left to right – Squid with tapenade, Sardine, Scallop and mussel terrine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Fresh baby peas tempura<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Mediterranean sea urchin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Chicken skin, corn tortilla and banana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
A macadamia based starch with caviar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Smoked eel, mousse, flowers and an edible (sugar) fork<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Spider crab set in a milk cream base served with a spoonful of cayenne pepper (pepper not pictured)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Goat cheese and artichoke<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Danish oysters omelette with coastal herbs and sea beans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Catfish tongue in fritter – served while we looked in the kitchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Hake fish with mochi and ricotta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Mackerel in a beetroot and wasabi sauce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Garlic in a lamb sauce<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Wafer with bone marrow, which accompanied….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
…a bovine jelly (hmm…)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Beef cheek with herbs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Smoked lamb with fermented lime, lemon and tempeh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Milk whey ice cream-cheese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Unusual dessert – made of macadamia and a caramel tasting cod fish reduction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Peanut, marzipan and hazelnuts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Final dessert – my note taker forgot this one!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Mugaritz petit fours – seven types to go with the seven deadly sins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Another of the deadly sins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mugaritz<\/a>
Beautiful chocolate – the last of our Petit Fours<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Sebastian’s Michelin two-starred Mugaritz gets polarising reviews and I wanted to find out why so I went recently to try out the restaurant. The best way I would\u00a0describe the food is that it’s exploratory and really tests diners’ boundaries in some cases. So, while I didn’t enjoy all the courses, I really had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,1,104,20],"tags":[43,37,96,81],"class_list":["post-893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-home","category-michelinstar","category-spain-greece","tag-featured","tag-michelin_star","tag-san-sebastian","tag-spain","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":938,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions\/938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gazeandgraze.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}