Restaurante Kokotxa

Basque fine dining done properly

Oyster, fennel, txakoli

Within San Sebastian's old town, there are so many great choices for good value, high-quality food. But what if you want to take a break from the casual pintxo bars, and up the game with a proper Basque-style fine dining experience? There are a few Michelin restaurants in San Sebastian to pick from, if you can't be bothered to travel and keep within the city itself, then without a doubt Kokotxa would be my no 1 pick easily. The restaurant's dining room is nothing fancy or formal, but the food offering here is outstanding. I only revisit the same fine dining restaurants if they are really special, and Kokotxa happened to be one of them.

Spider crab, coral, jalapeño

Sebass, passion fruit

Tuna belly,  Arbequina pil pil, tomato

Lobster, green beans, Iberian bacon

The restaurant only serves 2 tasting menus (short and long) using the finest local ingredients with a heavy focus on seafood. One of the stand-out dishes for me was the oyster with fennel, a lovely classic combination, but with a twist of adding txakoli jelly to make it so refreshing and light. The lobster and bacon was an interesting dish and somehow worked really well as the bacon acted like buttery seasoning for the shellfish, while the lobster itself was really sweet and fresh. The best was saved last in the form of the Bresse pigeon, super tender and moist, with just the right level of earthiness and bitterness, the miso aubergine acted like an umami seasoning and added an extra layer of richness to the dish, it was truly wonderful. 

Octopus, kimchi, daikon

Roasted hake and garlic

Bresse pigeon, aubergine-miso, summer truffle

Coffee, vanilla, Brandy

I really enjoy how Kokotxa not trying to be too creative or going for crazy decor or fancy food presentation, with full attention, went into ensuring cooking prime ingredients to get the best value from it. When a restaurant does a tasting menu with so many dishes, you likely will find some dishes you might not enjoy as much. That is not the case with Kokotxa however, I enjoyed every single dish, they were all either great or really outstanding. This is easily a 2 Michelin stars level restaurant if I compare it to UK restaurants. 

Food 4.5/5

What I paid: 
140 Euro per person with wine

Average cost without drinks and services:
88 Euro

Calle del Campanario, 11, 20003 Donostia-San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa, 20003 Donostia, Guipúzcoa, Spain

http://restaurantekokotxa.com/