Asador Etxebarri

As soon as I applied to Basque Culinary Center, I started researching the dining scene in San Sebastian, not a difficult task considering Donostia is known for having the highest concentration of Michelin-starred restaurants in the world. I was excited to find Asador Etxebarri because, despite it’s ranking as the 10th Best Restaurant in the World, it seemed like they were using straightforward and traditional cooking techniques to serve honest food. What really did it for me was the Bon Appétit article “Etxebarri Was the First Meal in Ages That Made Me Cry” where Christine Mulke explains “The food wasn’t trying to be anything other than it was.“

Sign me up. Except that I couldn’t sign up. Three months in advance and every.single.day was already waitlist-only. I put myself on the waitlist for the 5 consecutive days that my parents were visiting, also my first week in Spain. They love food as much as I do but will never go out of their way for a fancy meal unless someone else (me) plans it. They still talk about the whimsical dessert box at Can Jubany. And so their time in San Sebastian came and went, and while we had an incredible lunch at Elkano, I was a bit sad we couldn’t go to Etxebarri together because I had a feeling they would love it.

As I was wishing my parents a safe flight back from Madrid, I received a text from a client whose Peru trip I was planning. They were on their way to San Sebastian. I knew this because on one of our Peru planning calls, we realized our Basque country dates overlapped and agreed to meet up for pintxos. One these calls we also shared our respective restaurant recommendations and commiserated over our waitlist status for fancy meals. I opened the full text to see that the moon and stars aligned and they got into Asador Etxebarri. They knew I was dying to go. Would I join them? omgyes