Restaurant Review - Martin Berasategui

An unlikely setting in a residential area, with an airy dining room, a tiled floor and plenty of space; it has rather odd bottle-green walls of the style in old London private clubs.  Amuse guele turned out to be the highlight, with excellent gazpacho, a little tuna on tapenade,  a local cheese with bacon and a single clam served in its shell with aioli (8/10 for amuse-bouche). 

The cooking here generally aims at traditional Basque, which has a tendency towards gelatinous textures.  As in Chinese cooking, these appeal to some but not generally to those used to more conventional foods (such as me).  I found a liquefied prawn and scallop jelly therefore interesting but not especially enjoyable (3/10, but perhaps this is the very finest liquefied prawn you will taste?).  A cube of puff pastry with smoked eel, spring onions, foie gras and apple was more enjoyable, the odd sounding mix of ingredients providing a quite effective set of contrasts (7/10).  However smoked salmon in a cream broth with a couple of egg yolks tasted exactly as it sounds i.e. there was no obvious relationship between the relatively pleasant but very ordinary ingredients (3/10). 

The local speciality, hake cheek with pil pil sauce, is supposed to contain garlic and chilli, but in this case did neither, just retaining the gelatinous texture with none of the balancing spice (1/10? but pretty nasty).  Turbot was more classically prepared but cooked for too long, with a simple pistachio and cream sauce (5/10). 

An apple pie and ice cream was a relief, but quite ordinary (5/10) while chocolate fondant with caramel and cinnamon was also reasonable but still only 5/10.  Bread was home made and excellent, and service was faultless, but this is a most difficult meal to mark.  Really I found it just 5/10 and would not wish to return, yet this now has three Michelin stars, something I find almost incomprehensible.  On the bright side, wine is priced as fairly as usual in Spain, with Vega Sicilia Unico at around £100 i.e. retail, and a Pedro Ximines sherry from 1827 (no typo!) at just a few euros a glass.