eMe Be Garrote

Attentive service, sensational food flavour combination and good wine pairing! Accommodating to a dish change on the tasting menu, unfortunately the wine was not paired to the new dish... stick to the tasting menu formula for the best experience! (One little additional feedback would be to perhaps to check if the oil has been oxidised before deep frying... this was not picked up by my dining companion so I suppose it is only applicable for those who are sensitive to oxidation.)

Absolutely excellent experience at eMe Be Garrote. We had the tasting menu with wine pairing and it was all amazing. Service was perfect. They accommodated one of the people in the group that would not eat meat. Really enjoyed our time. Can’t wait to come back for more.

Amazing experience! Great food at the tasting menu and extremely professional staff. Every thing ve've tasted was super tasty, but the most spectacular and surprising thing we've tasted was the desert with lemon ice cream.

The restaurant is up a hill about a 12 euro cab ride from Playa La Concha. We arrived at 9pm on a Saturday and the atmosphere was slightly funereal: there were only a few tables occupied, and no music playing, and waiters dressed in black stood facing the tables. It was a shame, as the interior was otherwise smart, airy and full of character, thanks to the giant cider barrels. They had an à la carte menu as well as a tasting menu and the food was all very good. My only complaint was that the t-bone steak (cooked beautifully rare to medium rare) was served with mash and nothing else (how about something green guys?) The wine list had an excellent range of prices and we chose a rioja at 35 euros. Overall the bill was 148 euros for two, before service.

This is our second visit to this exceptional restaurant. This time they perfected their previous tasting menu. Everything we had was superb. If I must single out a specific thing, it was the beef tartar. It was the menu highlight in my opinion. I absolutely do not understand/support people’s comments with regards to service, which was flawless. Martín Berasategui’s passion for food comes through not only via food but also via restaurant’s great interior. Highly recommend.

Very good food prepared with care. Excellent service, attentive but not imposing. Great room with cosy decoration, no music. Harmonious flavors

I highly recommend this restaurant if you’re in San Sebastián, everything we wait was delicious. Their scallops were superb. Don’t miss going here!

Great example of extraordinary Basque Cuisine! Everything is well done. The tartar beef is perfect and the low temperature cooked yellow made with precision.

I will preface this by saying I am not an expert restaurant reviewer, and this is the first time I have really eaten at a restaurant of this stature. We were about 45 minutes late, but were still able to keep our reservation which was very nice of them. We had the tasting menu and it was extremely interesting. I enjoyed most of it, and I am a very picky eater. They made sure to accommodate my nut allergy as well. My fiancée enjoyed all the plates. Check out the pictures for examples, but the menu will most likely change. We also got a bottle of cider which was very good as well. The atmosphere was a bit intense, fairly quiet. The servers were sometimes a bit quiet in explaining the dishes and sometimes I couldn't hear them. I would definitely recommend Eme Be, and the tasting menu.

Our best meal in San Sebestian - and a steal at the price (45 euros per person with affordable wines). Would highly recommend making the trek here. The meal: -started with amuse bouche of creamed sardine with a fried cheese bun (I am clearly butchering the very eloquent descriptions provided). Served with fresh, sour fermented bread with two types of jammy olive oil and salt. A creative start, and I gotta add it was pretty photogenic -first course was barely cooked lobster on a 'salad' and bed of lightly flavored gel. This was a dish enjoyed more for the textures than the volume! -fennel beads were surprisingly creamy and delicious -the egg yolk nestled on a bed of bright green sauce was rich and tasted decadent. My favorite of the first three courses -cow's cheeks main course - so tender and a huge chunk of meat. It was a pleasure to dig into a more 'traditional' or familiar dish after the earlier few courses! -French toast dessert - very sweet flavors and mix of textures (the crunch of the creme brûlée layers of the toast, the bitterness of the coffee ice cream, and smooth tart compote). This wasn't particularly inventive but was a comforting dessert and end to the meal The space is expansive, quiet, with very attentive service. It felt like a 2 Michelin starred restaurant instead of a 1, or perhaps just a more traditional 1 Michelin one. We completed an uphill climb and were welcomed by the chime of bells from the sheep grazing just across from the restaurant - this was a contrast even from the sleepy scenic beaches of San sebestian

Unfortunately Martin Berasategui's main restaurant is closed during most of the winter and early spring, so we instead made it to his newer 1-starred Michelin restaurant a little outside the heart of the city center of San Sebastian. On a Saturday night, we were nearly the first folks to sit down just after 8:30 PM. The restaurant itself is in a gorgeous space; it has the look and feel of a restored barnyard that celebrates what feels like a bygone era, especially with all of the retro bicycles that adorn the walls (along with the old moped at the front when you check in). Rustic wooden finishes are everywhere, and there's also a giant barrel that sits in the middle of the room (I am unsure if anything is actually in it - I didn't see anyone tap the barrel while we were there). Of all the high-end restaurants we went to in Basque country, this one felt the most 'local' - I think we were the only non-locals eating there that night, and the English of the staff was definitely a cut below the other spots - and at some point, the servers did not even bother trying to explain which bites we were eating on our tasting menu. The language barriers maybe helped me by accident, though, as I ordered a glass of red and ended up getting a bottle - but only being charged for the glass at the end (despite making my way halfway through)...so hurray for getting lucky by accident or by finding a place that gives you a nice bottle of wine for under 20 euros! The only other nit on the service would be at the end, when it took us more than 30(!) minutes to get the check, even after we had asked for it. I have to guess it's largely cultural - Europeans love to take their sweet time once dinner gets towards the end - but given how late dinner starts, it would have been nice to leave a bit earlier. You have the option of ordering a la carte or going with the tasting menu; we ended up going with the latter, and it was well worth it to experience the delicious tastes of the region across 7 courses and a handful of starter bites. One of my favorites was our starter dish - a sardine-infused paste that had some pickled vegetables in it...an interesting texture to eat alone but very nice with the bread that was brought over to the table. The raw oyster served with chlorophyll from watercress and a soothing kaffir was a very cool, clean bite to start off the main courses with. The marinated salmon is served on a beautiful glass dish shaped like a fish, with the chilled tomato confit pairing really nicely with the smooth creaminess of the salmon. If anything, I wish the dish had been a little bigger, as there were only a couple of small slices of the salmon itself. The poached egg here, heretical as it might be, was better than the version we had at Arzak - served in a ham-based broth and covered with a few strips of Iberico as well, this was a decadent celebration of one of the most recognizable flavors - delicious cured meats - that the area is known for. The grilled hake was very well-cooked, but what made it even better was the translucent slice of pig jowl overlaid on it, adding a rich juiciness and all the salt you needed to a perfectly flaky slice of fish. The T-bone steak (the final main) was very good, but as someone who's had many an amazing steak, this didn't impress me as much. My wife's substitution of their risotto dish with mussels was very pleasing and stood out quite a bit more, in my opinion. The desserts were solid overall - the pre-dessert was a granita of sorts served with a macaron, while the main dessert was ice cream served with hazelnut bites and a whiskey-infused sauce...definitely the better of the sweets. Even if the restaurant felt less accessible, I still came away from the meal very impressed and delighted with not only the presentation but with how many of these dishes, in unique ways, highlighted the excellence of the Basque flavors. Given its relative affordability to other higher-end restaurants, it's a place I wouldn't have hesitated to come back and try dishes a la carte during the same trip if I had more time. I can't compare it to Mr. Berasategui's main restaurant yet, but eMe Be Garrote still stands on its own as a delicious spot to dine at in its own right.