Amelia (San Sebastian)

After dining at Azurmendi and a few days of pinxtos (and too much foie gras), we dined at Amelia by Paulo Airaudo. Initially we only planned to visit one of the two but as I couldn’t decide, we decided to splurge and do both. I went in with high expectations as a review on here from half a year ago sounded like this would be right up my alley in terms of flavours.

Location/ambience:
Amelia is located in Hotel Villa Favorita right next to Concha beach. The hotel also houses a cocktail bar that is a bit pricey but has a happy hour from 16.30 to 18.30 which we made use of on a different day.
The restaurant is in the cellar which is quite unusual for a fine dining restaurant (except in Japan) but it fits the vibe of the restaurant well, which I would describe as sushiya meets dive bar. The dining room has only 3 tables and an open kitchen with counter seats. The restaurant is full of pop art and geek collectibles: walking down the stairs a Pulp Fiction neon sign points the direction to the Ghostbusters entrance door. Inside the theme continues with a painting of Darth Vader and a Homer Simpson Super Saiyajin figure greeting the guests (among many other pop culture collectibles). The scent of the charcoal-fired basque grill fills the air and rock music plays in the background. We loved it.

Service:
After missing Eneko at Azurmendi, I was a bit disappointed to see that Paulo was also not present. However, that was more than compensated by the great service and food. The service was flawless. We expected the service to be in English but one of the sous chefs spoke our mother tongue and ended up taking care of us for the rest of the night: introducing the ingredients and dishes, answering questions, joking around, etc.. This gave the experience a special warm and personal touch that we greatly appreciated.
There was a recent post about a strange experience regarding denied toilet breaks and being rushed by staff to finish the meal but we didn’t experience this: We got a key card at the beginning but were asked to let the team know in advance if we wanted to use the toilet so that the kitchen has a chance to adjust for this. We could always go when we indicated it and also didn’t feel rushed throughout the meal. So at least for us, this wasn’t a problem.

Food:
The tasting menu starts with a consommé and the introduction of the ingredients basket. While this has become more common amongst fine dining restaurants, we still really liked the explanations, especially for the more exotic ingredients. It made the following explanations of courses easier to follow. Here it already becomes clear that the focus is on sourcing the best produce available, if that means sourcing locally, fine, but if it means importing beef from Japan, lobster from Scotland, etc. then no compromises are made.
We were offered the option to substitute the pigeon for A5 Wagyu for an extra 74€ (rather steep, even for A5 Wagyu). My wife chose to do so, whereas I happily declined, having had more than my fair share of fatty meat in the form of foie gras pinxtos on the preceding days. What followed was a fantastic sequence of seafood dishes, each tasting great.

Wild trout roe tartlet
Palamos prawns
Kamatoro, Wasabi, Kristal Caviar
Langoustine in champagne sauce
Ricciola sashimi with tomato essence and sea grapes
Chawanmushi with king crab, barnacles and Iberian pork broth
Lobster, Pumpkin, Puffed rice

Can’t really pick a favourite dish amongst them. This reminded us of the Jordnaer courses at Zilte x Jordnaer in the best of ways but with a distinct Italian touch on some of the courses.

Next came the meat course:
Pigeon with onion and zucchini
I really enjoyed the pigeon even though it’s usually not my favorite meat. I tried my wife‘s Wagyu version and while I think it was nice, I enjoyed the slightly gamey version of this dish more and would not pay extra for the Wagyu version. My wife disagrees here, rating the Wagyu course her favorite course of the menu.

Last main was the Cappelletti(?) with potato, oyster, Vine Jaune, and truffles. Great finish for the main courses.

Next came a palette cleanser made with sake and blood orange which was delicious and refreshing.

First dessert was cheesecake made with goat cheese. Loved it myself but my wife is not fond of goat cheese and found this edible, as the goat flavor is mild, but would not order this a la carte.

The last dessert was caviar with rum ice cream and banana mole. Absolutely incredible. Might be my favorite dessert ever (probably tied with the white truffle ice cream dessert from Jordnaer).

Last came the petit fours (and the Darth Vader whisky gum as take-home gift):
Lemon Tart
Turron
Dark Chocolate & Soy Sauce
White Chocolate & Kefir Lime
Pistachio

All were great.

We were also asked if we wanted some coffee or tea and were presented with the different teas that they offered and different coffee beans to smell. The coffee came with a description of the flavor profiles and recommended style of preparation (V60, espresso, Flair 58, milk based). As coffee enthusiast, I loved that they provide you with some options here. The espresso was the best espresso we had on our trip to Spain (but the competition was unfortunately not very strong). I added a Port Charlotte to close the evening.

Pairings:
For drinks we started with cocktails and then chose one Amelia and one non-alcoholic pairing. We are not wine experts but for us the pairings worked really well. Besides wine, the Amelia pairing also includes 2015 Dom Perignon, a great local cider, and a special ipa, exclusively brewed for Amelia (the non-alcoholic pairing has a non-alcoholic version of the beer). The non-alcoholic pairing had some interesting juices/ferments, a non-alcoholic IPA, and sparkling tea, which I had never tried before.

Damage:
In total we paid ~1050 Euros for two. This includes 2x tasting menu, 1 Wagyu, 1 Amelia and 1 non-alcoholic pairing, 2 cocktails, 1 Scotch, 2 espresso, 1 bottle of water

Verdict:
Our favorite restaurant so far. Compared to the 3* restaurants we visited in the last weeks (Zilte x Jordnaer, Azurmendi, Noor), this was on par if not better food-wise. We really enjoyed the counter experience and vibe of the restaurant. Would be surprised if they don’t get a third star in the near future.

As for a direct comparison between Azurmendi and Amelia: We are glad we went to both but they are quite different experiences. Both are great restaurants, but on the margin, I’d suggest Amelia if you value consistency, focus on the food, and counter experiences. On the other hand, choose Azurmendi if you value the more theatrical side of fine dining and a stronger connection to the region and environment.