Travel Series: San Sebastian, Spain, "Inigo Lavado"

Avda. Iparralde, 43

20302 Irun, Gipuzkoa

+34 943 639 639

After walking across the bridge from France to Spain, we headed over to Inigo Lavado for lunch.  The building looked a little out of place and as we walked in, there was a cafe type area.  The bottom floor is a concept called Singular and they serve a 12 euro set lunch menu from Mondays to Fridays and 19 euro set dinner menu on Thursdays and weekends.  The lunch is composed of a starter (choose from 10-15), main course (choose from 10-15) and dessert (choose from 8).  Basically you order your food, pay for it, then it gets served to you at your table.

Before lunch, Chef Inigo held a demo to show us how to prepare all the dishes we were going to be served.  He was a very charming and animated Chef with a lot of charisma! When I asked him whether he plans on expanding and opening more restaurants, he answered that he only wants this venue because he doesn't want to own many locations and not physically be at all of them.  But he hopes for his ideas and philosophy to be adapted by others so they can open restaurants based on these concepts.  He described his food as cuisine with personality based on traditions.  He believes in simplicity and utilizes local and seasonal ingredients. 

For the amuse bouche, we had a deep fried (in olive oil) bread dough with jamon Iberico and egg inside.  It is a play on breakfast and supposed to be eaten in one bite.  The yolk was still runny (I definitely noticed the quality of eggs in Spain- they were like eggs in Japan).

The appetizer was Milhojas de Foie y Manzana Caramelizado con vinagreta de mostaza y yogur con manzana verde (a millefeuille of foie gras and caramelized apple with mustard vinairgette, yogurt and granny smith apple).  This was a surprisingly light and refreshing foie dish and the acidity of the yogurt and granny smith definitely cut the fat of the foie.  This is one of his signature dishes. 

 

Jardin de Verduritas de Temporada (Garden of seasonal vegetables).  I did not have high expectations for this dish because I have had similar salads and they typically look good but taste quite bad.  But this salad was actually very flavorful and all the different components were compatible with each other.  The chantarelles were delicious! The black dirt is referred to as "tierra de cebolla" or onion dirt. 

This was Chef Inigo's play on pil pil, which is a traditional Basque dish made by emulsifying olive oil with the fat from the cod.  This cod was fried with an egg white batter.  The dish was good but I personally would have liked a little more acidity (maybe lemon) with it.

This was the dish that I was looking forward to the most! Cochinillo asado al horno (oven roasted suckling pig).  The skin on my piece was not crispy so I was a little disappointed, but I got to try someone else's crispy skin and it was amazing.  The meat was very trendy and fluffy.  

The first dessert was an amaretto ice cream (with praline at the bottom) with white chocolate soup and raspberries.  I don't really like white chocolate but this dessert was delicious!

The last dessert was a grilled brownie.  I don't think I would have liked this brownie all that much had it not been grilled but the char from the grill added a slight bitterness to the dessert that I really appreciated.  The cocoa powder was mixed with spices.

With Chef Inigo!