It was a real mixed bag for us on Monday night (sans Sergio).
Drinks were very good.
Stuffed Tomato was wonderful
Croquettes - decent
Tortilla St Jean De Luz was a complete mess, just a runny barely cook omelet, looked nothing like the @PorkyBelly image. But the sauce was lovely.
Large format chicken dish was tasty but I doubt it was even 1/2 a chicken.
Pork neck was completely “blah”
The Gilda pinxto (olive, anchovy, pickled pepper) was delicious.
The jambon pinxto was not a high grade jambon. Total joke of a pinxto.
Overall I wouldn’t go back unless there are great reports of improvement. Feels like the guy gives his name and ideas but no attention to follow thru, but I’ll be happy to be proven wrong because the ideas are there. And the last night of a holiday weekend right after debut is not the best time to assess.
Argh mixed reporting I have a reservation Friday!
Looking forward to your report (and crossing my fingers for you).
I have reservations for 5PM Sunday and need to cancel…scheduling issues with my companions.
still really enjoying cafe basque even though no sergio in the da house (but there was a @Hungrydrunk in da house). standouts were the bluefin tuna, calamars, talo, croquettes, duck, rockfish ttoro and chicken. the beef tartare and cheesecake were just fine.
our tortilla was a bit runny like @CiaoBob’s but the flavor was still there.
@rlw and @hppzz power rankings forthcoming?
tomates farcies - stuffed tomatoes with olive pine nut, fennel pollen
tuna á l’huile - bluefin tuna, espelette oil
so flavorful and love the touch of crunchy finishing salt on top.
seriole mariné - local raw kampachi, cider vinegar
talo - quail egg with eggplant
croquettes - mushroom & sherry
calamars - fried squid, sauce tinta
squid was perfectly fried, crispy and tender. the dipping sauce is great too, i was expecting a dank-earthy squid ink that i’m used to but it tasted bright.
tartare de boeuf - traditional condiments
a bit under-seasoned, it was just fine.
tortilla de st. jean de luz - potato, onion, & egg red pepper purée
grande salade - egg, artichoke, sweet pepper, tomato white anchovy, olives, px vinaigrette
canard grileé “souvenir d’Irouleguy” - grilled duck breast, almond purée, traditional cherry confiture
i thought the almond puree were robuchon potatoes they were so rich and creamy. duck went great with all the ingredients combined.
poulet basquaise - chicken with ham, tomato, onion & peppers
california rockfish ttoro - traditional stew with squid, mussels & shrimp espelette & saffron
squid was a highlight in this dish too, super soft and tender. pro tip, order some bread to soak up all the broth.
gateau au fromage - basque cheesecake, blackberries
Coming off a number of bangers at the end of December, I didn’t have high expectations going into Cafe Basque (it’s a hotel restaurant, didn’t seem to have a ton of press buzz, it’s the first week of January…) but wow was I really impressed.
The restaurant wasn’t really busy when we walked in, though it did gradually fill up to maybe 75% by the time we left. So this could sneakily be one of the better tables available right now.
POWER RANKING
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Tuna á l’huile - bite of the year (so far)
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Talo - shocklingly good
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Tomates farcies - if this is this good with out of season tomatoes just wait for summer
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Canard grileé - small but mighty and the potatoes were like 75% butter
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Calamars - the sauce was really interesting
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Rockfish ttoro - fish was so well executed, but the failure here was that they didn’t leave the broth and we immediately had to ask for them to bring it back
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Seriole mariné - it’s a crudo but a really good one
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Croquettes - tasty but I’ve had better
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Poulet basquaise - the QPR here is not strong, but I LOVED how crispy the skin on the chicken turned out
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Tortilla de st. jean de luz - as @PorkyBelly mentioned, the flavor was great (especially the sauce) but the tortilla was too runny for my liking, and doesn’t seem how it is represented in their photography…
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Grand salade - this is going to sound really annoying but when I get giant leaves and need a knife to cut up my salad I’m just like why am I putting in extra work to eat my vegetable?
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Tartare de boeuf - yeah pretty bland and not enough potato chips. Asterid’s beef tartare may have ruined all other tartares for me though
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Gateau au fromage - I wish we didn’t order this and I could pretend that it was still good. It was cold and the flavor was just like any other new york cheesecake (I just had a proper basque cheesecake from Ernest a couple weeks ago and that absolutely made this a damn shame)
Overall, there are like 11 things here I would order again, so I’ll definitely be going back. The bar set up looks ideal @butteredwaffles
except it was almond, who knew?
maybe I’ve been spoiled by pasjoli but I want my basque cheesecake runny like epoisses and bulging in the middle like my waistline. where’s the bulge? I want my bulge.
Both the tortilla and basque cheesecake sound typical of what I had in San Sebastian! The OG example of the cheesecake from La Vina isn’t runny like epoisse, although it’s not as charred on the top. However the Cafe Basque example does look overcooked which would disappoint me too. La Viña cheesecake - Luxeat
I will express my preference for Dave Beran’s version at Pasjoli/Dialogue too. La Vina’s is very well executed, but it’s a no frills execution. I believe the traditional recipe uses a pretty standard cream cheese and it’s recent enough that this is the original way to do it.
Tortilla I’ve had in the region is generally not solid inside, although it doesn’t run too much. It’s usually less cooked than what they show in that Cafe Basque PR photo. Good example here Remarkable Places To Eat S1 Ep4 - San Sebastian - YouTube
May not be to everyone’s taste, but it seems true to the regional execution.
no power rankings because I agree w both @rlw and @PorkyBelly sentiments. But you guys did miss the bread and butter. While the bread was a fine rustic sourdough, it did come out piping hot. The herbed butter was delicious–and even elicited a tinge of angst and regret when @PorkyBelly realized the staff had cleared it away with tiniest smidgen left.
For those who remember the classic “Cheese Shop” sketch:
Nice! Bummed I couldn’t make it. You drink anything good?
didn’t see it like this anywhere in the Basque. Fake basquers are taking it to the structural limit? lol
There’s no traditional recipe, Santiago Rivera invented it. He told us he uses Philadelphia.
La Viña, a restaurant that opened in San Sebastián—the Basque region’s capital city—60 years ago, serves an improbable tarta de queso . Its blackened top, surrounded by a flutter of burnt parchment paper, hides a center the texture of soft custard. “It breaks all the rules of the porcelain-white, even-textured cheesecake [Americans] know,” says pastry chef Bea Vo, who’s based in London and has had La Viña’s cheesecake at least a dozen times. “It’s proudly tanned and even burnt in spots, with a rough, pillowy edge and oozy center.”
There’s something ugly-but-beautiful about its appearance, but everyone who has tasted it agrees that it’s spectacular. A slice of it looks like a wedge of triple-crème Camembert, with a rough exterior and a middle that puddles on the plate. That darkened top adds a mysterious, but highly enjoyable, flavor akin to salted caramel or browned butter, with an added complexity and alluring tang from the milk solids in the cheese, which caramelize at high temperatures.
Let me restate as “original recipe” then.
This is what our order at La Vina looked like where the center is not baked hard, but not liquid. Not to be too pendantic, just saying that a runny center is not mandatory for a basque cheesecake and it’s not necessarily a knock against an execution if it’s not runny. There’s a clear textural difference from the center and the edge and this was the best version I had in the area with a great caramelized flavor.
