Mugaritz, 2* – San Sebastian, Spain (June 2025)

On my recent trip to the Basque Country in Spain, I thought I'd bite the bullet and dine to one of the most notorious and "strangest" michelin starred restaurants in the world. This restaurant has always piqued my intrigue, so in a sense, it was a bucket list destination for me.

Mugaritz probably doesn't need too much introduction, as most serious foodies, and those who dine frequently at fine dining establishments will most likely have already already heard about the restaurant's notoriety and reputation.

But, for those who aren't in the know yet: all you pretty much need to know about this restaurant can simply be summed up by taking a glance at a few of the reviews that were left on both Google and Tripadvisor. It can be said that this restaurant pretty much ranks the lowest and is deemed amongst it's peers to offer the poorest experience when it comes to michelin star restaurants – like seriously, I've struggled to find another fine dining restaurant of this calibre with so many consistently bad reviews, whether those be from the aforementioned channels or by popular blog sites and well renown food critics.

When it comes to eating here, there are generally two different camps of people – those who genuinely somehwat enjoy the intellectual and challenging nature of the restaurant – and those who genuinely despise it and believe it produces some of the worst food known to mankind.

When it comes to what I personally thought about my meal here – I'm going to be completely honest: while I never enjoyed the food as much as I would've, and found it quite lacking compared to it's peers, I can't lie that I unironically enjoyed this restaurant way more than I was anticipating, and thought that the food was overall just okay to pretty good. I saw many of the negative reviews online about this restaurant, and was honestly terrified (thought I'd end up leaving early or even end up puking), but I'm glad that in my instance. whether I was lucky or not to book during a "good" season, I genuinely thought the food was quite decent and very interesting.

I had also seen a few of the other posts about restaurant on here which made me even more anxious and worried about what my experience was like, but I'm glad that those reviews turned out to not be reflective of my time dining there.

The food genuinely surprised me, I won't lie. While there some goddamn awful dishes such as the leek or apple courses, they served me some of the most mindblowing and perfect desserts I've ever had – which is incredibly ironic, considering this restaurant has never served any proper desserts before. I was simply there at the right place, and at the right time – you could say I got very lucky with the season I decided to come and visit at, since from what I've seen elsewhere, other seasons look way less tame and lean more heavily on the extreme and experimental.

The menu:

1. Courgette flower (not pictured): Simply a courgette flower that was plain, but had some special tratment done to it to change the texture. It was quite mushy, but rather tasteless.
2. Celery stalk: A piece of celery that had some kind of vinegar drizzled on top. This was actually quite nice as a little opening snack. Crunchy and refreshing, with some nice acidity.
3. Oyster: This was the first "proper" course I had. The two opening snacks were eaten outside in their patio, meanwhile this was served inside the restaurant at the table. It was pretty much an oyster that had been placed in some kind of viscous alcoholic gel/sauce – I believe that the alcohol was vermouth? but I'm not too certain. Overall, the dish was quite interesting (conceptually), but the balance was all over the place, and it mainly just tasted like alcohol and an oyster. The alcohol was extremely strong and overpowering and barely let you taste the oyster – the mucous texture of the gel never helped either.
4. Butter: The presentation for this next course was very Mugaritz-esque and was meant to be an arm in which you lick this butter that had some pieces of nuts and some sea salt in it. If I'm being honest, the butter itself was quite addictive and I wouldn't mind eating this every day by spreading it on some bread.
5. Chicken and tea: Basically, a chicken-based chawanmushi with strong tea accents and garnished by tea flowers. Very interesting combo that worked surprisingly well. Think strong umami and earthy flavors, with some bitterness of the tea. Quite simple, but overall very nice.
6. Assortment of different "earth" based dishes: Next up were 4 different plates, each one representing a different part of those ingredients that we find/get from the earth/soil. One of them had a honeycombed texture and was made of enoki mushrooms, I believe. Another was a "mat" of sprouts that was covered by some red powder and had tow different strong spicy sauces – it was probably the most interesting one both texturally and terms of flavor, very changing and complex despite the simplicity. There was also some nori that had been cooked or had something done to it to change its texture (maybe fermented?), which I thought was actually delicious and the best of the four. The finally one I don't remember much, but was some mushroom based dish too.
7. Four species of mold: This is another of these Mugaritz-esque dishes that people will either hate or love. I personally loved this, as it was a fun little experiment where you got to taste four different species of edible molds. In the picture you'll see all of the names. If you're a big fan of strong punchy flavors (like me), then you'll have fun with this course. One mold in particular was amazingly sweet and had these complex and deep tropical fruit notes which i adored. Definitely one of the more memorable courses.
8. Two different cucumbers: Pretty simple – on the left you have your regular run of the mill cucumber – only this time, they had effectively cured it and let it ferment, this led to a very interesting and gummy/chewy texture. Not my favorite, but not bad either. The second type of "cucumber" – the one on the right – was actually a sea cucumber that had been fried. I thought the batter was way too thick, and that the sea cucumber was honestly quite bland and nothing special.
9. Soup course (not pictured): Long story short – two different tables came together to "create" a soup based dish using different and weird ingredients at the start of the meal. The soup itself was quite good, I won't lie. Nice interactive and fun experience.
10. Tuna bonemarrow: These two dishes were both sea based – on the left there was a dish of tuna marrow – taken from its spine – in some kind of fish stock. It had an interesting and gelatinous texture and the overall flavors were not bad and quite nice, very umami driven and salty. The seaweed cracker thing to the right was also interesting and very ocean-driven with big salty umami flavors.
11. Lobster course: I forgot to take notes about this course, but it wasn't bad, just not memorable or anything particularly noteworthy.
12. Mushroom millefeuille: Mushrooms that had been laminated and innoculated with mold, along with some cream in order to resemble a mille-feuille, it came with an olive sauce. This was interesting, but the overall textures and flavors were a miss in my opinion – something just felt off.
13. Leeks: This was (and will) probably go down as one of the most disgusting dishes I've ever had. You had to scavange for this dish inside a pile of dry leek leaves. It was honestly borderline inedible – tough papery and chewy outside, gluey and disgusting interior, bland, insipid. Nothing I ever want to eat again. It stuck to the insides of your mouth and was not pleasant to eat at all.
14. The cycle of an apple: Another contender for one of the worst tasting things I've ever eaten. On the right you have an apple sprout in some kind of apple syrup – this was just okay, and pretty much what you'd imagine – however, on the left, there was an apple that had been innoculated with mold and had god knows what else done to it. What made it inedible was both a combination of the overall texture, the fact they left the core and seeds inside!!!, and the flavor. Everything was just not good about it and it was an awful and unpleasant eating experience – never again.
15. Their interpretation of a pil pil: Some kind of fish in a pil pil sauce with some walnuts – I believe there was something special about the sauce itself, but I cannot remember exactly what. It was cooked nicely, but the flavor was just lacking – could do with a lot more seasoning.
16. Steak course: This is the first dish dish that was part of their "meat" course – i pictured them separately for clarity. Honestly, this was one of the best dishes of the night, and one the most memorable ones. Pretty much like a gourmet version of fuet, it was like some cured sausage/meat type thing. Really good texture and melt in your mouth with very good flavors.
17. Steak course pt 2: The second dish was basically a piece of very rare steak on top of another piece of meat that had been nicely and crisply deep fried. You just can't go wrong with this, and I'm glad it tasted as good as expected (very good).
18. Foie gras croissant: Exactly as it sounds – pretty decent but nothing too memorable.
19. Chestnuts: My notes aren't very descriptive, but I remember it was this chestnut based dish with a chestnut syrup drizzled ontop which i thought tasted quite nice. My notes state that the chestnuts themselves were quite bland and tasteless.
20. Caramelized connective tissue: Not entirely sure whether it was connective tissue, but it was something along those lines – very gelatinous interior, and very sweet exterior. Interesting flavors and textures, but not to my liking.
21. Bee themed courses (not pictured): I believe there was some "dehydrated" scallop or something that had a honey sauce, plus some flower petals with crushed up bees. Nothing to really write home about.
22. Bread dessert (yes they actually served "real" desserts during the season I went): This course actually caught me somewhat off guard since Mugaritz has legit never served a proper dessert afaik. The concept behind this dessert is pretty simple – they simply wanted to do what they had vowed to never do – serve bread and a dessert at the restaurant. From what they told me, they had recently shot a TV series where they enlisted help from some famous pastry chef, and where this exact dessert was featured on. Basically, it was a regular vanilla ice cream (no gimmicks) on top of a bread cream. Very simple, but oh my god – so addictive. I won't lie, this is one of the best desserts I've ever had. It was such a genious combination – the toasted and intense bready notes worked so well with the ice cream and the rest of the components. Truly an unfogettable dish – it was a masterpiece in my view.
23. Chocolate mousse: Another hit! This was as classic as it gets, a very very well executed (and perfect) chocolate mousse. No "Mugaritz" flare to it, just a simple chocolate mousse. This was also perfection in my book – amazing balance- amazing texture, absolutely delicious. This was actually a "hidden" item since it wasn't a part of the menu and was served alongside their infusions as I waited for my taxi.

So yeah, my experience at Mugaritz was not at all what I expected it to be. I'm very glad I went and never let all the negative reviews deter me, because I believe that if you go to this restaurant with an open mindset and don't simply focus on the pure "deliciousness" of the food, who knows? you might be pleasantly surprised by a few of the courses.

But as I mentioned earlier: I do believe that I was simply VERY VERY lucky though. From what I had seen elsewhere, and from what had happened during other seasons (literally listening to the sounds of sheep baaa'ing), and the lack of eating and licking stuff from plates that resemble human faces, etc. I think I chose the perfect season to come and dine at the restaurant.