I love fish and I love to grill: So Restaurante Elkano had been on my list for quite a long time. So a visit to the wonderful basque country led me to Getaria.
Getaria is a small city on the Atlantic coast – being there you should absolutely visit the Christobal Balenciaga Museum. But on this day, my goal was this:
Entering the restaurant, I passed by the impressive grill that already gave some wonderful turbot and lobster a hot time. The restaurant itself is very old-school, charming but not modern with a mix of locals, foodies and tourists.
As an amouche we were served a small piece of wonderful creamy, soft and clean monkfish liver with a perfectly grilled crust. A glimpse into what was to come…
As a starter we chose „Kokotxas“ (the fatty lower jaw part) of hake in three preparations: fried, grilled and al pil-pil. It was very interesting to taste and feel the difference the preparation made. While the fried ones were juicier, the grilled ones had a more smoky meatiness and the pil-pil where soft and rich. A wonderful dish that made my lips stick together of all the tasty collagen…
At Elkano – of course – we had to have turbot. They serve Turbots from the sea of Bizkaya, which are considered to be among the best of the world. Luckily they also just had season…so we expected a lot 🙂 The grilled beauty of 1.2 kg was brought to our table…
…and then professionally (and incredibly quick) filleted.
You can see the thick fillet and the incredibly juicy meat. The quality was amazing, beyond any fish I’ve ever eaten. The nutty and clean taste of the meat together with the fire’s arome made it just perfect.
While we ate the manager came and helped us in filetting more parts of the turbot, including neck, eyes, cheeks and bone marrow – explaining the speciality of each „cut“. I loved this nose-to-tail approach, honoring and enjoying every part of this wonderful fish.
We dipped our bread in the wonderful juices, that were thick and sticky from the collagen, enjoying the beautiful taste. In the end only a few bones remained.
After the fish I had a tooth for something sweet. Though the zuppa inglese was a bit strange, liquid and eggy with a hint of vanilla. Next time I would just have another small portions of shrimps as dessert 🙂
The petit fours were nice and would have been just enough to make my sweet tooth happy.
Elkano ist most definetely a restaurant for product lovers: The seafood we had was out of this world and perfectly prepared. The bad thing: I will be craving for this turbot the rest of my life…
Visit: May 2018
Michelin stars at time of visit: *
Budget: 110€/person (including champagne, water and tip)
Location: 5/10
Service: 6.5/10
Food: 7.5/10
