DONOSTIA-SAN SEBASTIÁN - BAR iBAi - Now iBAi by Paulo Airaudo

The restaurant is now iBAi by Paulo Airaudo ONE MICHELIN STAR (new 2025)

We have not been to this new version yet, this is the Michelin Guide review This centrally located restaurant, which was a popular name in local cuisine under the baton of chef Alicio Garro, has reinvented itself and has had a new lease of life thanks to award-winning chef Paulo Airaudo, who brings with him his personal vision of classic recipes.

The bar at the entrance is still here, serving tapas made on the spot, and is perfect for an informal glass of wine. Added to this is the small dining room in the basement, featuring six impressively sized tables, each of which comes with its own “cupboard”. The cuisine, which comes courtesy of two tasting menus to which you can add different appetisers and starters, has a clear market focus, with the aim of showcasing time-honoured Basque cuisine through dishes such as the spectacular grilled Carabinero prawns as well as the five hake cheek “kokotxas” (two battered, two grilled and one confit).

BELOW IS A VISIT TO THE RESTAURANT IN ITS PREVIOUS GUISE

A fantastic old School Restaurant, run by an old Basque couple serving the very best produce from whatever is available at the market that day, in a basic set menu form.

You enter by the ground floor bar, which always seems empty

and are then taken downstairs to the small traditional room

You will be offered a menu from what is fresh from the market that day, we had......

Bogavante salpicon (lobster)

Verdura (artichokes, borrajas, and baby peas, in a vegetable broth)

Hongos (mushrooms)

Kokotxas de merluza (hake throats)

Lenguado (sole) - Probably the best you will ever taste

Postre

If you visit the restaurant in autumn you will find angulas (elvers/baby eels).

In early summer, the special is likely to be tuna belly, but it does change on a daily basis.

The small traditional room only has seven tables, serving mainly locals and no English is spoken whatsoever.

They now have a wine list, in the past, you just selected from the shelf or told them the wine you wanted. Most are priced below British retail prices which is nearly always the case in Spain, a bottle of Contino 2005 was €30.