Basque Country
Hills, coast and Europe's densest cluster of starred kitchens.
The Basque Country is the corner of Europe where food is talked about most and argued about least. San Sebastián has more Michelin stars per square kilometre than any city in the world, and the pintxos bars of the old town are still where the evening begins.
The landscape behind is green and folded: hills with sheep on them, caseríos — the Basque farmhouses with their wide roofs — and a coast that between Zarautz and Getaria ranks among the Atlantic's most beautiful.
In one of those caseríos, in the hills near Errenteria, Andoni Luis Aduriz has cooked at Mugaritz since 1998. It's the restaurant that divides opinion — which is exactly why it's here.
The Basque Country isn't a region. It's an attitude to the table.
We come to the Basque Country for one evening that justifies a journey. Mugaritz is such an evening: not always comfortable, never arbitrary, a new menu every year. You go there to have an opinion. Sleep in San Sebastián or in one of the villages along the coast. The house we'd sleep in, we're still looking for — suggestions welcome. Mugaritz is open May to October. Book months ahead.
