And if someone then informed you that the meal that it comes with includes a 900 gram steak between two, you would move mountains to get there wouldn't you? Yes, yes you would.
Nix and I are gun jumpers. Those people that are always just a bit too keen and end up at a restaurant/bar/cafe just as it's opening and manage to get in the way of everyone setting up. Once again we jumped the gun at Petritegi cider house and ended up just sort of swanning around in the entry until someone could take us to our table. Let the experience begin.
We were told to grab a glass each, squeezed onto the end of a table that was already reserved and were soon tucking into chorizo a la sidra (chorizo cooked in cider). But there was one main problem, where was the cider?
Petritegi is self serve you see. Yes, not only do you get a bottomless glass of cider but it's also self serve. You quite literally catch your own cider. You CATCH your own cider.
Let me expand on that. The waiter brought out our chorizo and then blankly stared at our empty glasses for a second before saying, "you want cider?". We want cider? Does the Pope shit in the woods?
He pointed us towards the cider cellar and said "just go in there". Off we nervously trotted knowing what we were about to have to do. With the room empty apart from the cask attendant we had no one else to watch to give us a few pointers on how to do this.
Cider from the Basque region of Spain isn't carbonated so in order to attempt to liven it up a bit you've got to break the cider on your glass from as far of a distance as possible. Which results in you doing something like this.
What also results from that is arms and sleeves and shoes getting covered in cider in the process. Nix and I hadn't really coined onto the Spanish saying of 'a little bit often' yet and proceeded to top our glasses up before the attendant pointed out that we're just supposed to pour ourselves a couple of fingers worth. Whoops.
Anyway, we headed back to our table covered in cider and let the food avalanche engulf us. First up was the traditional bacalao omelette followed by a massive slab of fried bacalao with peppers but these two dishes just whet your appetite for the main event.
The main event. A massive t-bone steak cooked to Nix's idea of perfection - still very mooey on the inside. So much meat, so much satisfaction. This feed is a carnivore's delight. We both left Petritegi pregnant with little meat babies after nomming this beast.
All throughout these courses we're wearing a trail back and forth between the cellar, by which point we're gaining a better understanding of 'a little bit often'.
After the meat course dessert comes cheese with a massive chunk of quince paste, walnuts and cigar biscuity things. A fine end to an epic food marathon.
Following all that food, the only logical thing to do is drink enough to ensure that you soak up some of that food. That's the saying yeah? Close enough.
Petritegi is one of the few cider houses in Basque country that can offer unlimited cider all year round. The twenty odd 11,500 litre casks that reveal themselves when you enter the cellar drive that point home really. More reason to drink up.
It's later on in the afternoon when things really kick off. The cider begins to flow, and I mean flow as in they turn on the taps and they do not stop, the traditional Spanish drinking songs begin and things get a bit raucous in the great European way where everyone pushes themselves to their really merry/almost drunk threshold but carefully straddle the line and nothing gets out of control.
There was a point late in the afternoon surrounded by cider shooting off in every direction that we realised that we were having a travel 'moment'. This is why you travel.
We swayed down the road, made friends with pigs and goats, and snapped multiple merry selfies. This was a great day.
One Michelin Star too many
Sorry to bring it back down a bit here.
We ticked the box but left disappointed. This one meal at Kokotxa cost as much as just about all of our pintxos hunting put together. We know what we'd prefer.
The food was good but not great, as was the service, and it just didn't have that super crisp, next level sort of feel that you'd expect from a place that has a Michelin Star. You win lots and you lose a couple. We can't complain too much.
And that was San Seb...
P.S. it appears that some people haven't been able to comment properly on here for a while. Have a crack through the new plug-in below please!
