#testingmenu

Having been to Ametsa last year on a special offer, I was keen to go back but a bit wary of the price tag. The set lunch for £29 offers an indulgent experience and is worth every penny. Of course, if you add lovely wines on top (as I always do), it can add up, but the wines are not over-priced (£8 will get you a glass of velvety Hito Ribera del Duero)

The official title of the enterprise is ‘Ametsa with Arzak Instruction’ meaning it is a collaboration between Elena Arzak (Veuve Clicquot World’s Best Female Chef in 2012) and with her father Juan Mari Arzak, and Mikel Sorazu, Igor Zalakain and Xabier Gutierrez. The one Michelin Star Basque restaurant is located at The Halkin in London’s Belgravia

I loved the modern yet approachable design (including test tubes of spices suspended from the ceil-ing), and the fact that one wall is all glass overlooking a garden. It’s a slick operation, their system obviously alerts them when a customer has been there before, so they said ‘welcome back’ which was a nice touch

I started with a Marta rose Cava (2013) while eating the pumpkin and sourdough breads with nutty olive oil to dip it in

Next came a trio of starters: gazpacho with chillies and olives, pequillo peppers in salsa and crispy vermicelli noodles with asparagus in a sweetcorn chowder. Everything beautifully presented. I washed this down with a class of oak aged Viura, able to stand up to the chillies

Main course was a creamy dreamy mushroom rice (more akin to a risotto than a paella) with a spicy pepper sauce garnished with goji berry mock chillies – really cute and tasty – with a side salad of root vegetables. This course felt like it needed a glass of the Ribera mentioned above

Dessert was chocolate mousse-like ‘emeralds’ in green with aniseed biscuits held together with cream cheese, accompanied by a super sweet pruney Jerez. Then complimentary after dinner choco-lates shaped like grapes