It is just good fortune that we are able to get a reservation at Atrio. We turn left out of our hotel and there it is. We go in and ask if there is a reservation available for Friday evening. Sorry, no, they say but they take our name in case there is a cancellation. Around 1:30 PM the phone rings in the room. They have had a reservation cancellation and what time we would like to come? Not being Spanish we say 9:00 PM. Excellent the person on the phone says. We open at 8:30 PM.
John and I get dressed in our “good outfits” and head over to the restaurant around 9. Amazingly we are not the first people there. One other table is populated. Soon another large group of Americans comes in and then some Spaniards start to drift in. By 10 PM the restaurant is full.
Tonio, the chef, comes over to our table. He wants to know what we like and do not like. Are we allergic to anything? We decide on the tasting menu and he sends the sommelier over. We decide to have him pair the fish dishes with a regional white wines and the meatier dishes with a regional red wine. We sit back with a glass of champagne ready for our culinary adventure.
This is perhaps the best meal we have ever eaten.
First is an amuse bouche. This consists of a red meringue cookie with caviar sandwiched in between. It is so fleeting and light that it is difficult to assess.
Tapas #1 is a small square consisting of layers of pate of fish, cream cheese, and anchovy on top. The textural element is hazelnut and there is a microgreen and a chrysanthemum petal on it. It is very good.
Tapas #2 is one of the best small bites I have ever eaten. It is described as foie capuccino with mushrooms and crispy corn. What it is is a small cup of deliciousness. It is kind of a mushroom and corn pudding with foie gras and parmesan foam. It is served in an espresso cup. I want to lick out the inside of the little cup. Wow.
Having now been spoiled by the tapas, what else could measure up? Maybe this next course could. It is shrimp carpaccio with a sour cream and caviar salad.
The tapas and the shrimp carpaccio are served with a Payva Caytena 2010.
We change white wines to an Alunado Chardonnay 2009. The wine has a start like a buttery California chardonnay and finishes more like a French chardonnay. We like it a lot.
Our next small dish is an Iberian pork ear, calamari, green salad and curry. The texture of the pork ear mimics the texture of the squid. This dish is in close running for the best dish with the foie capuccino.
The next dish consists of an Iberian pork cheek crisp and a lagoustine in a creamy duck sauce. Maybe this is the best dish. Oh, it is all so good.
Now we change wines to a Basangus Crianza 2008 which is 100% tempranillo. It is paired with sea bass in a sauce with three varieties of wild mushrooms. This is good but not as fabulous as the other dishes or maybe I am just getting full. In any case I forget to take a picture.
The final dish before the cheese and dessert courses is pork shoulder, grilled foie gras, corn crisp and watercress puree and peach sauce. In his note John has written – Why foie? Because it is delicious. We cannot identify the peach sauce so it must be irrelevant to this dish.
The cheese course consists of a sheep cheese torte and sheep cheese ice cream with quince marmelade. I am definitely not a fan of the sheep cheese ice cream.
With dessert we have a M.R. Montain Wine – Moscatel 2009. It is sweet and bitter kind of like the taste of burnt sugar on a creme brulee.
Dessert is yougurt ice cream on grated cocoa. It’s okay but I am not a dessert fan.
The dessert star, in my opinion is an astonishing faux cherry with faux seeds and a chocolate stem. It was palate cleansing and a perfect final bite.
But of course they couldn’t stop there and we had a bunch of petit fours that we didn’t eat. The cherry was the perfect end.
So there you have it, an almost perfect, fabulous dinner.