Ezkia

Passing through Bidart? Head over to the restaurant run by lovebirds Marine Poughon and Olivier Henry (both of whom trained at Guérard in Eugénie-les-Bains), which they opened in what used to be L’Antre, without changing the décor (a Basque red façade, exposed stone walls, padded banquettes, a semi-open kitchen…). Here you’ll find Ezkia’s chef making Basque cuisine vibrate, using carefully sourced ingredients (fish from Saint-Jean-de-Luz, vegetables from the Bastelica family, poultry from Maison Garat) and intense flavors. The day we went for lunch, the five-course menu included: an intoxicating poached oyster on a bed of sunchoke purée, doused in a shellfish jus and sprinkled with grated walnuts and burnet; incredible line-caught, flash-seared mackerel surfing on red onion confit and a white wine sauce with fish fumet, juniper and garlic, all dotted with watercress sprouts; impeccable oven-roasted wild sea bream served with tender gnocchi in a lemon sauce, minced sage, slivers of bottarga and chickweed; before a massive baba au rhum with Madagascar vanilla cream sprinkled with candied orange peel and paired with a blood orange sorbet. // Gérard Roubeix