The Reservation: A new family-run restaurant in Europe’s food capital.
While sun seekers flock to southern Spain, those in the know are going to the country’s wild north to visit the Basque Country, where the weather forecast is less reliable, but the food scene is among the best in the world. At its epicenter is San Sebastian, a dot of a city that all but sparkles with Michelin stars.
The newest star in that line up was awarded in late 2025 to Itzuli – a restaurant from Basque Country native, Iñigo Lavado. A short drive out of town in the hilltop village of Igeldo (with amazing views on a good day, and literally none on a cloudy one), Itzuli opened as the flagship restaurant at the five-star Hotel Luze. But, while this is undeniably a new project, it marks something as a homecoming for Iñigo who began his career in San Sebastian, before opening his first solo restaurant, Restaurante Iñigo Lavado, in the town of Irun, close to the French border. He returns with a team that has been at his side throughout his career.
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A family business, Iñigo’s partner Arantxa Martínez and fellow Basque native oversees the management of the dining room, and their eldest son Julen manages the wine program, armed with a sommelier degree from the Basque Culinary Center. His two younger siblings, María and Iñigo are also both studying at the culinary school, but pick up weekend shifts in their parent’s restaurant. The wholesome family element is far from just easy marketing fodder, and easily translates to the guest experience. Although Arantxa’s handshake greeting is formal, her accompanying “Welcome to our home!” is anything but. Several hours and even more courses later, the restaurant matriarch bids farewell with a kiss on each cheek.
Iñigo’s food has a similar character. Tasting menu only, on paper (and in its avant-garde plating), it looks high-brow. But start eating, and you’ll find familiar flavors in even the most complex dishes. Basque roots is a running vein, as is creativity. There are two menus: the first, Luis Irizar, is dedicated to Iñigo’s late mentor and one of the founding fathers of New Basque Cuisine; the second, Cocina de Emociones, is an exploration of his own personal and professional development.
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Julen’s accompanying wine pairing deftly bounces around Spain (and some other parts of Europe), prioritizing small-scale, organic producers, and is clearly not intimated by his father’s menu. The combinations are bold and fun: perhaps a unusually still glass of local Txakoli with a a jellied lobster salad; a 1996 Kerner Spätlese with a deconstructed pina colada, complete with coconut foam and pineapple chunks; or a zesty sherry-aged Palomino accompanying a fat Normandy oyster with pickled vegetables and Iberico jus. Nods to the family business continue: with the spiced whole pigeon comes a glass of 2005 Remelluri Reserva Rioja, chosen for the year Julen’s father first opened his restaurant.
Itzuli’s crowd is mixed – there are the vacationing American couples in sneakers, inevitably drawn to Itzuli’s star power, but also intergenerational family tables, as well as groups of lunching Spanish ladies, apparently there for a birthday. At lunchtime mid-week, virtually every table is full. The space itself was designed by local interior designer Iñaki Biurrun, who captures the family’s playful take on fine dining. The tables are laden with perfectly pressed linens and there is a sense of ‘proper’ service, but swimsuit-clad sculptures along the wall (and used in plating) help stop Itzuli from feeling overly formal. It’s a carefully struck balance, suggesting the Lavado family knew exactly the kind of place they wanted Itzuli to be from the very beginning.
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