San Sebastian is home to the freshest and best seafood in Spain and has no fewer than ten Michelin-starred restaurants. A local speciality and something the town is particularly famous for is pintxos, the Basque equivalent of tapas. You can find the best restaurants and pintxos bars in the Parte Vieja neighbourhood. And that was where I visited Casa Urola two years ago. My wife and I sat outside and I introduced us to the owner and head chef Pablo Loureiro. Soon we were chatting about food and he told us about his philosophy and cooking technique. Pablo started out at the famous ‘Rodil’ restaurant in Donostia-San Sebastian, founded by his grandfather and later run by his parents, where he was steeped in traditional Basque cuisine. By mid-2012 he had a burning desire to run his own restaurant and develop his vision of traditional Basque cuisine and this drove him to embark on his own professional project with his wife Begona Arenas. He cooks on a charcoal grill, which is difficult in a kitchen because, as he explained, it is like ‘a double-edged sword’, meaning that if you use good quality products it intensifies tastes such as umami, making the dish stand out with a great texture and flavour, but if you have mediocre products it emphasises the bad flavour. This is why he sometimes orders fish and meat twice a day! With this amount of care and attention, it is no surprise that, quite honestly, everything you eat is sensational! From oysters in Iberian bacon, cream of cauliflower, broth of sea crab and lemon zest oil to house-salted anchovies and white tuna ‘ventresca’ with grilled red peppers. The hake loin with cheeks and clams was my absolute favourite – I have never experienced such a soft, delicious and extremely tasty dish. Bravo! No wonder Casa Urola is called the ‘Hidden gem of Donostia’. Can’t wait to go back.