It’s been a while. September flashed by, swallowed up by the intensity of returning to work for a new term and the endless business of finally settling into our new home. This visit to IBAI, back in August, was to celebrate finally completing on our flat and my partner’s 39th birthday. I scraped the remnants of wall paint off my fingernails, threw on a dress and we took a break from decorating to enjoy a Basque feast at a place that has been on my list all year. It did not disappoint.
Ever since returning from a trip to the Basque Country in February, I’ve found it difficult to get excited about steak in London. I will say that I’m a big fan of Blacklock for a reliable, well-priced chop house, but Basque steak is a different breed entirely. Quite literally. The region has a serious claim to some of the best beef in the world and its steakhouses have elevated the cooking of mature beef over fierce charcoal into magic.
IBAI takes this tradition seriously, bringing a taste of northern Spain to London with a menu built around exceptional produce and that charcoal cooking. It isn’t a cheap dinner. You’re looking at £100+ a head if you want to enjoy it properly. We’d spent the preceding months tightening our belts in the run-up to completing on the flat, so this was our first proper blowout to celebrate finally reaching the other side of the process. With a birthday to mark as well, we decided to go all in.
We began with a spread of starters. First, the Croque Ibai, one of the restaurant’s signature dishes. Combining carabinero prawns, French black pudding and a sheep’s milk cheese, it sits somewhere between a croque monsieur and prawn toast, while managing to be entirely its own thing. The carabinero prawns were intensely sweet, which makes them a wonderful counterpoint to the savoury richness of the black pudding. I detected another sweetness in the background, possibly honey. The result was a brilliant balance of sweet, savoury and umami. I’ve not had another dish quite like it, and it’s reason enough to order this if you visit.
Next came the beef tartare with smoked Espelette pepper. Espelette is a mild chilli grown in the French Basque Country, known for its gentle warmth rather than any aggressive heat. Here it lent the tartare a lovely depth, warming the beef without overpowering it.
I’d also arrived with my heart set on trying IBAI’s much-talked-about steak and crab pintxos, so discovering that they weren’t on the specials menu that day was a genuine disappointment. We consoled ourselves with the pork belly pintxos instead, which were excellent. These are not delicate little morsels to pop casually into your mouth in one go, they are juicy, fatty slabs of the highest quality pork.
And then, the steak.
IBAI has earned a place among the world’s leading steak destinations, and its Galician Blond beef makes a convincing case for the reputation. Galician Blond comes from north-west Spain, where the cattle produce richly flavoured beef, often matured to develop greater depth and complexity.
Our steak arrived with a beautifully charred crust and a rare, juicy centre. The flavour was deep and distinctive, with the kind of richness that needs little beyond salt and fire. Having eaten at Bar Nestor and Asador Portuetxe Erretegia on my travels in the Basque Country, I’ve had some memorable steak experiences. This was right up there with them, which is about as high a compliment as I can give. There was also something rather lovely about discovering that this particular beef came from Pontevedra, a beautiful town in Galicia that I’d walked through on my Camino in April. If you visit IBAI, this is the reason to go. Order the Galician Blond and accept that your bank balance may need a little time to recover afterwards.
We also ordered braised leeks with mustard, tomatoes and shallots, and beef-fat French fries alongside the steak. All three were excellent, but the leeks were my particular mustardy favourite.
The tomato and shallot salad did exactly what it needed to do, too. Its freshness and acidity offered a welcome contrast to the meal, while the fries were also fantastic.
I’m also including a rather unaesthetic photograph of the anchovy and herb salsa, because I feel strongly that you should order it. I initially forgot about the salsa and had to add it later, but I’m so glad I did. Bright, salty and full of punch, it was a 10/10. The anchovies and fresh herbs brought a welcome sharpness to the meal.
We still weren’t finished. For dessert, we ordered the Gâteau Basque with poached quince and the Pain Perdu. The Gâteau Basque is a traditional cake from the French Basque Country. Ours was perfectly pleasant, and the quince offered a lovely touch, but it didn’t quite capture my imagination. Perhaps I was simply too full by this point, or perhaps it just wasn’t the dessert for me.
The Pain Perdu, on the other hand, was exceptional. It transforms bread into something of heaven, with a beautifully caramelised exterior and a soft, indulgent centre. It reminded me a little of the French toast at Atari, another favourite.
I wouldn’t suggest IBAI is somewhere to visit casually every other week. But for a birthday, an anniversary or an occasion that deserves a little extravagance, it is the one. The Galician Blond alone is worth the trip.
