In spring 2022, I was to Valencia and I had sooo good lunch there. I was only there for four days, so it was important to me that every meal was a feast. Yep, during holidays or city trips, meals and accompanying drinks are really the highlights for me, so you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I came across this same restaurant in Amsterdam.

I am talking about the Basque restaurant Sagardi, where you eat the most delicious pinchos in the bar area or a more elaborate dinner or lunch in the back. Now I know very well that Valencia is not even close to the Basque country, but still, it immediately became one of my favourite restaurants in this Spanish city - and is now one of my favourite Spanish restaurants in Amsterdam.

I was there at lunch and haven't eaten so special in ages. This is partly because of the dishes, as the menu is full of extraordinary creations, such as the grilled morcilla (blood sausage), Manitas de Cordero (suckling lamb feet) with Espellete pepper or sweetbread with artichoke. It was also because I tasted a piece of meat here that was so delicious, so tender and so well flavoured that I would come back for that dish alone. Oh, and the wine; the wine list does deserve its own mention.

As a meat lover, I was immediately fascinated by the method of preparation: here, they do a large steak on a grill that slopes downwards. There's a reason for that: the fat then runs down, giving the meat that delicious flavour. So if you are a meat lover: you really want to try this one.