Etchemaïté - Larrau

We have visited the restaurant quite a few times but not for over 5 years. The standard had definitely dropped in that time. The staff weren't happy and were arguing and the food was ordinary. A disappointing and expensive experience from previous visits and we probably wont bother returning.

20 years I've been coming from time to time to this lovely restaurant. Years ago, the chiildren and I stayed at the hotel, when the parents of the current owner were still present. A lovely family business in a beautiful overlooking the mountains through a large bay window and from a terrace.The loveliness is still here, and the chef Pierre keeps improving year on year. With beautiful simple local products, he creates amazing dishes that stimulate the palate, introducing new subtle tastes and flavors.And the wine list is simply amazing... Warmly recommend the Aretxea Irouleguy :-)

The restaurant had excellent reviews so we tried it as soon as we crossed the pass from Spain into France on 14th June '14. The restaurant was very full, but we were able to get one of the last tables.Sadly the meal was not memorable. We just settled for a main course each and a cheese plate. My wife found her “Poëlée de Ris d’Agneau” was just too greasy, and my “Pavé de Boeuf” was not up to the standard I expected. The best part of the meal was the cheese plate!Long before our arrival, we had booked a table for Sunday lunch – a celebration lunch as my wife was meeting up with her son, his wife and their daughter, who were travelling to France on holiday from their home in Estonia. We mentioned this to the maitre d’ as we left the restaurant that evening and specifically asked him if he could ensure we had a decent table, bearing in mind the fact that we had telephoned a month in advance from our home in Spain. When we arrived on the Sunday, the restaurant was already full, just our reserved table being empty. Despite all our entreaties, we found ourselves on the table directly facing the loo! Couldn’t change it, as there wasn’t another one available. This time we all had the €25 menu, but again the food was disappointing and the service was a little offhand, as it had been on our first visit.I think the combination of disappointing food and service, together with the fact that our celebratory lunch was spoilt by having to look at the lavatory door, instead of the mountains, influenced us enough to cancel the reservation I had made for a three night stop on our return from France to Spain. In fairness, I must say that the views from this pleasant restaurant were very good from most of the other tables; also, if your taste in food is fairly old fashioned French style, with lots of sauces and a touch oily, then you will totally disagree with my review.

Our 8 year old Guide Routard (re publish in English, please!!) came up trumps again. a long detour from the journey from France to Spain was well worth it. A very pleasant lunch indeed with good options and a fantastic view to boot.

We were looking so forward to our Etchemaite lunch on this trip with such fond memories of two meals here two years ago. The amuse bouche got us excited - an excellent white parsnip creamed soup. We both ordered the 3 course menu: the entree was overcooked tuna served on a nice vegetable pepperade and the plat was stuffed wild boar, which was a nice piece of meat but not very interesting. My dessert was chocolate mousse tart but the tart was inedible. My husbands dessert was good - a Pain Perdu (French toast) with some nice things on it. Overall a quite disappointing meal especially compared to the last time we were here. The saving grace is the beautiful situation looking out to the sheep pasture with the lambs running and playing, and onto the mountains. There was only one other couple in the restaurant the entire 2 hour lunch time we where there - and unfortunately maybe there's good reason for that.