<a target="_blank" href="http://www.restaurant-saint-jean-de-luz.com/?fbclid=IwAR0ayesajWaRQB-fbtggTdcBk-cJQ2eJaiVDsI_74EC5WCjxqKr4WgFE64s">Xaya</a>&nbsp;5 Rue Saint-Jean&nbsp;Saint-Jean-de-Luz, FranceTel.&nbsp;+33 5 59 47 75 48

BY NEAL MARTIN | OCTOBER 18, 2019

The Food:

Kintoa
ham aged for 26 months from Christian Aguerre 

Octopus
served with roast potato in a pimentón de
la Vera and saffron sauce

Gazpacho en salmojero

Locally
caught hake with salsa verde, tomato and aubergine and rocket

Line-caught
croaker with summer risotto and bouillon 

Pêche rôti with lavender and
mascarpone emulsion

The Wine:

NV
Egiategia Erlaitza Chardonnay&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 91 


Walking
through the pedestrianized heart of Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the early evening, it
is obvious that restaurants are doing a roaring trade, as tourists migrate from
sandy beaches to nest on tables for tapas and sangria. The town is bustling.
However, upon arriving at Xaya, I find it eerily empty, clearly thumbing its nose
at the lucrative post-sunbathing brigade. I am politely asked to return later. Fast-forward
an hour, and Xaya is not only completely full but turning away diners who foolishly
did not reserve a coveted table. 

Why
the clamor? Why did one man almost get on his knees to beg a reservation that
night? &nbsp;

The
answer was soon found on the plate.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1571425252110-xaya+interior_copy.jpg"> 

Frédéric Grobost working
away in his excellent restaurant

Xaya, apparently pronounced "chai” in the Basque&nbsp;language, is run
by Frédéric Grobost, the gentleman who asked me to return later, preferably
when the restaurant’s doors opened. The exterior is rather innocuous in
appearance, with just a small sign and claret-colored awning bearing its name.
You could easy walk past the doors. The interior is larger than suggested by the
understated facade, though Xaya is not huge, with perhaps 40 covers. On the
night of my visit, I felt that the three hard-working waiting staff could have
benefited from an extra pair of hands. They did make a couple of mistakes, not
least cancelling the starters when in fact I ordered them first while deciding
on the mains to make sure we kept within our allotted two-hour sitting. This resulted
in our eating mains before starters, which, oddly enough, worked quite well.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1571425270671-xaya+pulpo.jpg"> 

Probably the best octopus I
ate in the Pays Basque

I
start my description with those three shared starter plates. Each was utterly
divine. First was the octopus served with roast potato and parsley, accompanied
by a saffron and pepper sauce. Wow! Having consumed some of the finest octopus
known to mankind in Tokyo, I am Mr. Persnickety when it comes to the old pulpo. This was perfectly cooked and
seasoned, a little chewy but not rubbery in the slightest. The sauce was
fabulous, made from pimentón de la Vera from
Cáceres, sweet Spanish paprika, and, I suspect, a little saffron. <img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1571426142526-xaya+kintoa.jpg"> 

Mouthwatering locally
produced Kintoa ham

Kintoa
ham actually has its own PDO. Ours was aged for 26 months by Christian Aguerre,
whose family in the village of Itxaso have farmed the land since the 1600s. This
wafer-thin ham was as good as any Ibérico I’ve ever eaten, slightly nutty in
flavor, its glistening fat melting on the tongue.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1571426169093-xaya+gazpacho.jpg"> 

The stunning salmorejo

Best
of all was a sublime gazpacho en salmorejo.
Spanish friends can correct me, but I understand that salmorejo differs from gazpacho in the sense that this Andalusian
dish contains bread and less veg, plus it is served in a bowl rather than a
glass. I will put it on record: this is the best gazpacho/salmorejo I have ever eaten.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1571426192178-xaya+hake.jpg">

The hake was cooked to
perfection...

For
mains, we chose fish, even though the meat dishes looked outstanding. The hake
was cooked to perfection, flaky on the inside with a crispy skin, and judiciously
seasoned. It needed no accoutrements, no fancy sauce or foam; the fish toute
seule was enough. It came with a baked tomato and aubergine, the former
with a natural sweetness that you can only find in the Mediterranean, served
with a smear of salsa verde and fresh rocket leaves. So simple, but executed
with such care and detail that I could not fault it.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1571426218547-xaya+croaker_copy.jpg"> 

...likewise the croaker with
bouillon and summer risotto

Alongside
we enjoyed line-caught croaker or maigre,
served with a summer risotto and bouillon. This dish was comparatively richer
and probably less beneficial for the waistline than the hake, but utterly
seductive and dangerously more-ish.

To
finish, we opted for the pêche rôti with lavender and a mascarpone
emulsion. This was one dish that did not quite match the description, the
peaches less rôti than I imagined,
albeit delicious, with more Chantilly cream and ice cream than expected.

The
wine list would benefit from more adventurous fare, and is brief considering
the exceptional quality of food. It leaned too much toward classic French
regions, and there was a dearth of choice from Irouléguy. In the end I took a
punt on a local natural wine made in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. The Erlaitza
Chardonnay from Egiategia far
surpassed expectations. It comes from vines planted in 2009 on an exposed ledge
on the Basque coast near Urrugne and comprises the first three vintages, 2011,
2012 and 2015. The bouquet offers honeysuckle, candle wax and caramelized peach
on the well-defined nose, a subtle nuttiness loitering in the background. The
palate is fresh and well balanced, underpinned by pitch-perfect acidity and
tangy lemongrass and marmalade notes on the finish. I appreciated that it did
not overtly taste of a natural wine, unlike many where philosophy seems to be
more important than flavor. It is just a delicious wine that happens to be made
naturally. I suspect that it is only sold locally, but it is well worth
ordering.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1571426239694-xaya+wine_copy.jpg"> It is not often I deliberately choose a natural wine, but this Erlaitza Chardonnay was a little gem

I
had no regrets dining at either <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/vinous-table-zoko-moko-saint-jean-de-luz-france-oct-2019">Zoko Moko</a> or Xaya, but the latter is the one I
would return to in a flash. Unlike Zoko Moko, there is nothing at Xaya that I
could improve upon. It was faultless. And while Zoko Moko is clearly fancier in
its presentation and ingredients, possibly with one eye on what would be the
town’s only Michelin star, it seems self-aware of its ambition. By comparison, Xaya
is disarmingly unpretentious, almost oblivious to the quality of its own dishes,
and that is a virtue I really admire. It made Xaya’s cuisine natural and
effortless, putting you at ease. Zoko Moko expected me to come away impressed. Xaya
just took pride in its comparatively more straightforward dishes, and rightly
so.

If
you are taking a vacation in Biarritz or Saint-Jean-de-Luz, make a reservation
at Xaya. One mouthful is all it takes to understand why their tables are in such
demand. The set dinner is a bargain at €35 per head, though such is the quality of
cooking that I recommend you dine à la
carte and eat exactly what you are in the mood for.<div><div><div>

</div>

</div>

</div>

Content

Engage

Vinous

Social