Ibai was the most local of the restaurants and my favorite meal of the trip. The restaurant is only open weekdays between 1-3pm, and inside there are only eight tables. A little mom-and-pop restaurant that serves the most amazing food, Ibai has no English menu and the staff speaks little English. From the kokotxas to the fresh gooseneck barnacles — crustaceans that cling to rocks positioned in strong crashing surf in Spain and Portugal, which luckily were in season — the ingredients spoke for themselves, and chef Alicio Garro’s preparations simply helped to bring out the natural flavors. I vividly remember the tables at lunch: a local couple to our left, a young American couple across from us (chefs Liz Johnson and Will Aghajanian), and a large group of young internationals, which was actually the same group of people I had spied at lunch the day before at Elkano. This time, I had the chance to chat with them a little more, as I noticed that they’d started the meal with a bottle of Lopez Tondonia White. A no-nonsense gem of a restaurant with little in the way of decor, Ibai offers cuisine that is both simple and meticulously prepared.