Restaurante Huarte — Pamplona, Spain

Though his oeuvre extends far beyond restaurants, the San Sebastian-based architect and designer Santos Bregaña Etxeberria of Atelier laia is the go-to guy for a host of blue-chip kitchens including Noma, Martin Berasetegui, Tetsuya’s, Alinea, Per Se, Vue de Monde and Jaan for whom he’s created interiors that skate between rigorous almost monastic minimalism, and the fantastical. His latest project Restaurante Huarte certainly veers towards the latter.
Located in the University of Navarra’s museum, in a rather innocuous building designed by Pritzker Prize-laureate Rafael Moneo, the restaurant takes its name from the fabulously wealthy Spanish art patron María Josefa Huarte who endowed the museum with a fabulous collection of Picassos, Palazuelos, Chillidas and Oteizas.
The interior design plays with the idea of bringing the sea to Pamplona – a sly conceit given that Huarte also means ‘island’ in Basque – by way of an underwater grotto of polished black stone floor, a lineal forest of light timber screen, a far wall painted with a moody horizon, the smart use of USM furniture and undulating cutouts on the ceiling from which drop stalactites of slender pendant lamps.
Keeping in the mood, in the kitchen, chef Aitor Sarasola cooks up a surf and turf menu that includes squid noodles tossed with a citrus emulsion, seared octopus with smoked paprika foam, slow roasted kid, and boneless suckling pig.
INFORMATION
ADDRESS
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
2830 Pamplona
Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.
-
Wallpaper* checks in at MACAM Hotel: a night at the museum
Portugal’s first hotel-museum is home to 600 pieces of modern and contemporary art and 64 rooms for the ultimate artistic immersion
By Mary Lussiana
-
This joyful Henri Matisse pottery collection is your new summer entertaining essential
After years at the helm of American ceramics company East Fork, the artist’s great-grandson is ready to embrace his family name
By Anna Fixsen
-
This knitwear collaboration is a playful exploration of the role of the fashion critic
Waste Yarn Project has collaborated with Wallpaper* contributing editor Dal Chodha on a sweater adorned with extracts from his 2020 book ‘Show Notes’, collated while reviewing the menswear shows for Wallpaper*
By Zoe Whitfield
-
Sun-soaked European destinations to visit in spring
Dreaming of Florentine palazzos and Greek islands now that the weather is starting to turn? Check into one of these beautiful European hotels and holiday homes
By Anna Solomon
-
Esperit Roca is a restaurant of delicious brutalism and six-course desserts
In Girona, the Roca brothers dish up daring, sensory cuisine amid a 19th-century fortress reimagined by Andreu Carulla Studio
By Agnish Ray
-
Must-visit cinemas with award-worthy design
There’s more magic to the movies at these design-led cinemas, from Busan Cinema Centre’s ‘flying’ roof to The Gem Cinema Jaipur’s art deco allure
By Sofia de la Cruz
-
‘I explored Benidorm with an open mind’: the famous Spanish seaside town is captured in a new photo book
From neon lights to pink sunburns, photographer Rob Ball turns his lens on Benidorm to see what remains of a ‘pan-European holiday utopia’
By Tianna Williams
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Brach Madrid: a hotel of love and passion
Brach Madrid, part of Evok Collection, is a charming city-centre bolthole designed by Philippe Starck
By Sofia de la Cruz
-
2025 getaways: where Wallpaper* editors will be travelling to this year
From the Japanese art islands of Naoshima and Teshima to the Malaysian tropical paradise of Langkawi, here’s where Wallpaper* editors plan to travel to in 2025
By Sofia de la Cruz
-
The most whimsical hotel Christmas trees around the world
We round up the best hotel Christmas tree collaborations of the year, from an abstract take in Madrid to a heritage-rooted installation in Amsterdam
By Tianna Williams
-
The world’s best new hotels that we’re loving without reservation
Explore the best new openings in the world, from Orient Express’ La Dolce Vita train and first-ever hotel to Capella’s debut in Taipei
By Nicola Leigh Stewart