If you're passing through Bilbao airport, don't miss Taskas, a restaurant located near a gas station, where Ángel Velo unexpectedly serves excellent products, always with a smile.
The opinion
How often have we witnessed the same unfortunate scenario: cooks and waiters clustering around a table (is it a VIP or an influential journalist?), neglecting the rest of the dining area and leaving ordinary guests to themselves. Perhaps, on social media, there will even be a photo with a big smile alongside the latest influencer, a top-tier client clearly distinguished from the ordinary clientele. An improper conduct that leaves some to react with displeasure.
This is not the case for Ángel Velo, who runs the Taskas restaurant at Bilbao Airport. Unlike Malaga and Barcelona, where star chefs Dani Garcia and the Torres brothers operate, this location isn't known for celebrity chefs. Just a ten-minute walk away is a gas station, next to which Velo opened his restaurant in 2011, without giving up on his gourmet ambitions for easy earnings from travelers. Upon entering, you'll immediately notice around twenty bottles of mainly Champagne, sparkling wines and a display of live seafood in a tank, including gooseneck barnacles and kokotxas.
Everything is made from the freshest and mostly wild-caught fish, often arriving from the nearby Cantabrian coast. "For my customers, I want what I would want for myself, and if the product is good, there's little else to do. Even finding a mediocre ingredient is extremely challenging; you don't know where to source it. You can try to save money by buying a sea bream for 32.5 euros, but if it doesn't cost 40, it's because it's already two or three days old," he explains to El País. The cooking methods are simple, using the oven, plancha, or pan, as the airport didn't allow the use of a grill. And, of course, they also serve the classic stews of the Basque tradition. Their best-selling dish? Rice pudding, a comforting after-dinner icon. This offering hasn't failed to catch the attention of gourmets and even top chefs in the country.
However, Taskas made headlines for a bill of 1622 euros paid by a couple who consumed half a kilo of angulas (baby eels) and drank Cristal Rosé, along with a couple of Partagas cigars. He proudly displays the receipt, waiting for someone to "do better." "But whatever it may be, we treat everyone the same way, politicians as well as those who come here by chance and arrive alone, dressed in office attire. I always welcome them with a smile." There have been several requests to replicate the format elsewhere, all of which were declined. "I wouldn't be able to do it," he says, considering the difficulties in maintaining adequate quality standards, moreover, the challenge of finding skilled labor. At most, he might consider opening a cheese factory in the area, to immerse the fish in a more rural atmosphere.
Cover photo: @El Correo
