Venta de Ulzama

The story

Venta de Ulzama in Elizondo, Spain – Michelin-Recommended Spanish Cuisine

Venta de Ulzama

Just beyond Elizondo, in the Puerto de Belate pass of the Ultzama Valley, Venta de Ulzama has been welcoming travellers since 1896. What began as a roadside inn is now a five-generation family affair, where the kitchen draws on the landscape: a privileged spot between mountain and sea, with its own garden and a deep-rooted connection to local foragers and producers.

The restaurant’s Michelin recommendation speaks to a kitchen that respects tradition without being bound by it. The menu changes with the season, built around fresh vegetables from the huerta — asparagus, artichoke, cardoon — and wild ingredients such as hongos-beltza and perretxiko mushrooms. Game, meats and fish sit alongside these, prepared in a style the house calls “traditional and innovative.” Two tasting menus, Saioa and Belate, offer a curated way through the season’s best, each paired with wines from the D.O. Navarra.

Beyond the dining room, a terrace serves snacks and homemade desserts throughout the day. The kitchen also prepares a dedicated gluten-free menu, ensuring the experience is inclusive without compromise. Among the sweets, the cuajada quemada (burnt curd) and canutillos have become local favourites.

The setting is part of the draw. The Venta sits within a natural landscape of rolling hills and oak groves, with a deer enclosure on the property. Guests can explore the nearby Orgi oak forest or visit the Ezkurdi Bee Museum in Eltso, run by beekeeper Isabel Tellería, before returning for a meal or an overnight stay in one of the hotel’s attic rooms. The atmosphere throughout is unhurried and familial — a place where hospitality has been refined over more than a century, and where the food, like the welcome, feels both personal and deeply rooted in the Spanish cuisine of Navarre.