The famed World’s 50 Best Restaurants list is often knocked by critics as being too exclusive and more of a members-only club for chefs. Restaurants on the list are usually lauded for technique and innovation, putting those characteristics above, well, deliciousness. But in the top 10 sits an establishment that is so unique purely because of its simplicity.

Getting to Etxebarri is a little bit of a journey. It is 25 miles away from Bilbao, an almost two-hour drive away from San Sebastian. The barn seems far from civilization and the views surrounding it are the restaurant’s main features. The dining room is stark with white tablecloths but seems less stuffy than other fine dining establishments of its kind. It foreshadows the straightforward dishes on its tasting menu, which is really all about Etxebarri’s beautiful charcoal grills. Ingredients are highly local, and barely touched, so the chef, Victor Arguinzoniz, has nothing to hide behind here.

GOAT’S milk butter. The meal starts al fresco, with two amuse bouches that are so simple but divine. Fresh chorizo that is so pungent with spice sits atop a thin sliver of toast while anchovy that is briny and lightly salted rests on a crisp potato chip. When you move into the dining room, you start with a bread course that is far from ordinary. They churn the butter in house, made from goat’s milk so it has a slightly cheesy quality. Alongside it is the creamiest little white ball of buffalo’s cheese which opens to reveal a wet, burrata-like center. It is smoked over the grill which gives a unique depthness to the milky cheese.

BEEF chop. The next few courses focus on all seafoods native to this area of Spain, which speak a lot about their freshness, and how little has to be done to them. Cooking scallop over the grill turns the texture of these shellfish into something simultaneously soft and chewy and their flavors are truly of the sea. Sea urchin has just the tiniest amount of pumpkin broth to enhance its creamy texture. The best are the pair of prawns from Palamos, barely-cooked, so that their flesh still has an almost sashimi-esque quality. The heads of the shrimp are filled with fat and juice that it is so easy to relish their saltiness with your hands that you will forget you are in a sophisticated dining room. The next seafood course is incredibly unique too; kokotxas are largely eaten around this region and are considered a delicacy; the throats of cod are the fattiest, full of gelatin and meat and are prized here. The last glimpse of seafood comes in the form of a smoked mackerel that is so tender and needs little else but a salad of flowers and leaves.

MACKEREL with wild flowers and leaves. The tail-end of the menu reveals some of the best things I have ever eaten. A pea dish is so life-changing that I often think about it still. The unassuming cup of little green pearls cooked in their own juices is so complex — salty, sweet, herbaceous — and each pea pops in your mouth. A chorizo tartare is so genius and unlike any tartare I’ve ever had before: spicy, robust and a pleasure to eat. The pride of Etxebarri is its gigantic beef chop, with a beautiful rib exceeding the plate’s perimeter. This is really where Arguinzoniz showcases his grill. The color of the Galician is so dark and charred, but the inside somehow manages to be glistening red, and close to rare. It is insane and shows you how great meat doesn’t need anything else but salt and

PRAWNS of Palamos. pepper. The smoked milk dessert that follows is just as famous and is made by reducing and smoking milk over the coals. It might be the silkiest, most luxurious ice cream I have ever had and is paired perfectly with a beetroot juice that counteracts the sweetness.

At Asador Etxebarri, molecular gastronomy does not exist. At this minimalist, almost-modest grill restaurant nestled in

SEA urchin and pumpkin broth. the hills of Axpe, flavor is the most important element of all.