Hôtel La Réserve

64500 SAINT-JEAN-DE-LUZ

Prestige Hotel

5 PHOTOS

Budget (€)

Per night without breakfast

200

Gault&Millau's review 2026

In Saint-Jean-de-Luz, this former motel facing the Atlantic had several lives before finding its true raison d'être. Opened in 2009 and completely modernized in 2017, the establishment owes its success to one man: Bastien Soumoulou. This thirty-something chef, who worked at Michel Guérard's Prés d'Eugénie, is now at the helm of Ilura, a restaurant that stands out for its ability to combine generosity and refinement without ever sacrificing one for the other - a healthy, seasonal cuisine, rigorously rooted in the Basque and Landes region. Favoring short circuits, from local market gardening to farm produce and fish returns, the chef and his team master the art of pairing with a precision that's as surprising as it is convincing. Examples include Landes foie gras with nori seaweed and a mushroom-black garlic condiment, Pyrenean lamb with turnips preserved in honey, and roast lean with cockles and almond milk, not to mention the nuggets matured by Beñat Moity. Under the banner of Basque red, the hotel's 41 rooms face the ocean. The estate, a member of Teritoria, extends over a 3-hectare park including a residence with 44 apartments, two infinity pools and a tennis court. The complex is just a stone's throw from the legendary Chantaco golf course and only a fifteen-minute walk from the town center.