55 Pasos

Control at the pass

The preparations at the pass stay safer than perfect, by Balázs Menyhard's own measure. As Chef and Co-Owner of 55 Pasos in A Coruña, Balázs Menyhard works from that tension: control first, then the risk that gives a plate its edge. He arrived in Galicia with standards formed in London kitchens, first at Hedone, then at Marcus Wareing, where precision and service pressure leave little room for loose thinking. At 55 Pasos, those systems become more personal. Modern Spanish cooking is the frame, but the method is closer to a daily negotiation with product, weather, supplier, appetite and the discipline of stopping before a dish becomes decorated. Menyhard is from Budapest, and he has spoken plainly about wanting to reach a high level of cooking, to work in strong restaurants and travel. That ambition does not sit on the plate as biography. It appears in the way the kitchen treats pichón, anchoas or torrija as work that needs judgment, not noise.

A short board, changed by the market

The menu at 55 Pasos does not rely on a fixed procession. The board moves with the market, and the room accepts that movement as part of the meal. Small plates and tasting formats sit beside one another, shaped for sharing and for a slower pace than the city usually asks of dinner. Guests have described meals running over 3 hours, with courses arriving at intervals that allow the next bottle and the next conversation to settle. The kitchen starts from scratch, using seasonal produce and trusted suppliers rather than a permanent repertoire. The table has featured sea urchin, tuna, pigeon, aubergine with shiitake, cecina, cheeks and bean stew, with clean product, enough sauce to carry contrast, and enough restraint to let the main ingredient keep its name. Torrija, often tied to Menyhard's Hungarian memory through poppy seeds, gives the sweet station a clear signature without turning the place into a set menu of signatures.

The room and the glass

The room works like a private supper more than a restaurant built for turnover. The kitchen is open to the room, so the bench and the pass share the same air as the tables. Light is low, voices stay near the table, and the pacing belongs to a house that would rather keep the meal intact than hurry it along. The wine program is central to that rhythm. 55 Pasos is known in A Coruña for natural and biodynamic bottles, with 150 references cited across Galicia, Europe and beyond. The list gives the food a second structure: anchovy can lean into brine and acidity, pigeon can take a darker glass, torrija can close without asking for sweetness alone. The service avoids ceremony for its own sake. It keeps the bottle close to the dish.

Why this address holds

A Coruña has no shortage of seafood rooms and traditional Galician habits, which makes 55 Pasos sharper by contrast. Menyhard does not reject the market around him; he changes the grammar. The restaurant's two awards sit behind the work rather than in front of it, useful only because they point back to a small house where the owners still carry the service between kitchen, floor and cellar. If there is a next movement here, it will likely be written in the same materials already at hand: a changing board, an open pass, and the particular return of pichón at 55 Pasos.