Da Filippo

Duck, butter and thyme at the bench

Butter and thyme meet duck inside cappelletti as chef and owner Paulo Airaudo shapes Da Filippo in San Sebastián into an Italian room with a precise hand. The work sits inside the premises once occupied by Amelia in Gros, a small transfer of memory from one Airaudo address to another. Airaudo was born in Córdoba, Argentina, to Italian immigrant parents, and began cooking at 18. His route took him through Arzak in San Sebastián, The Fat Duck in London, and Magnolia in Italy before he opened La Bottega in Geneva in 2015, then Amelia in San Sebastián in 2017. Da Filippo draws from that Italian inheritance without turning the room into a museum of it. The pasta carries the argument. Cappelletti, risotto, burrata, mortadella, pistachio, nduja and pickled lemon appear as working materials, not decoration. Airaudo’s broader group reaches beyond San Sebastián, but this address keeps its scale close, with a trattoria’s recognisable grammar held to a more exacting pass.

Pasta as the main discipline

The menu gives pasta the central station. Duck cappelletti with butter and thyme is the dish most closely tied to the house, a filled pasta built on depth rather than spectacle. Lobster risotto moves differently, with pumpkin, nduja and pickled lemon pulling sweetness, heat and acid into the same spoonful. Fusilli with oxtail, porcini and egg yolk sits in the same register, all weight and gloss, while spinach and ricotta stuffed pasta arrives with broth poured at the table. The progression can run as a tasting menu or à la carte, with amuses, focaccia and small sweets framing the courses. The kitchen’s Italian language is broad rather than regionally narrow: mortadella and pistachio cones, burrata and lobster tartlets, shrimp tartar with beets and mustard seed, tiramisu and panna cotta all have their place. Small-producer ingredients are part of the stated method, and the wine program follows with Spanish and Italian bottles, including by-the-glass choices that let the pasta stay in front.

A quiet Gros room around the pass

The room keeps its voice low. Warm light, close tables and a slightly quirky eye for decor make Da Filippo feel more like a held conversation than a stage. In San Sebastián, where the appetite often moves from counter to counter, this place asks for a slower rhythm: amuses first, then pasta, then risotto or broth, then the sweet finish. The service style is upscale casual, but the feeling at the table comes from the timing of the pass rather than polish for its own sake. The former Amelia address gives the room a particular pressure, because diners arrive with a memory of serious cooking already attached to the walls. Da Filippo answers with cappelletti.