Ibaya is a high-end gastronomic restaurant located inside Sport Hotel Hermitage & Spa in Soldeu, Andorra. The restaurant is known for creative fine dining that combines contemporary culinary techniques with the traditions, ingredients, and flavors of Andorra and the surrounding Pyrenean region.
Ibaya is part of the hotel’s broader collection of dining venues, but it occupies a distinctly gastronomic position. Rather than functioning as a casual hotel restaurant, it offers an extended tasting-menu experience centered on carefully presented dishes, local ingredients, storytelling, and contemporary interpretations of regional cuisine.
The restaurant currently holds one Michelin star and was also awarded one Sol by the Guía Repsol in 2026.
Ibaya at Sport Hotel Hermitage & Spa
Ibaya is located at Sport Hotel Hermitage & Spa in Soldeu, a mountain destination in the Principality of Andorra.
The hotel’s setting in the Pyrenees contributes significantly to the restaurant’s identity. Rather than separating the cuisine from its surroundings, Ibaya incorporates the character of Andorra into its menus.
Ingredients associated with the country’s mountain environment and culinary traditions are reinterpreted through contemporary techniques. This creates a dining experience that connects the restaurant with its location while giving traditional dishes a modern presentation.
The restaurant’s address is Carretera General II – Tram Soldeu 56, Sport Hotel Hermitage & Spa, AD100 Soldeu, Andorra.
A Michelin-Starred Restaurant
Ibaya has held a Michelin star since 2021, making it one of the restaurants associated with Andorra’s fine-dining scene. The Sport Hotel Hermitage describes it as the country’s Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurant and notes its continued recognition in 2026.
Michelin recognition reflects the restaurant’s emphasis on culinary quality, technique, consistency, and the overall dining experience.
Ibaya’s approach is particularly distinctive because its menus are not limited to generic luxury cuisine. Instead, they explore the culinary identity of Andorra and the Pyrenees while incorporating contemporary influences.
The Culinary Direction
Ibaya has been associated with renowned Spanish chef Francis Paniego, whose restaurant El Portal de Echaurren in Ezcaray holds two Michelin stars.
At Ibaya, Paniego has worked alongside the restaurant’s culinary team to develop a style that combines his experience in contemporary Spanish cuisine with Andorran ingredients and traditions. The restaurant is currently directed by executive chef Jordi Grau, with Paniego continuing as an advisor.
This collaboration gives Ibaya a culinary identity that connects Andorra with the wider gastronomic traditions of Spain.
Creative Contemporary Cuisine
Ibaya’s cuisine is best described as creative, contemporary, and rooted in local tradition.
The restaurant does not simply reproduce traditional Andorran dishes. Instead, familiar ingredients and preparations are transformed into more elaborate gastronomic creations.
The Michelin description highlights the restaurant’s focus on Andorran ingredients and flavors, including trout, horse meat, girella, donja, and trinxat. French and Portuguese influences can also appear in the cooking.
This approach allows diners to encounter recognizable elements of Andorran cuisine in an entirely different format.
The Tasting Menus
Ibaya’s dining experience is centered around tasting menus.
The Michelin Guide has described two principal menu concepts: a Memory menu that brings together contemporary recipes and some of Paniego’s most successful dishes from different seasons, and A Walk through Andorra, which explores Andorran cuisine through local ingredients and flavors.
The menus are designed as extended culinary experiences rather than individual à la carte meals.
This format allows the kitchen to control the sequence, pacing, presentation, and progression of flavors throughout the meal.
A Walk Through Andorra
One of the restaurant’s most distinctive concepts is its menu inspired by the culinary traditions of Andorra.
The menu uses ingredients and dishes associated with the country and gives them a contemporary interpretation. Horse meat, trout, traditional sausages such as girella and donja, and trinxat are among the ingredients and dishes highlighted by Michelin.
Trinxat, traditionally made using potatoes, cabbage, and bacon, is particularly associated with the mountain cuisine of the Pyrenees.
At Ibaya, these traditional references become part of a carefully structured tasting experience.
The Dining Experience
The experience at Ibaya begins before guests are seated at their main table.
According to Michelin’s description, the restaurant introduces diners to elements of the chef’s background in the reception area. Appetizers are served in different spaces, including the lounge and kitchen, before the experience continues in the main dining room.
This creates a sense of progression throughout the meal.
Rather than simply sitting down and receiving a series of dishes, guests move through different stages of the experience.
The restaurant has also been described as featuring an open kitchen, allowing diners to observe part of the culinary process.
Storytelling Through Food
Another distinctive feature of Ibaya is the way the restaurant explains its dishes.
Michelin notes that plates are accompanied by information explaining the origin of ingredients and their preparation.
This adds an educational element to the meal.
Guests are not simply presented with unfamiliar combinations. They can understand where ingredients come from, how they relate to local culinary traditions, and how the restaurant has interpreted them.
This storytelling is particularly appropriate for a restaurant whose identity is closely connected with Andorra.
The Meaning Behind the Name Ibaya
The name Ibaya itself has a connection to the restaurant’s culinary philosophy.
According to an official restaurant menu, Ibaya is the name of a high mountain hill near Ezcaray, associated with a beautiful green meadow. The name comes from the Basque term Ibaia, meaning “river.”
The restaurant was named Ibaya partly because this landscape was an inspiration for the cuisine and partly as a tribute to the river flowing near the hotel.
The name therefore connects the restaurant’s identity to both its culinary heritage and the natural landscapes associated with its chefs and location.
Local Ingredients and Andorran Identity
Local ingredients play an important role in Ibaya’s approach.
Andorra’s mountainous geography has historically influenced its cuisine. Traditional dishes tend to make use of ingredients suitable for mountain communities, including potatoes, cabbage, meat, dairy products, and preserved foods.
Ibaya takes these traditions and places them within a modern fine-dining framework.
The result is cuisine that can feel both familiar and unexpected: familiar because the ingredients and culinary references are rooted in the region, and unexpected because of the techniques, presentation, and sequence in which they are served.
The Setting
Ibaya’s location inside Sport Hotel Hermitage & Spa places the restaurant within a sophisticated mountain-resort environment.
The dining room is designed for an intimate and formal experience rather than a casual meal. Current restaurant information describes the atmosphere as elegant and quiet, with mountain surroundings contributing to the overall experience.
The combination of mountain scenery, hotel hospitality, and fine dining makes Ibaya particularly suited to special occasions and destination dining.
Who Can Dine at Ibaya?
Although Ibaya is located inside a luxury hotel, it is presented as a gastronomic restaurant rather than an exclusive dining room restricted only to hotel guests.
The restaurant is particularly suited to diners interested in tasting menus, contemporary cuisine, regional ingredients, and extended fine-dining experiences.
Visitors staying at Sport Hotel Hermitage & Spa can combine the restaurant with the hotel’s accommodation and other facilities, while travelers visiting Soldeu can make the restaurant part of a wider trip to Andorra.
The restaurant currently states that children are welcome from eight years old.
Opening Schedule
Current published information lists Ibaya as operating primarily for dinner from Tuesday through Friday, with an additional lunch service on Saturday. Sunday and Monday are listed as closed.
The currently published schedule is approximately:
- Tuesday–Friday: Dinner
- Saturday: Lunch and dinner
- Sunday: Closed
- Monday: Closed
Restaurant schedules can change according to the season, holidays, hotel operations, or private events, so visitors should confirm the current schedule before planning a visit.
Ibaya and Andorra’s Gastronomic Scene
Ibaya has become part of the growing fine-dining identity of Andorra.
The country is better known internationally for its mountains, ski resorts, nature, and shopping than for haute cuisine. Restaurants such as Ibaya have helped demonstrate that the Principality also has a developing gastronomic scene capable of combining local culinary traditions with sophisticated contemporary techniques.
The restaurant’s Michelin recognition has further raised its profile among visitors interested in destination dining.
For travelers staying in the Pyrenees, a meal at Ibaya can therefore become part of the overall cultural experience of visiting Andorra.
A Destination Dining Experience
Ibaya is not simply a place to have a quick meal. Its tasting-menu structure, multiple stages, storytelling, and formal service make it an experience-oriented restaurant.
The meal can extend across several spaces and courses, with the kitchen presenting its interpretation of regional ingredients throughout the evening.
This makes the restaurant particularly appropriate for diners who enjoy discovering cuisine through tasting menus rather than selecting a single main course.
Conclusion
Ibaya is a Michelin-starred gastronomic restaurant located at Sport Hotel Hermitage & Spa in Soldeu, Andorra. Under the culinary direction of Jordi Grau and with the continued involvement of chef Francis Paniego, the restaurant combines contemporary techniques with the flavors, ingredients, and traditions of Andorra and the wider Pyrenean region.
Its tasting menus explore local culinary heritage through ingredients such as trout, horse meat, traditional sausages, and trinxat, while its presentation and service create an extended fine-dining experience.
With a Michelin star and a 2026 Guía Repsol Sol, Ibaya has established itself as an important part of Andorra’s contemporary gastronomic landscape.
For visitors to Soldeu seeking an elevated dining experience, Ibaya offers a combination of Andorran culinary identity, creative contemporary cuisine, mountain surroundings, and Michelin-recognized gastronomy.