Trotting hungrily through the streets of San Sebastián, local food writer Sasha Correa stops at Bar Goiz-Argi, “a great place”. Really? It’s shoulder-wide and looks like a betting shop, with its neon, and floor littered with serviettes. However, it is packed and no one’s doing selfies with pintxos, they’re just here to eat them. Yes, yes, the seaside city has nine Michelin-star restaurants, but exquisite, odd, innovative and gloriously beautiful food is also available pretty much everywhere. It does help having an expert to tell you where to start, so I asked 10 gourmands for their pick of the local restaurants and bars.
Bodegón Alejandro
This is a bit like a dungeon, but in a good and glowing way. Its proximity to Mercado de la Bretxa made it the bolthole of choice for traders, a place to tuck in to cheap fish and txakoli (sparkling dry white wine), pork and cider after work. Now very much upgraded, chef Inaxio Valverde still makes good use of the market’s fresh, local and seasonal produce. A menu weighted towards fish in summer – cold, marinated anchovy lasagne with gazpacho cream (€15.50), grilled hake in citrus vinaigrette (€21) – leans towards game through winter. The apple pie with rosemary trifle and lemon thyme ice-cream (€8.50) is a permanent fixture, along with the selection of local cheeses: Bidearte, Txapalak, Pikuñeta and Urdina (€11.50). Two main dining areas are dominated by an enormous luminous inky painting of the San Sebastián coast, the gleaming wooden tables are engraved with maps and quotes, and the lighting is conducive to a boozy lunch. The parents of multi-Michelin-star chef Martín Berasategui once ran this restaurant, and it was here, at the tender age of 13, that he started learning his trade.
• C/ Fermín Calbetón, 4, +34 943 427 158, bodegonalejandro.com. Open daily 1pm-3.30pm, 8pm-10.30pm, but from 16 Oct closed Sunday and Tuesday nights, and all day Monday
Recommended by Josean Alija of Nerua Guggenheim Bilbao
Ganbara
A buzzing spot, open to the street, with dark, mould-dusted Iberian hams hanging from the wall, and a small bar piled high with artfully decorated pintxos that look like cakes in a fancy patisserie. In fact, they are created from fish, foie, mushrooms balanced on puff pastry and griddled bread, topped with decorative slithers of anchovies or guindillas (pickled chillis); and of course, they’re salty, designed to be drunk with a sharp, fresh txakoli, the local wine. You could stand here – or at least try … it’s crowded – and stuff yourself, or retire to the intimate restaurant for some of the best hake in town. Try the moist, flaking kokotxas (the chins of hake or cod, €29.50), baby squid, elvers and big fish – sole, wild turbot, bream – sold by weight and charcoal-grilled for two to share. This is a popular after-hours hangout for chefs.
• C/ San Jeronimo 21, +34 943 42 25 75, ganbarajatetxea.com. Open 11am-3pm, 6pm-11pm, closed Sunday nights, and all Monday
Recommended by Juan Mari Arzak and Elena Arzak of Arzak
Txepetxa
Like anchovies? You’ll love Txepetxa, a bar with a menu that stars them. And because each pintxo is cheap and small, there’s no need to choose between antxoas with foie and apple compote, or with roe, or sea urchin, or papaya. You can have the lot. With football on the TV, aluminium barrels in the corner, plastic ferns, just the three tables, and a general air of convivial scruffiness, it all looks too normal to be a compulsory stop for foodies and visiting celebrities, but study the newspaper cuttings and photos on the wall and you’ll spot jefe Manu posing with everyone from Ferran Adrià and Juan Mari Arzak to Glenn Close and Gandalf. Don’t help yourself to the food on the bar: it’s plastic, a Basque take on Japanese sampuru.
• C/ Pescadería 5, +34 943 42 22 27, bartxepetxa.com. Open summer, noon-3pm, 7pm-11pm, closed Mondays and Tuesday lunchtimes
Recommended by Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz, Errenteria
Néstor
“It’s a very small, old-style bar,” says food expert José Luis Galiana, “where you get tomatoes, pimientos, chops and chorizo. That’s it. But it’s very de moda,” he continues with enthusiasm, “and always full because the tomato is 10 out of 10. The pimiento is 10 out of 10. You have to stand at a bar to eat the chops: there is only one table. You can reserve it, but you would have to do it six months in advance. And at 1pm and 8pm they bring out one tortilla – only one. You only get a piece if you’ve come early and ordered it in advance. It’s pure magic.” Several local chefs concur; everyone has a soft spot for Néstor, which despite its fame and ever-increasing numbers of visiting tourists remains a quirky (and tiny) local hangout.
• C/ Pescadería 11, +34 943 424 873, barnestor.com. Open Tues-Sun noon-7pm, closed Mondays
Recommended by José Luis Galiana of Basque Culinary Center
Bergera
There’s rich grazing in the barrio of Gros, a few minutes across the river from Parte Vieja. Less atmosphere and fewer tourists allow a fighting chance of elbow space on some surface, any surface; though not on Thursdays, when most bars in these parts offer a cheap pintxo and drink combo, prompting the gourmands’ take on a pub crawl. Bergara is legendary in San Sebastián and recommended for its huge variety of prize-winning pintxos and exquisite service. Unusually white, bright and modern, it’s beautiful to look at, and patient staff will provide a detailed description of every creation on request. But by the time they’ve said: “The txalupa is mushrooms, king prawns, cream and cava, served hot in a puff pastry boat, topped with grated cheese”, or “txapeldun is a prawn cocktail with pineapple in syrup, apple and roe” you’d have finished two of each, so it’s best just to wade in. At an average €3 a pinto, and with a menu de degustación (six pintxos, drink, dessert) for €23, you can’t go wrong.
• C/ General Artetxe 8, +34 943 27 50 26, pinchosbergara.es. Open daily 9am-11pm, but closed 4pm-6pm in winter
Recommended by Pedro Subijana of Michelin 3-star Akelarre
La Cuchara de San Telmo
Hefty portions, low prices, glowing reputation: La Cuchara is not exactly glamorous, but it’s a landmark. The whiff of slow-cooked suckling pig and roar of raucous gluttony will lure you to this narrow, warm, dark haunt beside the Santa María church and Museo San Telmo. People jostle to order bread and pig’s ear, or octopus, or carrillera de ternera al vino tinto (all around €3-€5), then head outside to grab one of four tables in the alley. Call into nearby La Viña afterwards for the famous baked cheesecake, served in massive slabs.
• C/ 31 de Agosto, 28, +34 943 44 16 55, lacucharadesantelmo.com. Open Weds-Sun 12.30pm-3.30pm, 7.30pm-11pm, Tues 7.30pm-11pm, closed Monday
Recommended by Eneko Atxa of Azurmendi
La Bodega Donostiarra
It might look more like a yummy-mummy brunch cafe with its rough white-painted walls, blue wooden facade, sunflowers, and street terrace, this bodega is an old landmark (1928) with well-established gastro credentials, famous for moist, even runny, individually-sized tortillas (€2.10) and ensalada de morros, pig snout sliced thin like carpaccio. According to Tatus, the bocadillo de bonito, anchovy and guindilla is a must. Showy pintxos are the star act (from around €1.50), but for around €5 you can get a plateful of callos y morros (tripe and snout) or black pudding and rice with peppers, and – unusually – the possibility of a seat.
• C/ Peña y Goñi, 13, +34 943 01 13 80, bodegadonostiarra.com. Open Mon-Thurs 9.30am-11pm, Sat-Sun 9.30am-midnight; closed Sundays
Recommended by Tatus Fombellida, chef-owner at (now closed) Panier Fleuri
Casa Urola
As head of a centre for gastronomic excellence in a city with Europe’s highest concentration of Michelin stars per capita, deciding where to take dinner guests is not a decision to take lightly. The Basque Culinary Center’s Joxe Mari Aizega often comes to this restaurant and pintxos bar, indistinguishable in its old-fashioned looks from others in Parte Vieja, but serving exceptional food. Its chef, Pablo Loureiro, is blessed with the confidence to simply unleash the deliciousness of fish like wild turbot and serve the whole thing buttery soft on a plate to be picked apart, shared and marvelled over. Main course classics such as grilled octopus over kale, or anchovies and ventresca de bonito with guindillas (€16.50) are top-value, and the eggy, crunchy caramelised torrija a la antigua (€7) alone is worth the wait for a table.
• C/ Fermín Calbetón 20, +34 943 44 13 71, casaurolajatetxea.es. Open Wed-Mon noon-11.30pm, closed Tuesdays
Recommended by Joxe Mari Aizega, director, Basque Culinary Center
Basque Culinary Center
Not merely recommended but created by seven of the top Basque country chefs: Juan María Arzak, Pedro Subijana, Eneko Atxa, Martín Berasategui, Andoni Luis Aduriz, Karlos Arguiñano and Hilario Arbelaitz. You can book a day course and prepare your own food at this university of gastronomy and centre for foodie innovation, or better still, eat in the cafeteria. The cafeteria is a lovely, calm space divided between stylish refectory for staff, and smart starchy white cloth-covered tables for visitors. With a tasting menu prepared by the masterchefs of tomorrow, you won’t find newer New Basque Cuisine or, priced at €24 (plus drinks) better value. In a park-side building designed to look like a stack of plates, it is only open for lunch, but keep an eye out for ad hoc dinner events in the centre’s restaurant (often advertised on aprendiendodeloschefs.blogspot.com.es).
• Paseo Juan Avelino Barriola, 101, +34 902 540 866, reservations for the following month only available at bculinaryclub.com/cafeteria. Open Mon-Fri 1pm-2.15pm
Gerald’s Bar
“Gerald was trying to get back to England from Barcelona when the [eruption of Iceland volcano] Eyjafjallajökull disrupted the flights,” says Bella (from London) who works behind the bar, “so he came to San Sebastián instead.” Presumably a similar thing happened in Australia as he also has a bar in Melbourne. Here, the upmarket pub vibe, good music and warm ambience offers a bit of variation on the pintxos circuit. A mouthwatering list of familiar local produce given a bit of cosmopolitan pizazz is chalked up on the board, including fishcakes de bonito y txancurro, wild boar terrine, and an unspecified “sexy beast” con mole. In San Sebastián that could be anything, but inevitably good.
• C/ Iparragirre, 13, +34 943 083 001, geraldsbar.eu. Open 6pm-11pm weekdays (later Fri-Sun), closed Mondays
Recommended by Sasha Correa, food writer and project manager, Mugaritz
