August 2015

Donostia is the Basque name for San Sebastian and pintxos (pintxo, singular; “tx” is pronounced “ch”) is the Basque word for tapas.  IMHO, it truly is a stunning spot on the north coast of Spain with the most amazing food in the world!  Basque cuisine is well reputed for good reason.  With so much flavour, the freshness and quality of the everyday food in almost any pintxo bar is restaurant quality.

The old town is lovely and largely pedestrianised.  It is also where you will find all the best pintxo bars.  Wear comfortable shoes as during peak times you are likely to eat standing up (most bars have limited seating with most people standing at the bar or overflowing out to the street).  Rather than going to just one place for your lunch or dinner, the idea is to do a dinner crawl, eating the specialty of each place, accompanied by a glass of wine or beer.  One of the great local drinks that we enjoyed is txakoli, a lightly sparkling white wine served in tumblers rather than wine glasses.  It is great fun to watch it being skilfully poured from a great height.

The first thing I highly recommend you do is to book yourself in to a Pintxo Hunting tour with San Sebastian Food.  They will take you on a fascinating three hour degustation through the old town.  You will go to six different pintxo bars and discover the best pintxos in town, along with some interesting history and other relevant tales (such as the hot and spicy Gilda pintxo being named after Rita Hayworth).  It’s a great way to get your bearings and to make new friends.  We kept bumping into newly made friends over the next few days, sharing new discoveries with each other, which greatly added to our fun!

Before I move on to our discoveries/recommendations, here are a few top tips. 

1. Ordering  – some places are self service while others will serve you.  I found the best way to determine which was which was simply to watch the crowd for a minute and see what everyone else did.  You will either ask the bar staff for a plate and start helping yourself, or point to what you want while they plate it up for you.  A great thing to do though is order off the blackboards.  The specialty of the house will usually be written at the top of their pintxos list, and sometimes in a different colour chalk.
2. Some pintxos are cold, others are hot.  If you are in the self-service type place, hand your plate to them before tucking in so they can cook the ones supposed to be served hot.
3. Paper napkins are thrown to the floor.  Generally speaking, the more dirty napkins you see on the floor, the better the place!
4. Basque for thank you is “eskerrik asko”.  Saying thank you in Basque rather than Spanish will put a big, happy, appreciative smile on their faces 🙂

Right then, on to the amazing discoveries we made that I recommend you try:

Goiz Argi (Fermin Calbetón street)

• Brocheta de gambas – prawn skewer
• Marijuli – green peper, smoked salmon & smoked anchovy
• Pimientos de Padrón & Gindillas – green peppers (big and small ones)

Bar Sport (Fermin Calbetón street)

• Chipirón con vinagre de modena y salsa de ajo y perejil – baby cuttlefish with Modena balsamic vinegar and parsley and garlic sauce
• Calamari

Borda Berri (Fermín Calbetón Street)

• Salmorejo soup – a richer version of gazpacho
• Rissotto de Idiazabal – Idiazabal cheese (a local cheese) risotto – rich and absolutely delectable!

Gandarias (31 de Agosto street)

• Solomillo – sirloin steak – a seriously tasty bite size portion served simply on a piece of baguette
• Gilda – an olive, an anchovy, and 3 peppers on a toothpick

A Fuego Negro (31 de Agosto street)

• Aceitunas con vermuth – olives stuffed with vermouth 
• Makcobe – mini burger
• Pajarito – quail

La Viña (31 de Agosto street)

• The best cheesecake in the world!!!
• Accompany it with a glass of Pedro Ximénez – a glorious syrupy sweet wine

Nestor (Pescaderia street)

• An exception to the pintxos trend, this one is a full and very filling meal.  Specialties here are the steak, tomato salad, the pimientos de padrón (padron peppers), and the tortilla.  The steak is huge, definitely one to share between two people.  The tomato salad (also one to share between two people) is simple, but fresh and delicious; great to cut through the richness of everything else.  The tortilla (one piece per person) is out of this world!
• Hugely popular (and for good reason – absolutely and insanely delicious!), you need to allow time for this one.  When you arrive, put your name down for a space at the bar.  Once you get your space, you can order your food.  If you are just after a piece of tortilla, you don’t need a space.  But the tortilla is only served at 1pm and 8pm and you will need to be there at least half an hour before that to reserve your piece (once it’s gone, it’s gone, and go it does!).

Zeruko (Pescadería street)

• Heard of molecular gastronomy?  This one has molecular pintxos.  The specialty not to miss here is la hoguera – smoked cod with fine herbs mayonnaise and shot of liquid salad.  You will need to order this from the bar staff.

La Mejillonera (Puerto street)

• It may not look that nice a place, but they have the best patatas bravas in town.

PHOTOS (Apologies for the quality of some of the pictures, S really needs a new phone, the camera on hers is rubbish!  Thank goodness R used his phone for some of the photos!):

The pintxos:

Other things to do in San Sebastian:

‘Eskerrik asko’ for reading, and enjoy your adventure!