As with most places in Spain, we found San Sebastian to be absolutely delicious. One thing I had to get used to was that ordering wine at most of the pintxo bars was done at the mercy of the bartender, who rarely spoke English. With no posted menu available, I generally requested a ‘tinto’ and drank what they gave me. At an average of $2 a glass, this worked fine most of the time but I definitely preferred the places with a wine list. Also, the pintxos skewed heavily fishy so Eric wound up eating quite a lot of jamon and cheese on toast.
Here are a few of our favorite snacks from the trip…
the most famous pintxo in town, the Gilda (guindilla peppers, a Cantabrian anchovy fillet, and manzanilla olives on a toothpick); pirate donuts from a local bakery
Zazpi – everything we had here was amazing, but the best was the roasted beef cheek – plus they had a great rose on the menu
Paco Bueno – crowded but good wine and blue cheese / sardine toasts
La Mejillonera – mussels & Padrón peppers; also very crowded!
Bar Sport – my second favorite place for quality of pintxos
La Viña – much touted cheesecake was tasty but I am pretty sure they gave us two portions when I only ordered one
Bar Zeruko – this place was hit and miss – the tabletop items were good but my hot tuna dish was not
Unfortunately, one of our top choices, Bar Nestor, was closed for the exact three days we were in town. Boo. We also visited La Cuchara de San Telmo but were unimpressed with the beef cheek after falling in love with Zazpi’s version.