San Sebastian: food & drink

by | Oct 12, 2016 | Food & Drink, International Travel, Travel

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…

gilda pintxo with cava and white wine  pirate pastries!
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

pintxo @ Zazpi (our favorite spot in town) 
Zazpieverything we had here was amazing, but the best was the roasted beef cheek – plus they had a great rose on the menu

red wine in Old Town  a crowd gathers for snacks
Paco Bueno – crowded but good wine and blue cheese / sardine toasts

tasty mussels w/ lots of company
La Mejillonera – mussels & Padrón peppers; also very crowded!

pintxos @ Bar Sport
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

little fish on bread  how am I going to eat this?
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.

Our Itinerary

2024 Trips

San Diego, CA (Jan)
Sarasota, FL (Feb)
Madrid, Spain (Mar)
Valencia, Spain (Mar+Apr)
Palma, Mallorca (Apr)
Croatia (May)
Long Island, NY (July)
Faroe Islands (Aug)
London, UK (Sept)
Bari, Italy (Sept)
Rome, Italy (Oct)
Frankfurt, Germany (Oct)
Grand Rapids, MI (Nov)
London, UK (Dec)
Manchester, UK (Dec)

2022 Trips

Florida (Feb)
NC Mountains (Apr)
Washington DC (Apr)
Valencia, Spain (May)
Hilton Head, SC (May)
Pacific NW (Jun)
Long Island (Jul)
Florida (Sept)
Chicago (Sept)
Poland (Sept)
NC Mountains (Nov)
Euro Xmas Markets (Dec)