How (not) to eat out in San Sebastian
When you read up on the food scene before you visit a new town you’ll inevitably find dozens of articles with titles like ‘The 10 best places to eat in …’
In San Sebastian, such a notion doesn’t make much sense. There are around 200 eateries within 15 minutes walk of the centre of town and there are a whole bunch of them that arguably could make a top-10 list. It just depends on who writes the list. With this in mind, what follows is not a list of places to eat, but some simple principles that will help you make the most of your gastronomic tour of San Sebastian. (Update: I capitulated and wrote a list of our favourite places – the ones outside the tourist guides.)
Skip the queues
TV chefs and bloggers who authoritatively tell us where to go when we visit San Sebastian should be skewered with a red-hot pintxo. They tell us that we MUST visit Bar Nestor or La Viña or Bar Sport or Ganbara or Casa Urola; we routinely meet people clutching a list with these same old favourites.
Sure, these places have terrific food – and if you can get in easily, terrific – but the queues around the block during tourist season cut quite a tragic scene. There will be a place a few steps away with food that’s just as good and an atmosphere that’s far more pleasant because it’s not full of annoyed tourists.
These guys queued at Bar Nestor for an hour. We know because we watched them from our comfortable seat at Kapadokia across the lane.
So, skip the queues when you're eating out in San Sebastian. It’s a waste of time lining up to get standing room only in an arbitrarily popular bar, particularly if you’re only here for a few days.
Don't rely on Google reviews
The food here is demonstrably up there with the best in the world. Non-Spanish visitors are often blown away and are quick to leave a five-star review on Google. Unfortunately that often reinforces the previous point – the ‘must-visit’ places inevitably get five-star reviews from foreign visitors, while other places in the city get more considered judgement from locals and tourists from elsewhere in Spain who have grown up with terrific fare.
By the same token I’ve seen poor reviews posted by tourists who thought it took too long to be served (welcome to Spain), or that there were no vegan options on the menu, or that the barman didn’t speak English.
Of course, Google Maps is terrific for a host of other reasons, like finding opening hours and photos of a bar and its food. Instagram is increasingly common among the bars here, too. But dig a little deeper when you’re researching where to go.
Don't confuse the Basque region with the rest of Spain
Actually this goes for any region of Spain. Each part of the country is unique and offers a cuisine to reflect that. You won’t find paella in San Sebastian (if you do, go somewhere else). It’s very much a southern dish. You will, however, find a shirtload of rice dishes that are every bit as good.
In most of the rest of Spain, small plates of food are called tapas, but in Basque Country they’re pintxos. It’s a Basque word meaning skewer. It comes from the way they used to serve a tiny snack like a bit of sausage on a toothpick with your drink. These days you’ll still find lots of bits of food on a stick, but the word has come to mean any type of small nibble.
Don't be vegetarian or vegan
Nah, you’ll be fine – but you’ll have to search. A lot of dishes in San Sebastian that appear to be veg based will have seen at least one part of a pig, whether it’s been cooked in pork fat or there’s a sprinkle of crumbled ham on top. If you see the word vegano it can mean merely ‘we serve vegetables as well as a bucket-load of meat’. Nowadays, quite a few places have a menu with symbols denoting the dietary features of each dish.
There are a couple of restaurants with true vegan and vegetarian eateries that I can think of: Botanika, in Centro, and Orburo, half an hour’s walk away in Antiguo (but well worth the hike along the beautiful beaches).
In the more traditional bars, asking a barman if he has any vegetarian dishes can lead to confusion.
Think twice about visiting Michelin-star restaurants
In just about any other country, the gap in quality between your run-of-the-mill eatery and one who’s earned a Michelin star or three is immense. Not so in San Sebastian. The food-quality bell curve is much narrower than in most countries and is tightly clustered around the ‘excellent’ end. You can easily pay €400 a seat at a famous restaurant here, or you could instead pay €90 at one with a chef who doesn’t yet but very soon will have her own star. Even pintxo bars will offer food that’s of such high quality that you’ll wonder why you blew so much money at a top restaurant on silver service and some Instagram shots.
Don't expect servers to speak English
Quite a few places have a staff member or two who can speak a little English, but don’t count on it. Not to worry, once you know how it all works you can get by quite well.
Timing is everything
Before you head out for dinner check Google Maps for opening times. If you want to try a particular bar get there bang on the dot of opening. Many of the best places don’t open until 7, 7.30 or even 8 pm; just because a bar is open doesn’t mean the kitchen is operating yet.
This isn’t how the locals do it, by the way. They’ll happily mill about later in the evening until a space opens up. But if you’re here for only a short stay you don’t have time for that.
Not every business in this town is great with updating their opening hours. Expect mistakes. And though many places are closed on Sundays, Mondays and/or Tuesdays you’ll still find plenty that are open, no matter the day of the week.
Don't get get trapped in a plaza
It’s really easy and rather appealing to grab an outdoor table at a bar on one of the several plazas around the Old Town. Fine, if you’re just looking for somewhere to sit for a nibble and a gawk. But these places – like everywhere else in the world – tend to be tourist traps with sub-par food offerings (which of course isn't to say bad).
No reservations
Lots of bars across the city are on Google Maps and many of those have a ‘reserve’ button in their listing. While it’s tempting to reserve a few bars for a pintxo tour, bear in mind that reservations are meant for people wanting a proper sit-down dinner, not just pintxos. It’s rude to occupy a table if you’re not there for the full service.
There are a few exceptions: Kbzón Haundi in Gros and Sirimiri in the Old Town are notable. Both offer pintxos and are reservable through Google Maps. These are our go-to places when visitors show up, because fighting for space at a crowded bar when there are four of you can be a bit overwhelming at first. (Sirimiri is owned by a corporate mob unfortunately, but this is increasingly the case all over Spain.)
Mind the terrace
Most places with outside seating have table service for which they charge a few cents more for a drink than you'd pay inside. For that reason, it's bad form to order at the bar then carry your drink outside. You might spot a sign at smaller bars 'No hay service en la terazza': 'there's no service on the terrace', so go inside to order your drinks.
Get out of the Old Town
Not everything good is in the Old Town. Head across the river and check out Gros. It’s more of a family, neighbourhood-y place but it’s dense with fantastic places to eat.
Centro – where all the shops are – also has its own dining scene. Head around to the south of the cathedral in Reyes Catolicos (Catholic kings street, affectionately known as ‘Alcoholicos’) and you’ll find amazing bars and lots of terraces that aren’t tourist traps like the plazas in the Old Town.
On a nice day head to Antiguo, right along the end of the beach. Eateries are a little more scarce here so I’ll give you one of our best-kept secrets: La Cerveceria del Antiguo. Choose the bacalao con pistacho (salted cod with pistachio sauce) or the coulant de pulpo (a delightful mound of confit potato and octopus with a surprise inside). Be there by 12-ish for lunch or 6.30-ish for dinner to give yourself the best chance of finding a spot.
Skip the ultra-local bars
If you see a tiny bar with little old men chatting over a drink, think twice about going in. It’s not that they’re unwelcoming or unfriendly, it’s just that … well, how would you feel if a couple of galoots came into a bar where you’ve been eating and drinking every day for 40 years, sat down on the best stools, utterly failed to understand you, and then began to inexpertly point at your menu. We’re very seasoned drinkers and bar-goers but we tend to stay out of these places unless it’s really quiet.
Consider visiting in winter
Okay, you might not have a choice about when you can travel, but in July and August San Sebastian is hellish busy. European tourists have a much tighter holiday window than many of us. In the height of summer it’s kind of frantic and you’ll be constantly trying to squeeze in with a bunch of other tourists and waiting quite a while for service. Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world if you come in summer, it’s just a far more pleasant experience outside of peak season.
Believe it or not, winter is an awesome time to come here. There can actually be some beautiful sunny weather in the colder months. And you’ll have your pick of eateries.
