The Basque Country is a place that gets you thoroughly hooked on eating.

The sea breeze is salty, the charcoal is hot, and the wine in your glass is never poured stingy. In this stretch of northern Spain, eating has become a daily practice that borders on faith. From street bars to destination restaurants, from seafood to charcoal fire to bite after bite of pintxos, everything here carries a sharp, direct vitality — a genuinely hard place not to fall for.

This piece focuses on restaurants in the two cities of San Sebastián and Bilbao, plus the destination restaurants out in the surrounding countryside that plenty of diners put at the top of their bucket list.

Hotel options for both cities are included too~

Kept as concise as possible, this still runs over 4,000 words, covers 13 restaurants, and maps out roughly a 5-day itinerary — worth bookmarking first.

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San Sebastián

In town: Borda Berri, Ganbara, La Cuchara de San Telmo, Bassk (La Viña) | Rekondo, Bar Sport, El Tamboril, Lanperna Jatetxea

Nearby: 🐟 Elkano, 🥩 Laia, 🍴 Martín Berasategui

Borda Berri

Fermin Calbeton Kalea, 12, 20003 Donostia / San Sebastián

The first order of business on arriving in San Sebastián: drop the bags and go eat.

Map out every pintxos bar you’re interested in on Google Maps and you’ll notice they’re basically all clustered around the old town. Each place has its own signature dish — order two per stop, and one meal can turn into a crawl through several bars.

Walking up to Borda Berri, you could already see the crowd spilling out the door. Getting inside to find two open seats felt lucky. The chalkboard was covered edge to edge with wine and food.

Carrilleras de ternera — beef cheek. Braised so soft you don’t even need a knife; a fork alone pulls it apart. The seasoning was spot-on, the meaty aroma full and clean, dotted just right with flecks of salt on the surface.

The Risotto de Idiazábal came recommended by the server, made with the local smoked cheese Idiazábal. Both the dairy and smoky aromas were intense — one bite in and it was a guilty kind of satisfaction. The rice grains were silky in the mouth, with small chunks of cheese folded through.

Heard the crispy pig ear is also excellent — next time.

Ganbara

C. de San Jerónimo, 21, 20003 Donostia / San Sebastián

Ganbara is one of the most iconic star restaurants in San Sebastián’s old town. Ask any hotel or local “where should I go for pintxos” and it lands solidly near the top of the list every time. Rain or shine, a line forms out front before it even opens.

On a tip from someone in the know, we called ahead this time and booked a dinner seat. The ground floor is mainly a lively standing-room space for tourists eating pintxos, while downstairs hides a reservation-only dinner level. Compared to the noise upstairs, this felt more like a place to sit down and properly eat a meal — and most of the guests were locals.

Even the chicken croquette to start was an instant favorite — the shell fried crisp, the inside impossibly creamy, with a whole piece of chicken tucked into the molten cheese. Deeply satisfying, and it immediately kicked the appetite into gear.

You could clearly feel why this place is loved by so many: it makes the most of local ingredients’ natural strengths, and its cooking control is razor-precise.

The Basque Country is mountainous all around, so wild mushrooms are naturally one of this land’s strong suits. Ganbara’s method looks almost too simple — just seared, lightly salted, egg yolk — yet it fully amplifies the mushroom’s own flavor. The aroma runs deep, the mushroom flavor is intense, and each variety carries its own distinct textural character.

The red carabineros shrimp is the absolute heavyweight of the local seafood. The moment the bright red, oversized shrimp hits the table, it already commands the room. Suck the head first — the sweetness is direct and immediate. Then the meat, with texture running from rich and fatty to firm, leaving a long finish in the mouth as the flavor slowly unfolds from intense into a sweet, clean savoriness.

A genuine dual expression of freshness and heat control.

There’s also small green peppers, tomatoes, razor clams, and ham on the menu — Ganbara’s relaxed, direct way of expressing ingredients pushes the idea of “working with what the land gives you” about as far as it can go.

La Cuchara de San Telmo

Santa Korda Kalea, 4, 20003 Donostia / San Sebastián

Bassk

Erregina Erregeordea kalea, 20003 Donostia / San Sebastián

La Cuchara de San Telmo was another place hyped up hard during trip-planning. The space is tiny, no reservations taken, and lining up before opening is basically the norm — a place you have to squeeze your way into just to get a bite.

Their crispy suckling pig is the signature. One cut in — just a touch of pressure needed to break the skin — and with a crack, the meat inside falls open naturally along its grain. Fat and meaty aroma spread easily through the mouth; genuinely satisfying to eat.

The overall flavor profile leans noticeably heavier here, with the sauce more assertive too — sweetness and intensity both pushed more directly. The kind of place that hits you head-on.

Big portions, great with drinks, better suited to a few people sharing and sampling a few bites each — that’s actually how you get the most enjoyment out of it.

La Viña, the birthplace of Basque cheesecake, was closed for the winter, so we went instead to Bassk Cheesecake, run by the same team — now a chain, but still with a location near San Sebastián’s old town.

It didn’t deliver the knockout punch we were hoping for, but the balance of milk, egg, sugar, and caramelized aroma was solid, with an almost-melting softness at the center — a very standard rendition. By comparison, the output from the old-school local pastry shop Otaegui felt a touch stiffer.

There are also a few more heavily-hyped restaurants in the old town worth checking out if you have time: Rekondo, Bar Sport, El Tamboril, Lanperna Jatetxea.

Elkano

Herrerieta Kalea, 2, 20808 Getaria, Gipuzkoa

Elkano sits in Getaria, a beautiful little fishing village 30 minutes from San Sebastián by car — the god of charcoal-grilled fish that draws diners from around the world, and No. 24 on the 2025 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

There’s a tasting menu (€196), plus individually customizable à la carte options; the classic fish jaw + half a shrimp + whole grilled fish is just right for two people.

The various small seafood dishes all express real freshness, but the main event is always the whole grilled fish. It hits a perfect balance of charcoal, fish flesh, gelatinous richness, and sweetness. One fish, single-handedly performing an entire bowl’s worth of top-tier Buddha Jumps Over the Wall.

Full write-up 👉 Elkano | A Grilled Fish Renowned the World Over

Laia Erretegia

Arkolla Auzoa Auzoa, 33, 20280 Hondarribia, Gipuzkoa

Laia Erretegia is 25 minutes by car from central San Sebastián in the Basque Country — No. 3 on World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants 2025, and holder of 2 Suns from Guía Repsol 2025.

Laia’s most famous dish is its steak, built on the combination of aging and charcoal fire. The top-grade Txuleta, Côte de bœuf PREMIUM TOP, aged 45 days. It doesn’t chase that satisfaction-through-marbling angle — instead it comes across firm yet fine-grained, deeply satisfying to keep eating, with concentrated flavor that holds up well even as it cools.

Beyond the steak, of course, Laia’s starters and desserts are both built on solid ingredients and technique too, and the wine cellar is genuinely impressive. Booking three days ahead is enough, no stress at all.

Full write-up 👉 Laia | Eating the World’s No. 3 Steak Deep in the Mountains

There’s also Bilbao’s long-established three-Michelin-star Martín Berasategui, well worth a visit too — though note it’s closed in winter; for reference, see 👉 Lasarte in Barcelona.

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Bilbao

In town: Café Bar Bilbao, La Olla de la Plaza Nueva, Víctor Montes, Bascake | La Venta del Romerete, Los Fueros, Antxoa Taberna

Nearby: 🔥 Txispa, 🍴 Azurmendi

Café Bar Bilbao

Pl. Berria, 6, Ibaiondo, 48005 Bilbao, Bizkaia

La Olla de la Plaza Nueva

Pl. Berria, 2, Ibaiondo, 48005 Bilbao, Bizkaia

The spots locals recommend in Bilbao are also, as it turns out, in the old town. Start the morning at the city’s Erribera Merkatua market, considered one of Europe’s four great indoor markets. Five minutes’ walk from there gets you to Plaza Nueva, Bilbao’s most popular cluster of pintxos bars.

Before you start eating, adjust your mindset — imagine grabbing breakfast on the streets of Wuhan~

Café Bar Bilbao is one of the most iconic old-school restaurants in Bilbao’s old town, open since 1911. Compared to the more creativity-and-buzz-driven pintxos bars, this place has more of an unhurried, old-café ease to it. Even early morning it’s already packed with locals having coffee, reading the paper, and grabbing a bite on the side.

We were recommended a mushroom-themed pintxo. The mushroom itself had plenty of crunch and juice, with a touch of meaty aroma underneath giving it more body, and the bread underneath was soft yet held its structure. Solid, old-school, deeply satisfying.

La Olla de la Plaza Nueva is a slightly fancier presence in this same cluster — a bit more of a modern-bistro polish, and a cleaner-cut space too.

Their pitch-black fried baby squid. Expected it to be heavy, but it turned out not the least bit greasy — the shell fried crisp, while the seafood inside kept its own springiness and freshness. Eating it made you want to grab a drink immediately.

Víctor Montes

Pl. Berria, 8, Ibaiondo, 48005 Bilbao, Bizkaia

Bascake

Colón de Larreátegui K., 23, Abando, 48001 Bilbao, Bizkaia

Víctor Montes is another place with real character of its own. Compared to the more casual bars around the plaza, it’s noticeably more refined, carrying the poise and polish of an old-school restaurant. We walked in fifteen minutes before opening and already found guests who hadn’t ordered food yet, just gathered together drinking while waiting for the rest of their group to arrive.

The cod pintxo — grilled bell peppers laid underneath, topped with a smooth garlic emulsion closer to pil-pil style, paired with bread — came across a bit like an elevated fish sandwich. Salty, savory, soft, with a touch of rich fattiness. Not ordering a drink at this point would honestly feel a little rude.

On the walk back to the hotel, we swung by Bascake, which recently opened in the new part of town. Their Basque cheesecake was soft with real layers to it — a gentler dairy aroma and an almost molten softness. Every layer was delicious in its own way, melting together as you went — genuinely hard to resist.

With cake, whatever you personally like is probably the best one.

Also worth trying around Bilbao: La Venta del Romerete, Los Fueros, and Antxoa Taberna are all solid picks.

Txispa

San Juan Auzoa, 45, 48291 Apatamonasterio, Bizkaia

In the Basque Country, driving or taking a taxi out to the countryside to eat is rarely cheap, and Txispa, as one of these “village restaurants,” makes that especially clear. But it’s precisely because of that effort that you come to realize just how worth it the whole trek is.

Chef Tetsuro Maeda, a Tokyo native raised in Kanazawa. He spent 10 years as sous chef at what is now the world’s No. 2 restaurant, Asador Etxebarri.

He went independent in 2023, opening his own place on a hillside just a few hundred meters from his mentor’s restaurant, and earned a Michelin star within just six months. Now ranked No. 85 on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list — a rising star drawing serious attention in the Basque Country in recent years.

Finishing the meal left us excited and genuinely moved.

From the cooking itself, you can clearly feel three forces layered together: a Japanese upbringing and palate structure; technique and cooking control honed through years in professional kitchens; and an understanding and respect for the rustic ingredients of these Basque mountains.

Full write-up 👉 Txispa | A Rising Star of the Grill

Azurmendi

Barrio Leguina, s/n, 48195 Uria, Biscay

Compared to the Basque Country’s other restaurants, Azurmendi — a three-Michelin-star holder for many years running — comes across as all flourish with the ingredients and flavor both falling short of average.

This is the restaurant of Eneko Atxa, one of the youngest chefs in Spain ever to earn three Michelin stars, located in the mountains about twenty minutes’ drive from central Bilbao.

It’s been named World’s Most Sustainable Restaurant twice, and has held the No. 1 spot on Elite Traveler’s world ranking. In terms of setting, service, and plating, it genuinely lives up to its green-star status. But when it comes to the food itself, showmanship has outpaced flavor — the saltiness masks the ingredients, more than a little like a kindergartner who’s eager to express themselves but hasn’t yet found any logical order to it.

Full write-up 👉 Azurmendi | A Three-Michelin-Star Plain Bun? (Plus a Bilbao Snack Guide)

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🥢 Hotel Options

We stayed at three different hotels in San Sebastián this trip, each happening to match a different need.

Hotel Maria Cristina is the kind of old-school palatial hotel you remember after just one stay. The presence, the service, the details are all complete — in the classic-luxury-hotel category, it has just about everything covered.

Nobu Hotel San Sebastián is a completely different flavor of luxury hotel. It faces the coastline directly and is stunning on a clear day. In terms of room comfort, it was the best of the three — modern, effortless, and easier to genuinely unwind in. The only downsides: it’s a taxi ride from the old town, and the hotel’s own food really isn’t great.

Lasala Plaza Hotel was the most practical of the three. Close to both the harbor and the old town, with an overall simpler style, but it has everything you actually need — the location alone makes daily life noticeably more convenient.

For Bilbao, we’d suggest considering The Artist Grand Hotel of Art, right across the street from the famously well-known Guggenheim Museum. The decor may look modern and minimal, but the rooftop gives you a sweeping view of the whole city, and it has everything you could want.

The Basque Country is a place you genuinely fall for from the heart — utterly taken with the passion it raises up through food and nature.

Could never get enough of it — already waiting for the next round.