Restaurants in San Sebastian
 

We arrive around 8:00 pm in Hotel de Londres on a Saturday and we leave the following Saturday back to Canada. On Tuesday, we drive to the French side for an overnight stay and come back presumably already having had dinner .

My wife and would like to do 2 nights of Pintxos. That leaves us with 3 dinner nights to fill. Our criteria is a 1 star Michelin or comparably level of food. There are so many that we'd like your opinion. Tripadvisor is so hit and miss that we are reaching to the people at Fodors. Tasting menus is our favorite by the way.

Thanks in advance.

You might try the search function -- upper right hand corner. There have been any number of posts on dining in San Sebastian. Enjoy!

La Muralla has got a high quality and quite affordable tasting menu. Had a fabulous night here a couple of years ago, invited by a group of locals. http://www.restaurantelamuralla.com/es/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...e_Country.html

Casa Urola is my favourite "normal" restaurant in town since the late 80's. I always have my first night dinner in San Sebastian here. Chef Pablo Loureiro is considered one of the absolute best grill chefs in the Basque Country, and that tells a lot. Can't wait to get back here in October: http://www.casaurolajatetxea.es/es/portada/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...e_Country.html

Kokotxa is the only Michelin star restaurant in the Parte vieja/Old town. http://restaurantekokotxa.com/restaurante/

And it need not to be totally over the top expensive to go to the best restaurants in San Sebastián. Had a memory for life lunch at three star Akelarre not long ago for about 100€ pp. We had the "Sea garden" appetizers, the traditional and local fish and shellfish soup "a la Donostiarra", Hake and its Kokotxa with oyster and oyster Leaf, Grilled Iberic “Secreto” with pepper seeds and garlic in three different versions (we had two half main dishes on their suggestion), chocolates and a couple of glasses of wine.

I will especially remember the Akelarre version of the fabulous San Sebastián fish and shellfish soup (which usually is excellent also in "normal" restaurants, highly recommended!), and the Hake and Kokotxa is perhaps the best thing I've ever eaten. This page gives you an idea: http://driftingepicure.com/2013/03/28/akelarre-review/

Go here for lunch for the spectacular views: http://www.akelarre.net/public_home/...ccion=espacios

The other two and three star restaurants in town are also brilliant of course. I have a soft spot for Arzak, consitently among the ten best restaurants in the world the past 25 years. Had unforgettable meals here in 1996 and 2006, and in 2012 Elena Arzak was voted best female chef in the world: http://www.eater.com/2012/4/10/65973...st-female-chef

Here's a great video intro to the food and pintxos culture in San Sebastian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwmBAvqa_0U

@ kimhe -- that video showed one AWESOME pintxos crawl! Thanks so much! :-)

Thank you kimhe for those links. That last video was amazing . I wish I was there now! On the to do list!

kimhe---you just made my san sebastian trip.

to all, many thanks

Lunch tends to be the main meal of the day in the País Vasco, generally the opposite on the French side since dinner is not usually served in Donostia-San Sebastián until 21h00. Few places are open before then unless they deal mainly with foreigners. And very few places are open for dinner on Sunday.

Pintxos are normally done before lunch and starting around 19h30 each evening. Most places in the old quarter close at 23h00, a few are open until midnight. After that you can head to the Whiskey Museum for drinks and live music (www.museodelwhisky.com).

I second that @kimhe, I can't wait for my trip in June! My mouth is watering......
Kim

Try to avoid the somehow massified and "tourist oriented" bars at the Old Quarter, and go to Gros distric, much more for locals and with pintxos of great quality.

The local way is one pintxo per bar, and one drink, standing, never (ever) on a plate. Sadly, most bars offer a plate so you have four or five at their place. We find this very, very odd, as pintxos is never a meal for us, just an appetizer.

Here is a suggestde route for pintxos in Gros, many of the best places in town are here: http://www.todopintxos.com/ruta/ruta...cha_rutas&id=6

But there are some seriously good places in the Parte vieja/Old town as well. I especially recommend
Goiz-Argi: http://www.yelp.com/biz/goiz-argi-san-sebasti%C3%A1n-2
Txepetxa: http://www.bartxepetxa.com/
Gandarias: http://www.restaurantegandarias.com/es/
Ganbara: http://www.ganbarajatetxea.com/presentation

and La Cepa is an institution in town. The best cured ham in the world (from Jabugo in the Huelva province): http://www.barlacepa.com/en/

A very inspiring tale of pintxos hunting in San Sebastian in The Guardian from some years back: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandst...rink.shopping2

A lot has changed in Donostia the last 10 years, but one thing remains, Gabriella is still the best!

I especially enjoyed Ganbara with its piles of mushrooms!

This site may be useful:
http://www.travelcookeat.com/

I can not wait to get there

Carlos Maribona, a well known spanish food critic, has just written in his blog about two "hidden" restaurants in San Sebastian, Mirador de Ulia and Xarma.
Check them out, because their tasting menus look quite good (and Xarma`s one has a brilliant price, 65 euros)

http://abcblogs.abc.es/gastronomia/p...rma-16957.asp/

Rgds, Cova

We've been fans of Aizpea and Xabier since their days at the Monasterio Rocamador in Extremadura, and Xarma is a step above. They are members of Sukatalde, a new association of young chefs of Gipuzkoa.

Mirador de Ulia is one we've yet to try, but it always gets top marks at: www.academiavascadegastronomia.com

Xarma is just perfect...have yet to try Mirador de Ulía...Cova, long time!

Consider doing your fine dining at lunch and then enjoying pintxos at night.

<Consider doing your fine dining at lunch and then enjoying pintxos at night>

Normally pintxos can be a talkative starter to both lunch and dinner. Anyone local taking you for a night out will start with a couple of pintxos bars.

As Kimhe says, we locals like to have some pintxos before lunch or dinner, it´s never a meal for us. But visitors tend to "dine" on them, for some reason, and having many on a plate in the same bar. That´s something very odd for us, but of course visitors don´t have to know...

i guess as someone from Canada who rarely gets to eat authentic tapas and pintxos, you gorge at the sight of these food. Us visitors to get to dine everywhere else and its just another dining opportunity but tapas and pintxos is a treat for the week or so that we are there.

from videos and reading tips, they say try to order the specialty of each establishment, how does one figre this out specially with the language barrier?