Where to Eat the Best Food of Your Life in Spain

A good tortilla is hard to find. Just eggs, potato, and caramelized onion. In the north of Spain, the tortilla de patata should be suitably mocosa, or runny.  One of the best tortilla de patatas in Spain is at Bar Nestor, a diminutive spot in the city’s Parte Vieja, or Old Town. But to get your taste buds on a slice, you’re going to have to do a bit more than just fork over three euros.

They only make two pizza-sized tortilla’s per day, one at noon and one at 7 p.m., and people plan their day around trying to get a coveted slice. Get in line at 11:30 am or 6:30 pm and when the storefront shutters rise, give your order and your name and they’ll tell you to return in 45 minutes. And finally, after all that jostling, you’ll have a slice of warm, runny tortilla in your hands to savor. Nestor makes dozens of other pintxos too, and they’re all very good, but it has become the go-to spot for tortilla de patatas.

Just down the street from Bar Sport is another must-visit eating institution. Since 1956, family-owned Casa Urola has been the superlative spot for hyper-seasonal snacks. There’s a sit-down dining room upstairs (be sure to make reservations well in advance) and a ground-floor informal pintxos bar. Like most bars in the Basque Country, you can point to your desired pintxo at the bar or order a warm pintxo. Go with the latter. The menu changes based on seasonal ingredients, but expect to find small plates of grilled foie gras in a white bean stew, seared scallops in a garlicky ajoblanco sauce, and a tart of mushrooms, pine nuts, and local, ultra-buttery unpasteurized Idiazabal cheese.

Show up around 6:55 p.m. at Arrandegi Kalea 5 in the Parte Vieja section of San Sebastián and you’re certain to see a small throng of hungry people milling about. But at 7 p.m. the shutters magically roll heavenward like the opening of a stage curtain and it’s time to partake in this anchovy-eating peep show at its most exquisite.

Welcome to Bar Txepetxa (pronounced “Cheh-peh-chah”) where a few generations of the Marañón family have been serving some of the freshest, most plump, and most seductive anchovies in town. Try the anchovy topped with blueberry jam, a seemingly improbable, yet almost indecent, risqué liaison of ingredients that might make your palate blush with delight. The salted uni-topped anchovy may make your heart pound a bit faster.  And don’t roll over and sleep on the famed matrimonio, two plump Cantabrian anchovies–one a boqueron, the other an anchoa— marinated in wine vinegar and olive oil laying on a bed of parsley on a slice of bread.

You’ll easily recognize Ganbara in the Old Town because there’s a perpetual line snaking out the front door. Anthony Bourdain made his love for Ganbara no secret. And so once word got out to his army of hungry devotees, Ganbara became something of an edible shrine.

There’s so much emphasis on seafood and various parts of the pig at pintxos bars in the Basque Country that vegetables tend to get overlooked. Not at Ganbara. Order anything with mushrooms—especially the seared wild mushrooms with raw egg yolks and foie gras—and you’ll be more than happy you waited in that line on the street to get in.

Set on the bustling corner of the streets Abuztuaren 31 and Mayor across from the Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Coro, where the steps are often crammed with revelers in the evening, Atari serves up some serious haute versions of pintxos. If the seared foie gras wading in a corn and white chocolate sauce is on the menu, order it immediately. Other standouts include creamy cod croquettes, roasted pork belly atop a dollop of hummus, and slow-cooked egg.

This popular spot can nearly do no wrong. While cured pig legs dangle from the ceiling like stalactites and the floor-to-ceiling windows are great for people watching, the chefs here churn out gooey and crunchy jamon croquetas, tender pig cheeks, and flavor-bursting head-on prawns, among other saliva-inducing morsels. But the main reason to point yourself to Gandarias is for the beef. Order a pintxo of medium-rare solomillo, or sirloin, and be prepared for this umami flavor bomb to explode when it lands on your tongue.