I'm not letting anyone reading this in on a secret here...while San Sebastián is known for all…read moretheir Michelin Star restaurants, it's the Pintxos that will be the most memorable and really what foodies come here for. It's like a high end food festival out there, and you just bar hop from place to place eating all these wonderful Pintxos and drinking cold glasses of Txakoli - a refreshing lightly carbonated wine. Everything in Basque Country is local and they have it all. Atari Gastroteka was our first stop, and we showed up right when they opened for the first Pintxos of the day. We focused on the cold Pintxos at the counter, just pointed at whatever looked good and ate it. Some of my favorites were... The marinated red Piquillo Pepper stuffed with tuna salad on a baguette. Smoked Mackerel on tomato bread Smoked Salmon with shrimp, egg, tomato, cream cheese on a raisin walnut toast. Topped with pickled veggie relish. Man this hit every flavor profile perfectly. We needed a 2nd one of those when I went back for Round 2. Jamon with Brie, honey, on dark walnut bread. I'm pretty sure they quickly hit this with a blowtorch to get the honey to caramelize on the Brie and also scorching the bread slightly. I could keep going on....but whatever bites you get here will be fantastic. Best to go with people who enjoy sharing bites, so you can try many different things so you don't get full.

Atari was one of our favorite pintxos stops in San Sebastián. We sat outside in the open-air…read moreseating directly across from the beautiful Basilica of Saint Mary of the Chorus, and the setting couldn't have been better. Watching the square come alive in the evening while dining beneath the illuminated basilica made for a memorable experience. We ordered several pintxos to share, and every dish was excellent. The standout was the Carrillera (slow-braised beef cheek with mashed potatoes), which was incredibly tender, rich, and comforting. The Platillo de Bonito with tuna, anchovies, green peppers, and olives was fresh and full of classic Basque flavors. The Panceta (pork belly) was another highlight, perfectly crisp on the outside and meltingly tender inside. We also loved the creamy Croqueta de Jamón Ibérico, and the Bacalao Confitado con Pil Pil de Piquillos was beautifully cooked, with delicate cod and a silky piquillo pepper pil pil sauce. We couldn't resist trying the Pintxo Especial as well, and it was a great addition to the meal. The staff were warm and accommodating, helping us get a table outside and making us feel welcome throughout the evening. Inside, the restaurant has a lively, authentic Basque atmosphere, but the outdoor seating overlooking one of San Sebastián's most iconic churches makes the experience even more special. If you're looking for traditional Basque pintxos in a fantastic location, Atari is an easy recommendation. We'd happily come back on our next visit.

Excellent option for breakfast near the beach or the convention center. But not overrun. Excellent…read morecoffee of many sorts. The Turkish eggs with yogurt was a keeper and we split a moist big piece of carrot cake. Didn't get rushed out even though busy. Very accessible bathrooms definitely shows inclusion and forethought.

They started strong, had a fun atmosphere, a great menu, & the waitress was awesome. She was super…read morefast for how busy they were! The laté was a little watered down for my taste, orange juice, and kombucha were great! Ordered lime bread & the bread was pretty dry. Also ordered the benedict, and the egg was so undercooked/raw on the benny that I'm not sure how they got it on the avocado, no exaggeration! I was struggling, so I forgot to take a pic. For sure nowhere near as good as Old Town Coffee!

This city has great food! Basically anywhere you go, the food will be pretty and tasty. My…read moreboyfriend and I had to have a quick bite before heading off to the train station and we were walking around the streets and found this restaurant. We sat outside and I ordered cheese ravioli with a mushroom cream sauce. My boyfriend ordered a meat pizza. They placed bread on the table while we waited for our meal. The bread was so light and tasty I ate just about the whole basket. The meals came and they were delicious! I only wish there was more of it to eat. It was THAT good I did not want to stop eating it.

If you need a break from Spanish food, this is a great little Italian place. We had excellent pasta…read moreBolognese and pizza. It is also situated on a nice plaza with a playground for small kids and a merry-go-round. Prompt service and food served it lightning pace for Spain.

This was our first dinner in San Sebastián, made reservations ahead of time, because I heard so…read moremuch about their Txuleta steak. It lived up to expectations in every way. This steak is a much older cow (8 to 18 years old) than your normal US cow (1-2 years old). It's literally aged beef all those years while grazing, working, and milking. Such an amazing flavor. This is what we came here for. 40 oz of bone in ribeye for the table. Tabla de Iberico (half portion). This was the best charcuterie we had while in Spain. 4 amazing meats, definitely start your meal with this. Jamon Iberico de Bellota - stole the show, due to eating nothing but acorns, has such a nutty taste to it. But loved the other 3 as well. Chilled Spider Crab - this is another don't miss dish, although you can get it on Pintxos here and other places, this presentation in the crab shell is great. And it was the best crab salad we had anywhere. Txuleta 44 oz Bone-in Ribeye. They don't ask how you want it, it comes beautifully rare, nice crust on the outside, only topped with some course salt. It's not the most tender steak you've eaten, but the flavor makes up for it. You actually want each bite to last a bit. The fat has truly rendered into the meat here, delicious. Had to try both cheese cakes side by side Cheesecake #1 - House made Basque cheesecake with hazelnut ice cream. This was the winner of the two for me. Maybe not as fancy as the 2nd one. Cheesecake #2 - Rafa Gorrotxategi "Gandarias" Cheesecake with butter ice cream. This had an interesting top that was an apricot caramel glaze and an almond crust. It wasn't as sweet as the first one. Pretty though. We did return a few days later for their Pintxos and everything was delicious at the bar side as well. Can't see myself coming back to San Sebastián without eating here.

Mistral Coffee & Bakery has some very good ensaimadas and is definitely worth stopping by…read more I tried a few, but my favorite was the one with the cream filling. Soft, buttery, and perfectly balanced without being overly sweet.

Amazing place to get smoothies! Close to the beach, and quick service! Prices are fairly affordable!read more

Great acai bowl and very nice service. I would recommend. Bowl was fresh and the location was…read moreconvenient.

A wonderful spot in a very unassuming place. Located on the basement level of a supermarket, it me…read moreand my family a little time to find. Google maps will lead you to an abandoned looking building but turn around and you'll see a small glass building. Take the escalators down and look for Bar Azkena. We didn't know what to expect, but they have a great breakfast menu. For about 8 euro you get a tortilla patata (or try it with cod or chorizo), jamon tostada, orange juice and coffee. The guy at the counter was super nice and spoke a little bit of English. The food was amazing. You can really tell how fresh the ingredients are in this area and how they pride themselves in the food they serve.

What a spectacular little spot. Being a Monday around noon…read morein San Sebastian in mid-November, many restaurants were closed or on holiday. With curiosity we followed the Yelp recommendations to the small open plaza area outside a market building with signs showing "Pescaderia". The dot showed inside this market building so we ventured downstairs inside a fresh meat and produce market and walked around to find this small storefront with bar stool seating around the counter. All the pintxos are displayed ready for your choosing on the counter area. They have little signs in Spanish indicating the names/description of each plate. There is seating for about 8, maybe 10 people max around the counter. Sit down and select the ones you would like, they will heat it up if needed and pass you the plates. For food safety they don't allow you to take your own--we learned this when a couple next to us tried to take some of the plates themselves. The staff doesn't speak much English but were very friendly and welcoming, and tried their best to explain each item to us when we weren't sure what it was. All the food looked and tasted delicious and we enjoyed every single item, even doubling up on a couple of them since they were so tasty. Highly recommend this place for breakfast/brunch, would come back in a heartbeat next time we're in San Sebastian!

A must-visit for made-to-order, highly seasonal pintxos while in San Sebastián. Casa Urola features…read morea downstairs primarily for pintxos enthusiasts (made-to-order and pre-made pintxos paired with txakoli) and an upstairs sit-down restaurant for a more elevated experience. Both were highly recommended to me, but given my very ambitious food itinerary for San Sebastián, I opted for just the made-to-order pintxos downstairs. I found Casa Urola lively and busy, but not claustrophobic the way some of the other famous spots in Old Town can be, which was a HUGE plus. Coming on the earlier side of the evening crawl, I was actually able to snag a seat after ordering based on staff recommendations: the mushroom tart, the pumpkin and artichoke, and of course txakoli. The made-to-order menu is offered in both English and Spanish, which was a huge plus for an English-speaking tourist like me. Both pintxos were fabulous, highly seasonal, and ended up being favorites of the entire evening's crawl. I ended up sharing a table with another solo traveler and it was so fun to compare orders and see what we each thought was best. My biggest regret is that I was honestly still too full from my lunch crawl to try more. I wish I had been able to squeeze in another visit before I left San Sebastián, but alas, I'll have to save it for next time!

A highlight of downtown Donostia. Casa Urola is a classic on Fermín Calbetón with a lively pintxo…read morebar at street level and a calm dining room upstairs. The kitchen (long led by chef Pablo Loureiro) leans into market-fresh Basque cooking: seafood and vegetables cooked simply and precisely, often kissed by the grill. Service is warm and polished and a cold glass of Txakolina feels made for this room, or standing just outside at a high top, as we did. Dish-wise, my runaway favorite was the artichoke hearts, charred and buttery, sitting in a golden, silky sauce with little shards of jamón and nutty crumbs. I could have eaten twenty. A seared scallop arrived in a light, foamy sauce, topped with a tangle of crisp seaweed and a few toasted seeds. Sweet, briny, and rich without being heavy. Don't miss the cheese-and-pine-nut tartlets: flaky pastry, caramelized onions, and molten Basque cheese (think Idiazabal vibes) scattered with pine nuts. Everything landed perfectly seasoned and balanced. We paired it all with Txakolina and left plotting a return just for those artichokes. Classic Basque cooking here with a faint French twist that left us wanting more - but of course, it was time to continue eating our way down the street.

I figure I write a review since the reviews are outdated. We recently returned from our one week…read moretrip in San Sebastián- basically a food vacation for us. Most nights we had reservations and this is the only night we winged it. Got tired of Pintxos that day but we needed to eat something. Able to find on another site that should good reviews. We waited 10-15 minutes on a busy summer night for a table. Got a table with a view. Service was excellent as our waiter asked our preferred language. Every dish we got where delicious. Octopus was soft. Grilled Sardines was fresh. The grilled scallops was a hit. The price of food was reasonable. Would highly recommend.

We had a wonderful dinner at Igeldo's. We started with the Green Salad and bread. They even have…read moregluten free bread that comes out hot and crusty! We then had the Hake for 2. It was such a moist and flaky fish. It came with potatoes and peppers. The owners are very fun and quite attentive. They have many gluten free options at this great restaurant. We were very pleased.

It was a different feeling entering this contemporary furnished restaurant and its all white theme…read more It stood out for me, as most of the other bars and restaurants in the old part looked more ancient. There was not many people on a rainy sunday night and we got all the attention. The staff were pretty attentive. We ordered white wine and some pintxos. Along with Pulpo De Gallego dish. The Pulpo dish looked more like a modern take on traditional dish. It was tasty nonetheless. It was a good experience here and I enjoyed my time trying out many types of Pintxos. They do have a separate menu for hot Pintxos. I think once you spend a few night in the Old Town, you can get a hang of the variety of Pintxos that are served in the bars.

As a vegetarian it's already hard to find vegetarian-friendly places in Spain but when i walked…read morevast Beti-Jai and saw that it was a 2019 Michelin star restaurant, i figures they HAD to have something. Honestly the food was good! Not a big fan of the tart (specifically because i don't like Brie), but i loveeeed the egg sandwich and another dish (but i don't remember the name) that they made for me. The chef was really sweet; he explains to me which dishes he could make vegetarian and which he recommended. It's pretty affordable too! Surprising for sure considering the location and the face that it's Michelin star. Do go hear, even if it's for a small tapa because the food is good but also the service is great!

La Vina is where Basque Burnt Cheesecake was invented, and not that long ago really, created here…read morein 1988. But restaurants all over the world copied the burnt top idea, which gives it an almost caramelized flavor to it. This cheesecake has only 5 ingredients, cream cheese, sugar, heavy cream, eggs, and a tbsp of flour. The line is out the door for this place, everyone wanting their famous cheesecakes. They are constantly being baked and are cooling all over the place. And the smell inside is wonderful. The consistency of the inside of the cheesecake might surprise you. If allowed to sit for a few hours, it's a nice velvety interior. If they slice one that hasn't cooled that long, the inside may be custardy. They don't seem to mind how the center is set. Multiple people are slicing different cheesecakes to order, and one was fairly set, and the other was pretty liquid in the middle. I believe if it's that way, they view it as a flan, or molten interior. I will say, I saw a lot of the runnier slices of cheesecake getting thrown out by customers, so I wasn't the only one that preferred the center a little more set. I wonder if you can request a slice from a cooler one. The flavor was delicious of course, and surprisingly you get two slices per order. We didn't need four slices. But it did allow us to have 2 different textures and compare them side by side.

Worth the pilgrimage for the original Basque cheesecake…read more Like many visitors to San Sebastián, we came to La Viña for one reason: to try the cheesecake that inspired countless versions around the world. This is where the famous Basque cheesecake was created, and after finally tasting it, I completely understand why people line up for it. The first thing that surprised me was the texture. If you're expecting a dense New York-style cheesecake, this is completely different. It's incredibly creamy and custard-like in the center, with a beautifully caramelized top that adds just the right amount of depth. It's rich without feeling heavy, and somehow disappears from your plate much faster than you'd expect. I also loved that La Viña still feels like a traditional neighborhood bar rather than a tourist attraction. Locals stop in for pintxos and wine, while visitors from all over the world come for a slice of cheesecake. The mix gives the place a lively, authentic atmosphere that's part of the experience. My advice? Don't overthink it. Order the cheesecake, find a spot if you can, and enjoy it exactly where it was born. Sometimes the originals really are the best, and this is one of those cases. If you're visiting San Sebastián, La Viña is a stop that's absolutely worth making.