Any restaurants not to miss in La Rioja/Burgos?

[JoanneFB]

We'll be there for only 2 nights but are wanting to find a good to great restaurant (but not too formal) with a great wine list with some old Riojas - any ideas are appreciated!

[E Eto]

I tried to make a trip to La Rioja last year, but our plans were thwarted by a freak blizzard that kept us in Burgos for a few days. Despite scrapping our plans for La Rioja and the Basque province, we had a good time in Burgos.

Rioja
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/379695

Burgos:
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/398115
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/392674
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/398074

[Simon Majumdar]

I am not a great fan of Burgos particularly as it is one of those towns where they practice "Tapateid" i.e giving a free tapa to the locals but not to the visitors

But, Restaurant El Angel on Calle De Paloma (very central) is excellent

A slightly nuevo approach to classic asador cooking, but still maintaining the basic integrity. Their pata negro is some of the best I have ever tried and the codero lechal likewise. Stunning wine list too.

Hope this helps

[Nab]

Just got back from a trip to northern Spain with a few days in La Rioja. In La Rioja, I would chase down a place that has "chuletillas al sarmiento" -- lamb chops cooked over the dried grape vine branches, a classic dish of the area. From what I was told, many places do not prepare it this way anymore due to recent regulations now requiring that this method be conducted outdoors, thus folks have switched to preparing their chuletillas indoors with gas.

I never got there, but was told a place called Terete in Haro cooks 'al sarmiento' outdoors and is known for their lamb dishes in general.

I stayed in Laguardia, and actually quite liked this place by the gas station called Las Postas. Pretty decent chuletillas a la brasa, very nice warmed goat cheese salad, and the kokotxas de bacalao en salsa verde were very good. The throat of cod, cooked very much like the classic Basque dish "bacalao al pil pil", to create that rich, gelatinous, emsulsion-sauce from the fatty fish. They have a pretty deep wine list with reasonable prices. The owner, Ramon, will make you feel at home (and speaks English, from his days playing professional jai alai in Florida). He tells me they plan on moving to the other side of town by August or so.

If and when I return, I plan on doing some more thorough research and spending most of my time at the smaller, family-run bodegas (as opposed to the big, commercial operations). I did make it to Muga and Lopez de Heredia, the latter being particularly stunning and one not to miss -- hand-crafted wines made the good ol' fashioned way they've been doing since they started.

http://www.lopezdeheredia.com

[Parigi]

"kokotxas de bacalao en salsa verde were very good. The throat of cod, cooked very much like the classic Basque dish "bacalao al pil pil", to create that rich, gelatinous, emsulsion-sauce from the fatty fish"

Yes !
We were just in San Sebastian, renting a place in the Parte Vieja. The lovely old market is practically next door. Not speaking much Spanish, we asked in a combination of French-minimal Spanish-even more minimal Basque-pantomime what the voluptuous-looking kokotxas were. Several poissonniers just pointed to their throat. We did a slow fry with it. It was very consistent and was more like stew meat.
Boy, the Basques sure know about eating.