Real Foodies go to the Basque Country

[casaladra9]

yes, i know, there are well known great restaurants in most big cities of Espana, and excellent food in the smaller towns if you know where to go. i'm just sayin...i've been all over the country and you cannot beat Donostia and Bilbao for amazing spanish cuisine..just my dos pesetas ...sorry ...euros

[porker]

Locals may have their favorite place for particular tapas. As a visitor in San Sebastian's Parte Vieja, I think a general tapas crawl, just letting yourself go from place to place, would blow you away.
It certainly is a benchmark for me.

[MOREKASHA]

In SS, go for the sitdown lunch, then at night do the crawl in the old 1/4. It's very, very hard to go way wrong in SS.

[comamos]

Hi - i am currently planning a free-n-easy solo trip in the northwest of spain (landing at bilbao/san sebastian and traveling leftwards along the coast).. what are some of the restaurants that you would recommend? i am trying to get a spot at arzak, but they have not emailed a confirmation as yet.

[Parigi]

There are lots of threads on San Se.
For example try this recent one:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6978...

[Quimbombo]

If no reservation available for Arzak try Akelare <in MO is better than Arzak> or Martin Berasategui, the food is literally ethereal.

http://www.akelarre.net/web/index.htm

http://www.martinberasategui.com/

[Parigi]

Martin Berasategui's parents still have their Bedegon Alejandro in the old town of San Sé, serving very good traditional seafood-leaning fare. And very reasonably priced. Martin B apprenticed there as a teenager and still supervises it.

[Quimbombo]

Didn't know that.

Hope I remember for our next trip to SS.

Gracias Amigo.

[Parigi]

Before my sex change, I am still amiga, me hopes.

[Quimbombo]

<blush>

Sincerest apologies, Amiga.

[Parigi]

Oops I meant Bodegòn Alejandro, not Bedegon.

[Quimbombo]

Let's not ignore the Pays Basque in France either. There are a couple or so of very good restaurants in the Basque region of France, less than 45 mins from San Sebastian.

Check the French board on this site.

[JuanDoe]

What about the "pintxos" bars?
http://www.donostia.org/info/sansebastianturismo/turismo_imagenes.nsf/0/FC12010BA7B44139C12575EF003253C7/$File/foto52.jpg

http://www.todopintxos.com/pintxos/pi...