Pound for pound best meal of the trip other than the three Michelin epic we had a coupe of days later. By far the best value, and super enjoyable. Run by a Peruvian couple. He’s in the kitchen while she’s putting the finishing touches in the front, with their Italian friend helping with the serving. All bar seating.
Scallop Gildas - With the usual Gilda ingredients except raw scallops instead of anchovies, plus roasted tomatoes, pine nuts, and Parmigiano Reggiano. Even tho the scallops sort of got lost in the shuffle, this was absolutely delicious.
Bun - Asian style, steamed in a Bamboo steamer. Filled with Iberian pork, kimchi mayonnaise and pickled beetroot. Another great dish tho could have probably shared one.
Smoked Steak Tartare - Comes with droplets of Egg yolk sauce and Idiazabal Cheese. Holly smokes this was good. Some of the best I’ve had in recent memory. Hand chopped, well balanced and the smokiness took it to another level.
Rice paella with duck breast - With mushrooms and alioli. This is baby angels singing variety. Fantastic texture and flavors throughout, especially if you appreciate a good socarrat
Grilled Sirloin - mushroom puré, egg yolk sauce and coffee foam. Perfection. Some of the best cooked beef of the trip.
Hazelnut and choc dessert - Served inside a coffee bean shaped plate. Simple all considering but still felt proper.
Its located in the Gros neighborhood, just happened to be right across the street from our hotel. Go before it gets a star and prices double.
I’m not going to mention how much time I spent picking our Besugo feast, out of the 5 or so places in Orio. After countless of reviews, pictures, blog posts, interviews with the chefs via Zoom, etc, I settled on this old timer. Very happy with this pick.
Joxe Mari is the Besugo (red Seabream) pioneer, while Xixario was the second. Current owner Juan Carlos Beltrán from Tixuana was cooking them for 18 years at Xixario before buying the restaurant and he’s still the one grilling today. We had a nice conversation while he was cooking our fish, tho he would rather talk about NY weather and Home Alone than fish.
Started with an excellent tomato and tuna salad. So simple yet so good when the ingredients are top notch.
Grilled shrimp, sublime. One of the reasons I picked Xixario. So sweet and addictive.
And the Besugo, outrageous to say the least. Meaty, vinegary, yet very light. You could really feel the vinegar at first but it settles down quickly. Worth the price (around 100). Washed it down with a nice local Txakoli. Even their homemade dessert (like a Basque Napoleon with ice cream) was fantastic
By the time we left the place was packed with locals.
I’m totally enjoying your customarily excellent report. We will be in Bilbao for a week in March. Likely will do a day trip to San Sebastian, too. Looking forward to it even more, having read this.
I really need to go back to the North, especially after reading your (once again) terrific report. I do think you ought to consider Galicia in the near future.
Kintoa, the local French Basque breed, was an endangered species, a breed almost in extinction in the 1980s until Pierre Oteiza “rescued” it. One can tour his piggy farm deep in the beautiful Les Aludes and visit his cute pink and black piglets, and also have a meal there in his boutique, as we did.
There’s where I learned the meaning of Kintoa.
“In 1237, the King of Navarre decided to demand a fifth of every herd of this breed of pig in exchange for the farmers being allowed to graze their pigs in the royal mountains in the autumn. The tax was commonly known as “kintoa,” from “quinta,” meaning “fifth,” which eventually became the name of this area, particularly suited to pig farming”. They feed on acorns, ferns and chestnuts.
I’m impressed with your extensive research of the Orio besugo temples!
We just followed Phil Rosenthal to Joxe Mari.
El Correo calls Xixario the “Sistine Chapel of Besugo”!
For those following along, the other Orio besugo temples are Asador San Martín in the countryside, the Orioko Barra at the beach and the newcomer, Bodegas Katxiña, also a txakolina winery, tucked up in the hills with splendid mountain views, taking an exit to the left, east side of town on the old N 634.
This year the besugo festival (“Bisigu Eguna” , bisigu=besugo in Basque), usually scheduled on San Pedro day in the middle of July, was rescheduled to October 3-5, pared down and now called the Parrilla (grill) Festival. The gulf doesn’t have enough of the species to meet the great demand of a large festival and in July the master grillers were all extremely busy in their respective restaurants to tend to the crowds.
So this year, during the Parrilla Festival, they grilled chicharros (horse mackeral), turbot and sardines, the fish in season in October. The grill meisters of the 5 besugo temples were in attendance.
The Katz’s Deli of San Sebastián? An hour line to get in. Didnt mind so much honestly as that was the perfect time for her to do some souvenir shopping. And the line I feel is part of the experience as you meet plenty of people. By the time it was over I was invited to a bar mitzvah in Guatemala.
Since there’s a long line the plan shifted from pintxos crawl to ordering enough food for today and much of tomorrow. The famed mushrooms with egg, one of the reasons I was here, worth the hype even though it’s very simple. A mix of Chanterelles and Cepes (Porcini) with egg yolk. Couldn’t get enough of the mushrooms on this trip.
Tuna belly carpaccio, silky smooth, rich and very flavorful. Just could have used a little less oil. Seared foie gras, just like you expect. There was a monkfish and shrimp toast. Spider crab tart. All good. Fresh and tender razor clams. But perhaps my favorite dish of the night was the shrimp in garlic sauce. Small but potent. Didnt get a good pic. Torrija was the only ok dish. A far cry from the Torrijas of Andalucia.
Nice photos if your feast!
Yes, nicely said, “super touristy for a reason”. It’s become crazy since they added the bar stools. I remember when my friend Gabrilla, Elena and Juan Mari Arzak stood at the bar during the filming of Bourdain’s Parts Unkown Basque Country.
To avoid the wait one can book a table in the downstairs dining room, just breeze in, but one would miss that camaraderie developed by standing in line.
Tambo on the square has the same owners and does have an outdoor terrace of about 6-8 tables that can be reserved.
I rewatched that Bourdain episode just before we left. Followed by Phil.
Do you mean Tamboril? A gentleman standing behind me on that line kept whispering in my ear about their sister place. After the second time I told him we are not leaving.
Yes, Tambo is the former Tamboril. When Amaia of Ganbara took Tamboril over, she shortened the name to just Tambo, which locals call it now, and the family added the outdoor terrace on the Plaza de la Constitución, or La Consti.
By the way, Amaia Ortuzar, the heart and soul of Ganbara, was the very smiling woman with the very red hair. She is one of the “great ladies of Basque gastronomy”. Her husband was of the Martínez family of Bar Martínez. Everyone knows her and loves her.
Tambo does have a few seats at the bar and one table to the side, which Gabriella and I managed to snag during Tamborrada, but in the summer/fall it doesn’t draw in the long lines like Ganbara.
Tambo’s special pintxos are its txampis. We went there during SS Gastronomika, and yes, it was filled with visitors but one doesn’t have to stand in line, as the overflow can sit on the outdoor terrace,
Gabrilla was Bourdain´s “fixer” for that episode, and her husband was featured in the segment at the Sociedad Gastronómica, acting as Bourdain´s host for dinner.
For pintxos in Donosti, Phil Rosenthal went to our favorite, Casa Urola, plus Bar Néstor (of twice a day tortilla de patatas, lettuce/tomato salad and txuleta fame–another with lines out the door), Bar Txepetxa (the anchovy temple) and La Espiga, which many visitors miss because it’s in the center and not the Parte Vieja.
His guides were the very media savvy Marti Buckley and TV personality and chef Ander González of Astelena 1997. Astelena is not a pintxos bar but instead a restaurant, where we have dinner on Tamborrada Eve.
I can read your posts all day. You can write a very unique travel guide.
When we passed by Bar Nestor, a funny waiter told us to just hold on to our memories. Meaning there’s no chance we can get a table today, and our memories of the meal 7 years ago is all we’ll have. The only time I ate a steak standing up.
That’s really funny! Yes, back in the old days, when you could get into Néstor, one had to eat that txuleta standing up, since “table 19” (the only table) was perpetually reserved.
Thanks for bringing attention to Ibarboure, an under reported jewel. Extraordinary hosts, sumptuous rooms, lovely food. We were escorted to our room after dinner by staff who brought along a totally refreshed sweets platter, and husband never stopped talking about the in-room breakfast that included bites of chocolate mousse, creme brulee and other memories of dinner. Heartily recommend.
Our YOLO moment, and meal of our lifetime as expected. Never experienced anything like this. As soon you walk in, its like checking into an exclusive spa. Some of the friendliest servers we ever encountered. €395 no matter which side of the menu you pick. Meaning you can just manufacture your own tasting from the a la carte or just switch some items which is what we did. Though no idea if replacing stuff was a smart move.
I’m not going to describe each of the 15 or so courses, not counting three different bread courses (fenugreek bread!). Just about each course was a religious experience. The combination of flavors, textures, aromas, temperatures, not to mention the artistic factor was unreal. The surprises like Gilda ingredients in a liquid form on a spoon (see below), the Olive that was anything but, the smoked tuna belly on a celery, mint, and Bergamot “cloud”. Wow and wower.
The Hake and lobster dishes were particular highlights from the larger dishes. By that point each plate had so many ingredients, I was happy there was no test at the end. Trying the main ingredients like the grilled Galician Sirloin by themselves was one thing, but combining everything else together was like Mardi Gras in your mouth. So much umami and complexity. And no matter how much you add to the spoon, nothing overwhelms the main ingredient.
The only issue was that by the end we were getting too full. By the time we were picking the chocolates from the tree you see below, we were struggling big time, but made it down to the last chocolate. Not sure what they can do to fix this other than a two hour nap break. In this facility it felt like they can pull off something like that.
One of the highlights was getting a tour of the kitchen at the end. I was expecting a very large, maybe 20 person kitchen, and what we saw was essentially a 50 people factory. They have 50 chefs for 40 seats. By the end that €395 felt like a decent deal. And yes, Martín Berasategui was there and he also met us during the meal.
5 minutes away is Chillida-Leku, an open air museum featuring the work of Basque Country sculptor Eduardo Chillida. He did the Comb of the Wind in San Sebastian, and the stunning Elogio del horizonte in Gijon (Asturias)
Terrific report, such a wonderful, memorable experience! And a nice way to walk off all those calories with a stroll through the serene and beautiful Chillida Leku.
Terrific as well that you were able both to meet Martín (his favorite word, “garrote”!) and tour the vast kitchen.
My friend cooked with a very young Martín at El Amparo, now closed, in Madrid and says that he is an incredibly nice person to work with. And with 9 Michelin stars currently under his belt!
What a wonderful experience!
It was a privilege, and a humbling experience. There were maybe one or two dishes that compared to everything else were just “ok” (the pasta course comes to mind) but in the grand scheme of things, not worth mentioning. Says the guy who just mentioned it
La Viña’s cheesecake was our first bite. Very good, tho as expected not quite like the first time 7 years ago. Hard to generalize but I think the cheesecakes of Andalucia have more oomph.
KBZÓN TXIKI - Our last bites in SS. Small bar in the old town. Only 6 months old so none of the frills as the famous places. Really good tuna, octopus, beef cheeks.
We liked staying in the Gros neighborhood. Nice local vibe, and plenty of Pintxo spots, some quite popular. Seeing the sunset and local scene including surfers at Sagues was quite something.
On one day we revisited Zumaia and its cliffs and Getaria where we based last time.
