Perfect, thank you.
I think in general we will want excellent food that isn’t in Michelin starred places. More of a relaxed atmosphere, and places where a person (me) who doesn’t eat red meat will have choices. Price not hugely important in either direction.
Picture and reviews look good. But only open on two nights for dinner.
I hadn’t realized that about dinner. We were there for lunch, and it was great, but we tend more towards lunch as our main meal in Spain. But it’s totally worth it for a lunch if you have a free slot on your schedule.
I am also planning a trip to San Sebastián and Bilbao in the fall. My lists in google maps are already filled with choices and now expanding by the day
Also our guide to all things Bilbao and Basque, Mikel, sent us to Los Fueros in the Casco Viejo, with a beautiful interior and very inventive small plates.
We also dined with Mikel and family high above the city at the delightful Txakolí Simón, Terrific grilled meats.
Also for the best Joselito ham in the city, La Viña del Ensanche
Here’s the Macarfi guide for Bilbao dining, including the Viña de Henao. All 3 moderately priced/casual.
@LulusMom1
When you take your stroll through Bilbao’s Old Quarter, the Casco Viejo, stop on the 19th century Plaza Nueva, surrounded by pintxos bars and terraces, for pintxos at two of Mikel’s favorite spots: Sorgínzulo and Gure Toki. A small beer is, in the Basque Country, called a zurito.
And our favorite pre-lunch drink, a marianito, a glass of red vermouth with a splash of Campari and sometimes a bit of gin, with a few drops of angostura bitters served over ice, and garnished with an orange slice and olive. Each bar has its own recipe.
And in your stroll through the market, the Mercado de la Ribera, stop and have the quintessential Basque pintxo, a gilda, made with olives, a piparrak (Basque green pepper) and a anchovy, all presented on a skewer. The gilda is named after the 1946 film “Gilda,” starring Rita Hayworth.
And try Bilbao’s most famous pastry, the bollos de mantequilla (a soft brioche filled with butter cream) at the venerable (since 1852) pastelería Arrese on the Gran Vía, number 24 in the Ensanche, the modern quarter.
I am loving all this information. Thank you so much!
The Gildas I’ve had in the US look more like Danny DeVito than Rita Hayworth. Sad imitations
@LulusMom1,
Regarding a base in the Rioja wine producing D.O.C. (the appellation, divided into 3 sections, Rioja Alavesa, Rioja Alta, Rioja Oriental), most visitors enjoy the stunning vineyard scenery with the Sierra de Cantabria as a backdrop in the area around Laguardia, the “capital” of the Rioja Alavesa, the part of the Rioja wine region that formally sits in the Alava province of the Basque Country. And the village is extremely, proudly Basque.
This would mean some lodging in the highly atmospheric medieval walled bastide town of Laguardia, or the medieval villages that surround it----Samaniego (Palacio de Samaniego or La Venta de Bodegas Ostatu), Páganos (Hotel/Winery Eguren Ugarte), Villabuena de Álava/Eskernaga in Basque (Hotel Viura).
Arguably here in the Rioja Alavesa you will have the “golden mile” of wineries, where the finest grapes are grown. Some wineries are highly contemporary and architecturally striking, designed by Starchitects" (Baigorri, Viña Real), some ancient with underground cellars (Casa Primicia), some traditional, family-run (Luis Cañas, Ostatu). The corporate-run ones, to me, are far less interesting.
While most wineries here now have shops/wine bars where one can taste without spending 2 hours on a guided winery tour, their shop hours do vary and some are closed tight on Sundays.
For an English speaking winery tour, especially in September, one needs to book in advance, as there may be just 1 English tour per day, usually in the morning. And wineries do close for a long lunch break.
Haro, the “capital” of the Rioja Alta, while easy for winery touring of 6 centenary wineries within a short walk, is simply not as “enchanting”, as memorable as staying in one of these medieval villages surrounded by vineyards, and the Haro lodging options not at all impressive (until the new 5-star Palacio de los Ángeles opens next year with gourmet restaurant supervised by the Echapresto brothers of Venta de Moncalvillo).
Logroño is the capital city of the La Rioja autonomous region, one of the government’s 17, but again, while it does have 3 visitable wineries within the city and 2 outside, staying in the city doesn’t make for as memorable an experience as being surrounded by stunning scenery with wineries in the midst of their fall harvest.
I have not seen the spectacular Marques de Riscal winery mentioned or have I missed something? https://www.marquesderiscal.com/en/marques-de-riscal-hotel
You have missed only the fact that the restaurant, supervised by Francis Paniego, has lost its Michelin star and also all of its luster. I have had negative feedback lately on the dining experience from locals who are chefs and winemakers. Also the English speaking tour is a large one, not intimate or personalized, and ends will a quite mediocre tasting. This is why I strongly recommend (as do wine tour guides working in the Rioja, all friends) that one go to photograph but not to tour. The shop does have a wine bar and sells all of the MdeR labels plus wine paraphernalia and is open to non hotel guests.
Frank Gehry doesn’t stay in his Gehry suite but instead in the annex.
And the hotel is now Marriott branded.
Speaking just for myself, I intentionally avoided going to the Marques de Riscal winery because it’s a huge brand that’s widely available in the US, and the winery is obviously set up for group tourism. When we visited the region, we wanted something smaller and more local in feel, and to taste and hear about wines that we can’t get back home.
Ditto! The tour groups are far too large and the visit far too impersonal, IMO. My good friends who are well established wine touring guides in the Rioja with their own companies do not take their clients there; they just do a “drive by” for clients to photograph the Gehry building. There are so many wonderful family-run, small wineries in the Rioja whose wines are not readily found in the US.
Some examples: Luis Cañas, Amaren, Ostatu, Miguel Merino, Gómez Cruzado, Artadi…
Amazing information. I’ve spent an hour with this post, laptop, and a map in front of me. So helpful, thank you so much.
I was referring to the spectacular building, not to the wine tours! Although I did enjoy a private tour a long time ago (this was before the new building!), I appreciate it has gone very commercial now. I am still a great fan of their “Gran Reserva” and of the white “Limousin”.
Yes, the building is spectacular. It’s just that now everyone wants to see it by taking a wine tour and the tours have become very commercial and the English tours (twice daily) are done in large groups.
That said, one can still go to the shop to purchase the MdeR 150 aniversario 2019, I believe. 95 euros.
And MdR does have an elevated tasting for 58 euros that includes Limousin.
@Ziggy,
About the Parte Vieja (Old Quarter) pintxos bars still worthy of a visit, who haven’t been bought up by large companies and turned into “pintxos mills”:
There is a new one, well, an old one, that has been given a new life (like Ibai) by 6 -Michelin starred chef, Argentinian Paulo Airaudo (who resurrected Ibai).
It’s EGOSARI on Fermín Calbetón, same street as Casa Urola & Borda Berri,
Both Ibai and Egosari were found in 1983, but the latter was an old cider house-charcoal warehouse that was about to close when the owner decided to retire. So Paulo came to the rescue.
It offers classic pintxos and a basement dining room where he serves traditional dishes like hake in green sauce, breaded kokotxas, monkfish and goxua for dessert. It only opens from Friday to Tuesday from 12-4 and again from 5-11.
Opening hours in SS have changed dramatically because of the sheer number of foreign tourists; before, the evening usual pintxos hour was from 8-9 pm.
Gabriella will have the scoop as to its worthiness. She introduced us to Paulo at Ibai.
@Ziggy
@LulusMom1
You might enjoy seeing the new Somebody Feed Phil episode in San Sebastián.
Thanks. We are avid Phil fans. Even met him once.
Started watching the latest the other day.
