Pintxos in San Sebastián: 17 Bars and What to Order in Each

If you want to know where to eat pintxos in San Sebastián and which bars deserve your time, this guide is for you.

I ate at seventeen bars across a long weekend, and I share the dish to order in each one, how long I queued and what it all costs, so you don’t spend your first night working it out the hard way.

Two sets of friends live in the city, one for twelve years and one for eight, and their recommendations shaped a lot of what follows.

The thing that decides whether you eat well here isn’t just which bars you pick, it’s knowing what each one is best at, and when to turn up. Do it right and the queues are much smaller. I went in peak season with a public holiday on top and rarely waited more than 20 minutes, though I did skip the one bar that could have cost me two hours.

If you only eat six things

Short on time? Start here, these are where I make sure I send everyone, then work down the full list.

What is a pintxo?

A pintxo is a small plate or a bite on bread, usually eaten standing up with a drink in a Basque bar. You order one or two at each place, eat them, pay and walk to the next one. The word is Basque for spike, after the cocktail stick that holds the classic ones together.

Bars in the old town sit a minute or two apart, so an evening covers five or six of them without much walking. The local name for doing that is a txikiteo. Some pintxos sit ready on the counter, cold and made in advance. Others are cooked to order from a board behind the bar.

Pintxos or tapas: what’s the difference?

A pintxo is the Basque version and you pay per item, usually for something served on bread with a stick through it. Tapas elsewhere in Spain are sometimes included with the price of a drink, and are more likely to be a small version of a full dish. Same idea, different rules, and in the Basque Country the name matters to people.

Downloadable map of the best pintxos to try

All my favourite spots pinned on a map you can download to your phone and follow.

The best pintxo bars in San Sebastián old town

All of these sit within a few minutes’ walk of each other in the Parte Vieja. The map above has every one pinned.

Ganbara

The famous one, and famous for the right reasons. Anthony Bourdain called it his favourite place and said he came back every time like a heat-seeking missile, then filmed there for Parts Unknown. That is a fair part of why the queue exists. It has earned the reputation regardless, and there’s a Michelin plaque on the frontage to show the recognition isn’t purely historic. I’d go back tomorrow.

Prices are noticeably higher than the bars either side of it, driven by exactly that popularity. It’s still worth it, but this isn’t the place to eat five things. Go in for one or two of the best and spend your money elsewhere. The tomato salad in particular you can get cheaper and just as good a street away.

You’ll get in faster if you’re happy to stand outside, like my photo above, and that’s what we did. We also watched a food tour get served and eat their plates on a windowsill opposite, so there’s another way round it.

My favourite dish Surtido de setas, seared wild mushrooms with foie gras and an egg yolk on top
Also worth ordering Tartaleta de txangurro, the crab tartlet
Did we queue? Yes, around 20 minutes at peak lunchtime, and it gets longer than that

La Cuchara de San Telmo

Tiny, always busy, and the one place where the famous dish absolutely lives up to it. We went twice and queued under 20 minutes both times. For a bar with this reputation, that surprised me.

They were only serving the larger portions when we visited, so the suckling pig is a plate to share rather than a single bite. That’s fine if you’ve been eating small things all evening, but it changes how hungry you need to arrive. I’d hoped for the black pudding ravioli people talk about and it wasn’t on the board when we went, so if you see it, order it.

My favourite dish Suckling pig
Also worth ordering The pig cheek, and any black pudding dishes
Did we queue? Yes, under 20 minutes on both visits

Casa Urola

One of my favourites of the trip and much easier to get into than its reputation suggests. Good amount of seating, quick service and no queue when we went, which is not what I expected walking up to it.

The menu is strongly seasonal, normally a good sign, and it caught us out in a good way. Two of the five dishes we’d been told to try weren’t on. They’re known for their charcoal cooking too, so ask what’s coming off the grill.

My favourite dish The Urola, a spoonful of lobster with garlic mayonnaise, vinaigrette and trout eggs
Also worth ordering Scallops in almond and garlic soup
Did we queue? No

Bar Sport

Hectic, loud, and on every list going. I’d still send anyone here. There’s no orderly queue, you push to the front and wave, and the noise is half of why it’s fun. We had six dishes across two visits and everything landed.

This is the clearest example in the city of timing mattering more than luck. Friday at dinner took 25 minutes to get served. Sunday at opening took under three, in the same room, for the same food.

Prices are chalked up behind the bar (as per my photo above) and most of the hot pintxos are priced within a euro of each other. Croquetas were the cheapest thing on the board at €2.90, the crema de erizo €4.60, and almost everything else, the carrillera de ternera, the manitas de cerdo con hongos, the mini hamburguesa, was €5.20. Two things and a drink each and you’re not far off €15 for two.

My favourite dish Urchin soup
Also worth ordering The mini txuleta hamburgers, and the txistorra
Did we queue? Yes at peak, about 25 minutes on a Friday evening. Under three minutes at opening on a Sunday

Bar Goiz-Argi

The recommendation I’d pass on most readily, and it came from both sets of friends who live in the city. It sits on the same street as Bar Sport and never had a queue while we were there. That is how narrowly the crowds concentrate here.

Fresh food, friendly staff, none of the scrum. The Mari Juli is about as simple as a pintxo gets and it was one of the best things I ate all weekend.

My favourite dish Mari Juli, smoked salmon with preserved anchovy and green pepper
Also worth ordering The albondigas, and any of the prawn dishes
Did we queue? No

Bar Haizea

Full of locals, easy to get served, and there’s decent room inside and out for standing and leaning. Bourdain filmed here too, on an earlier trip for No Reservations, though it has stayed much quieter than Ganbara did.

The langoustine was fantastic. The pickled peppers with anchovies are the other order. There’s a wider menu and everything we had was good.

My favourite dish Langoustine
Also worth ordering Pickled peppers with anchovies, and the scallop and prawn skewer
Did we queue? No

La Viña

The Basque cheesecake, and it lives up to all the hype. I had it twice on the trip and took a slice away for the plane home.

The queue comes in waves. Our friends told us to watch for that and they were exactly right. The longest I waited was five minutes, and that was only because I kept checking as I walked past and went in when it looked short. Turn up at the wrong moment and you’ll be standing there for a lot longer. You’ll pass this place a dozen times over a weekend, so use that.

There are tables if you want them, though I wouldn’t bother. This is a stop, not a sit-down.

My Top Tip! Ask for it to take away and you’ll get served faster. They box it up and hand you cutlery, and you can eat it on a wall two minutes later.

My favourite dish Basque cheesecake
Also worth ordering Nothing, and that’s the point. One slice, then move on to a bar that does savoury properly
Did we queue? Yes, five minutes at the longest, but only because we timed it well

Txepetxa

Anchovies done several ways, and they’re superb. If you think you don’t like anchovies, the ones here are nothing like the salty things on a pizza, and this is the bar to change your mind in.

There was no queue when we went and I’d have happily waited for this food. We tried to come back for more on the Sunday and found it shut, and that’s a story I’ll come back to further down.

My favourite dish Anchovies with jardinera
Also worth ordering Anchovies con crema de centollo, with spider crab cream
Did we queue? No

Tamboril

Some of the best tuna I’ve eaten, and reason enough on its own to make the stop. The staff aren’t the warmest but they’re quick, and honestly it feels like part of the character of the place.

It sits on the corner of Plaza de la Constitución, which locals call La Consti. That’s the old square with the numbered balconies, which used to be a bullring, and if there’s no room inside you can spill out into it with your plate. Plenty of people do.

My favourite dish Escabeche de atún, tuna with oil, vinegar and pepper
Also worth ordering Txampis, a tower of garlicky mushrooms
Did we queue? No

Txuleta

Easy to get served and the food is good. I’d put this one in the “if you have time” bracket rather than on the essential list, particularly if you’re already full, which by day two you will be. We came here on the Sunday, near the end of the trip, and it was a comfortable last stop rather than a highlight.

My favourite dish Txuleta croquettes
Also worth ordering I only ordered the croquettes and didn’t feel I’d missed anything
Did we queue? No

Paco Bueno

Some of the best battered prawns I’ve ever had, so good that I went back three times over the weekend. It’s a small, plain, old-fashioned room and nobody is there for the decor. You order, you eat standing, you leave. Two minutes, almost like a takeaway, and it’s the recommendation I most thanked our friends for.

My favourite dish Gambas gabardina, deep-fried prawns in batter
Also worth ordering We didn’t try anything else
Did we queue? Yes, under five minutes every time

La Cepa de Bernardo

We were told this was the best jamón in town and it didn’t disappoint. Hams hanging over the bar, a proper carving station, and a room that hasn’t changed in a long time. There’s a sit-down restaurant next door too if you want a longer stop.

It’s right by La Viña, and that’s useful. Send one of you into the cheesecake queue and the other in here for the jamón, then meet in the middle.

My favourite dish Any of the jamón sharing plates
Also worth ordering The sharing plate is the reason to come, so build the stop around it
Did we queue? No

Atari Gastrolekua

This one works differently to the stand-and-go bars. It’s bigger, there’s proper seating, the drinks list is better than most and people settle in rather than passing through. Use it when you want to slow the evening down rather than as one stop among six. If there’s no room inside, the steps of the basilica opposite are where everyone ends up sitting.

My favourite dish Brocheta de langostinos, the king prawn skewer
Also worth ordering Spend a minute on the drinks list here rather than defaulting to a zurito
Did we queue? No

Pintxo bars outside the old town

The old town is a handful of streets and it fills up fast in summer. The centre and Gros are a short walk away, and the bars over there feel like where people go on a normal evening rather than a night out. If the Parte Vieja is unbearable when you arrive, this is the answer rather than waiting it out.

La Espiga

We met a group of our friends’ Basque friends here and it was one of the highlights of the weekend. It’s big enough that you’re not fighting for space, and we picked up half a dozen more recommendations just from talking to people standing around us.

La Delicia was a great example of something so simple done well. If they’ve got fresh grilled guindillas in season, get those too. They’re like smaller padrón peppers, grilled with salt, be careful as every so often you get a spicy one.

My favourite dish La delicia, anchovies with egg, onion, parsley and mayonnaise
Also worth ordering Fresh grilled guindillas, if they’re in season
Did we queue? No

Bar Antonio

The one bar that literally everyone told us to go to, friends and locals alike, and they were all right. I arrived with a long list of things to try here and not one of them disappointed.

Come outside peak hours and it’s an easy stop. Note that it’s closed on Sunday’s which we found out the hard way when we tried to revisit. One thing to get right: the same people who sent us here were specific that it’s this one, not the sister place, Antonio Boulevard.

My favourite dish Ventresca con anchoa, tuna belly with anchovies, tomato and pickled peppers
Also worth ordering Crujiente de rabo de buey, crispy fried oxtail pasta
Did we queue? Yes, about five minutes

Casa Vallés

This is where the gilda was born, or at least named. A gilda is olive, anchovy and pickled guindilla pepper on a stick, and by the bar’s own account a regular customer first put the three together here in the 1940s, with the name coming from the Rita Hayworth film.

Yes, ordering one here is a tourist move. It’s also a good one, and the place was full of locals when we arrived first thing on the Saturday. We tried four pintxos and all of them were good.

My favourite dish The gilda, obviously
Also worth ordering The tomato salad, or the ensaladilla rusa
Did we queue? No

Where to eat pintxos in the morning

We deliberately booked a hotel without breakfast. It was a late decision and one of the best we made. The whole point of being in San Sebastián was to eat as much of it as possible, so we grazed through the day with sightseeing in between rather than the other way round.

Bodega Donostiarra

Over the river in Gros and it opens earlier than most, so we were there at 10am on our first morning. The kitchen runs straight through rather than shutting in the afternoon, which also makes it useful when half the old town is closed.

The completo sounds plain written down. It isn’t. It’s one of the dishes from the whole trip I’d tell everyone to order.

My favourite dish Completo, a sandwich of tuna, anchovies and pickled chilli
Also worth ordering The tortilla, either classic or with cod
Did we queue? No

Two more my friends rate

Neither of these are tested by me, as we ran out of time, but they came highly recommended. Bar Zabaleta is known for its tortilla and opens around 10am. Bar Koh Tao was recommended for tostada with tomato and jamón. Both came from people who live in the city, and I’d have got to them with another day.

Queues, timing and the bars everyone tells you about

A handful of bars here have blown up online, and the fear is that you’ll spend the weekend standing in lines. I went in the busiest week of the year, on a public holiday weekend, and that isn’t what happened.

The longest I actually queued was 25 minutes at Bar Sport, on a Friday at dinner. Ganbara took about 20 minutes at peak lunch. La Cuchara de San Telmo was under 20 on both visits.

The consideration isn’t the bar, it’s the time. We went back to Bar Sport at opening on the Sunday and got served in under three minutes, in the same room that took 25 on the Friday night.

There’s one exception and it’s Bar Nestor. The tortilla there is famous, they make it a set number of times a day, and getting a slice means queueing well over an hour. Our friends who live in the city rate the place and I don’t doubt them. I still didn’t do it. Losing 90 to 120 minutes of a long weekend to one bar wasn’t a trade I wanted, so we went to two or three other places instead and I don’t regret it. On a longer trip, with less I wanted to see, I’d probably go.

The other one to mention is Gandarias. It’s on every list, but it’s the one place our friends and several locals we met steered us away from, on the grounds that it’s become too touristy and quality has dropped. I didn’t eat there so I can’t give you my own verdict, but when the same advice comes from that many people who live in the city, it’s worth passing on.

What pintxos cost in San Sebastián

Budget roughly €30 to €45 per person for an evening of five or six bars, eating and drinking at each. That’s the number to plan with.

The reason I don’t price each bar individually is that the same place sells you a €2 bite off the counter and a €21 sharing plate off the board. Pricing here is per item, not per venue.

Counter pintxos cost about €2 each. The ones cooked to order cost more, and the board at Bar Sport is a fair guide to what that means in practice: croquetas at €2.90, crema de erizo at €4.60, and most of the meat pintxos at €5.20. Anything including lobster, foie gras or crab goes above that. A glass of txakoli or local wine is about €2 to €4, and a small beer €2 to €3. One or two pintxos and a drink comes to €5 to €10 a head.

What breaks a budget isn’t the small stuff. It’s the seasonal plates and anything meant for sharing: wild mushrooms, top-end seafood, cuts of meat. These are often the best things in the building and I’d still order them, but one of them costs as much as an entire bar’s worth of everything else, so check the pricing when you order.

How to order pintxos without getting it wrong

You’ll read that only tourists eat from the counter and locals order from the board. That’s wrong, and I say that having eaten plenty of both and seen locals do the same. Some of the best things I had all weekend came straight off the counter. It depends on the dish. Some things are better made in advance, some have to hit the pan when you order them.

The actual tourist move is walking in without knowing what the place is good at. San Sebastián rewards research more than any city I’ve eaten in, because every bar has one or two things it does better than anyone else and the whole system is built around ordering those. Get that right and you eat brilliantly for three days. Get it wrong and you eat fine, in the same bars, wondering what the fuss is about.

Three things to consider:

1. Ask when to pay. Some bars want it straight away, others keep a running tab until you leave. It varies and asking takes two seconds.
2. Throw your napkin on the floor. It’s not littering, it keeps used napkins away from the food sitting out on the counter.
3. Go easy on the bread-heavy pintxos early or you’ll be full by the third bar.

For drinks you’ll commonly see txakoli (a young, slightly fizzy Basque white) and local cider (both poured from a height for some taste and theatre), a zurito (a small beer, roughly half a normal one) or a glass of wine. I drank all of them and the cider was my favourite. It varied a lot from bar to bar and I enjoyed all of it. The long pour is something to watch at least once and if you’re feeling brave, order a bottle and have a go yourself.

My Top Tip! Screenshot the dish names in the local wording rather than the English translation. Boards are chalked up in Spanish or Basque, and pointing at your phone gets you served faster than trying to describe a mushroom.

Opening hours: why you cannot trust what you read

This is the thing nobody warns you about. Opening hours in San Sebastián are genuinely hard to pin down, and every source I used got something wrong.

We went back to Txepetxa on the Sunday because we’d loved the anchovies. It was shut. Google said open. The pintxos app said open. In the week before we flew, Google had almost all of our picks open across the whole weekend, and it was only our friends pointing out which places don’t normally open on a Sunday that let us rearrange things in advance.

The free pintxos app is one I’d use again, but it’s a steer rather than a source of truth. So is Google. The only method that never failed was walking past and asking. That sounds like a hassle and it isn’t, because the bars sit so close together that you’re passing them constantly anyway.

Two patterns are worth knowing

A lot of places shut for three or four hours in the afternoon, roughly 3pm to 7pm, though some do 3pm to 6pm and others stay open straight through. And Sunday and Monday closures are common. Neither is a rule you can rely on. That is rather the point.

We were also there over a public holiday, which scrambled things further. Check the local calendar before you book, because a festivo changes what’s open, what’s busy and when.

My Top Tip! Put more bars on your list than you need for each session. If two are shut it costs you nothing, and you’ll never be the couple standing outside a closed door at 9pm arguing about where to go instead.

How to fit pintxos into your day

With a lot of places closing in the middle of the afternoon, the eating day splits into two sittings with a gap between them. That gap is exactly the right size for the things you’d otherwise struggle to fit in: Monte Urgull, a walk along La Concha or a museum. We ate from mid-morning until around three, went out, then started again at seven and kept going until close to midnight.

Five or six bars is a comfortable evening. You could do more, but you’d be rushing food that deserves better.

Bars I did not get to

Two more kept coming up and I ran out of weekend before I ran out of recommendations. I haven’t eaten at either.

Txoko was recommended to us by our friends for seafood, and the orders they named were the rodaballo and the stuffed red peppers. Borda Berri came up from more or less everyone, and the dish it’s known for is orzo pasta cooked like a risotto with local Idiazabal cheese. We had this pencilled in for Sunday, but got caught out as it was closed. One for my return trip for sure!

Pintxos in San Sebastián: common questions

Is a pintxo tour worth it?

What a tour buys you is the thing that matters here, which is knowing what to order where. If you don’t have friends in the city or the patience to research it, that’s real value. If you’re happy to plan, the list above does the same job for free.

We did watch tour groups get served noticeably faster at the busiest bars, and on a short trip that counts for something. Here are some of the best available with VIATOR and GETYOURGUIDE

How many pintxos is a normal evening?

Ten to twelve small things over four or five hours, spread across five or six bars. It sounds enormous written down and doesn’t feel it at the time.

Do you need to book pintxo bars?

No. These are stand-up bars and you order at the counter. Some have restaurant sections alongside that do take bookings, but the pintxo side is walk-in.

Can you eat pintxos if you don’t eat seafood?

Yes, with a caveat. My girlfriend doesn’t eat crustaceans and ate very well for three days, because there’s plenty of fish, meat, egg and vegetable on every counter. If you eat no fish at all it still works. There’s jamón, tortilla, txuleta and croquettes everywhere. If you’re vegetarian or vegan I’d think twice about the trip. Meat and fish are the backbone of almost everything here and you’d spend the weekend eating around the edges.

What is the best time of year to visit for pintxos?

I went in the last weekend of July, which was very busy, and it was the only window we had. The food was excellent and the atmosphere was better for the crowds, particularly with the public holiday and a lot of locals out enjoying it. If you’re going for the beach as well as the food, late July and August will let you down on the first count. It was too busy to enjoy La Concha properly. We’d come for the food, so it didn’t bother us much.

Would I go back?

Immediately, and I’d change very little. Skipping the hotel breakfast was the single best call we made and I’d do it again without hesitating.

The thing I got wrong was underestimating how busy a public holiday weekend in high summer would be, and not for the bars, which we handled fine. It was everything else. If I’d known, I’d have written off the beach entirely and planned around it rather than being mildly surprised by it.

What I didn’t expect was how much difference it made having people who knew the city. Not because they got us into anywhere, but because they knew what to order. That’s what I’ve tried to give you above, and it’s why there’s a dish next to every bar rather than just a name.