Saturday: San Sebastián Eating Marathon

Feb 24

Feb 24 Saturday: San Sebastián Eating Marathon

8:30am wake up because we have to get to Bar Antonio when they open at 9am for their breakfast tortilla. Supposedly they only make one. We got there about 9:15 and maybe 3 pieces were gone. By the time we left at 9:45 there was only 1 slice left.

The night before we were asking each other what was the best thing we had eaten so far. This tortilla is the best.

That mess is caramelized onions and potatoes. The potatoes were crunchy and soft and had the same caramelization as the onions and then there were a few green peppers. It looks like it would be mushy but it was not. I would eat this every day for all meals honestly.

You can see the big egg mass in the middle of the second picture but more importantly you can see that the people next to us were having wine and beer with breakfast.

We enjoyed a long morning walk by the water encountering many runners along the promenade. Then returned back to the room to prepare for eating day.

First stop, Bar Berri, recommended for their gigantic ribs. Look at the crunchiness on there! These were out of this world. We each had one and an also this piece of duck which was perfectly cooked but even better with the sauce around it.

Two ribs, a duck, and two glasses of wine was about 20€. Wine is absolutely less expensive here (house wine is around $2 a glass and not terrible) but food is hard to figure out. I think it’s not just that it’s less expensive because the portions are small but that for $5 you can get something very high quality. Those dishes may have been the highlight of the day. But we continue.

A stop in to Cocina San Telmo where we intended to order pork belly and octopus. But it was very very crowded and I ordered “Oreja de cerdo” by accident and also they rang in Foie instead of pulpo. So a totally incorrect order. I didn’t realized until he handed me the two pig ears what it was and I was promptly horrified. No picture because I was too busy stressing over eating this pig ear. But honestly the ear was basically super crunchy pork that they used to wrap around some onions and it was really good. I wouldn’t necessarily order it again but I think my Hangup on it being an ear was all in my head.

Next we pretended to have an interest in something other than food and went to the Museo de San Telmo. I’m not sure why they designed this museum to be creepy but everywhere we turned there was odd music and noises compounded by the fact that we were the only ones in this museum.

After about 30 minutes I had enough of this “art history” break and instead decided to take a cat nap in the sun outside. Post nap, some more street wandering and walking the tip of San Sebastián and watching the waves. It was absolutely beautiful weather to have an aperol spritz and listen to the ocean.

After a spritz we had some espresso martinis to wake us up for the evening eats. Nothing opens until 7 so we had to wait it out. As an afternoon snack we tried basque cheesecake.

It tastes better than it looks and definitely worth the hype.

First stop on the evening tapas trail was a return to Ganbara which is where the mushroom fiasco began. The reel I watched on IG mentioned gigantic prawns so Phil wanted to try one (I can always skip a shrimp with a head, not for me). I ordered more mushrooms because why not and munched on that while waiting for Phil’s shrimp. Of course, I ordered the wrong item and we had to wait a while to get the big prawn that we wanted and bam here it is:

Prawn the size of a lobster. I had a small bite and it was good but there wasn’t that much meat honestly. Then the bill came and that prawn was 32€! I think this place may have raised their prices with their fame amongst tourists. Unimpressed for that price. You could get an actual lobster tail not just a big prawn but oh well, we got tourist trapped on one stop.

Next a return to Cocina San Telmo to try the actual dishes we wanted. Funny, they remembered my name from earlier but it was less crowded this time and we got a spot at the counter.

Pulpo and pork belly with crispy crunchy delicious skin. I feel like everything has had good texture here with these foods.

At some point we stopped by and got a cup of jamon here. We were mostly full and transitioned to just actual bar hopping for a while. A drink here and a drink there. I don’t remember all the stops and drinks but around 10pm we ended up at a sushi bar which hit the spot. Phil said it wasn’t that good but my drunk palate thought it was great.