While northern Spain may not attract as many tourists as it’s resort-packed neighbours in the south, one city is attracting a whole new set of visitors looking to try some of the best food the country has to offer
For many people, the best bit about going abroad is eating and drinking your way through a new place, trying all the local dishes and bringing home your favourite recipes.
While millions of foodies may head to tourist hot spots of Rome, Barcelona or Paris to eat their weight in pasta, tapas or pastries, one hidden gem has actually gained the title of Europe’s culinary paradise.
Nestled on the coast of Northern Spain, and just a few miles from the French border, is the small port and fishing city of San Sebastian. Lining the turquoise ocean of the Bay of Biscay, it made its living from catching fish, and is now making its fortune cooking it.
The Basque city has the highest proportion of Michelin Star restaurants of anywhere else in the world. Despite a population of just 180,000, the city is home to 12 Michelin-starred restaurants, including three highly coveted three-star restaurants and three two-star restaurants.
While getting a table at the prestigious Arzak, Akelare, and Martin Berasategui may be easier said than done – and out of many of our budgets – the foodie culture is something that has seeped down to the streets.
The city’s picturesque Iberian streets are lined with pintxos bars (pronounced pEEn-chos), delightful little watering holes filled with locals that serve you bite-sized pieces of bread served with local meats, cheeses, fish and anything else the chef fancies, perfect when paired with a cold beer or glass of sangria.
An evening can easily be spent hopping from bar to bar, tucking into the delicious bites, with the odd slice of tortilla or other tapas classics, before finishing it off with a famed slice of Basque cheesecake.
But for those wanting something much more filling, the region is home to what has been described as the “best steak in the world”.
On a trip to the city, Isaac Rodgers from the Steak Society went on a hunt around the city to try to find the best Txuleton steak around.
The Txuleton steak is a regional delicacy that is served from much older cows than you’d normally find – usually about 18 years old – from the specific Rubio Gallegia breed.
Having eaten so much steak, he gained 4.5 pounds on his trip, Isaac concluded his favourite came from Gandarias Jatetxea.
He wrote: “This wasn’t my first visit to Gandarias. I discovered Gandarias after searching for Steakhouses back in 2014 and was thrilled by a very reasonably priced and delicious melt-in-the-mouth steak. I’ve been wanting to go back ever since.
“We ordered Octopus and a 1.1kg ‘Old aged T-Bone steak’, a delicious new take on surf and turf, I suppose.
“The steak was unexpectedly tender as well as being quite beefy (but not as much as expected). The steak closest to the bone was also the most tasty. Given the cut of steak and the breed of cow, there were copious amounts of fat. Combining some of the chunks of fat with the beef created an insanely pleasurable taste.”
Flights from the UK to San Sebastian are relatively expensive and infrequent, but budget flights from the UK to nearby Bilbao can cost as little as £21, with similar costing flights available to Biarritz in France, requiring just a short hop over the border.