A Visit to San Sebastian

Saturday, July 20th , 2024

Ibai was an iconic local restaurant until it closed a few years ago – the toughest reservation in a city packed with highly thought of restaurants. The old basement premises has now been taken over and relaunched, with its new chef/owner trying to stay faithful in spirit to the ingredient-led, simple cooking that characterised the original. Although the cooking execution is not as good as the original, that would be a very high bar to match, and this is still a very good restaurant indeed.

Rekondo is a restaurant with a long history, perched on a hill overlooking the city and blessed with one of the largest wine cellars in the world. Although many of the real bargains have been drunk by the regulars in the wine trade that flock here, there are still some gems tucked away, with extremely old Spanish wines at modest prices. The food is simple and enjoyable, but you come here for the wine.

When in San Sebastian be sure to try some of the pintxos (Basque tapas) to be found in old old town but also in bars scattered across the city. Some of these are pretty popular these days with tourists, such as San Antonio with its unusual version of tortilla, a rival to Bar Nestor’s more traditional version.