Anthony Bourdain in San Sebastián: 11 Spots Where Tony Ate
Home to more Michelin-starred restaurants per capita than anywhere on earth, San Sebastián is a must-visit destination for anyone who loves food – and that of course included Anthony Bourdain, during his time. There are a number of places visited by Anthony Bourdain in San Sebastián, some more than once since he filmed twice in the city and the surrounding Basque region.
While Anthony Bourdain visited other parts of Spain – many of them, including Andalusia, Barcelona, and Madrid – it almost feels inaccurate to include San Sebastián on that list. Being Basque country, it is so different than the others; it may be part of Spain (and France) by our modern-day borders, but it is a place unto itself.
Unlike other posts about cities that Bourdain visited more than once, I’ve decided to combine the list of restaurants Tony visited. Anthony Bourdain visited San Sebastián three times: in 2001 (A Cook’s Tour), in 2007 (No Reservations), and in 2016 (Parts Unknown). He made several repeat visits to several restaurants, which is pretty unusual for him – and shows how much he loved some of these places!
If you’re ready to dive into the list of places Anthony Bourdain visited in San Sebastián, read on. And be prepared for some serious mouth-watering.
Want to watch the episodes where Anthony Bourdain visits San Sebastián?
The Parts Unknown episode is available on Amazon and Apple TV.
This post was originally published in February 2022, and this post was expanded and updated in June 2022.
Where Anthony Bourdain Ate in San Sebastián
Before jumping into each restaurant, I thought it might be helpful to start with a map and list of places that Tony ate in San Sebastián. Note that this map includes places outside San Sebastián, but I zoomed in so it only shows those within the city; if you want to see them all, click the image.
Click to interact with the map.
Now let’s go through each place one-by-one, and what food(s) Bourdain ate at each one.
Arzak
There’s no better place to start our exploration of San Sebastián than at Arzak, visited three times by Tony in all three episodes filmed there. It’s here that on his first trip, he meets chef Juan Mari Arzak and his daughter (and chef de cuisine) Elena. This was a significant meeting in Bourdain’s life: he and Arzak remained close throughout the years, and had a deeply moving conversation during Tony’s return trip 15 years later at the same table.
Speaking of tables, Bourdain gets a real treat during both of his on-screen visits to Arzak: the in-kitchen chef’s table. The first time he enjoys an appetizer of poached egg with goose fat with caviar or mushroom and chorizo puree, sheep’s milk yogurt and foie gras, fish with eggplant, sea bass with dark sauce, and roasted duck with seasonal vegetables.
On his second visit, the menu features lobster with powdered olive oil with onion soup broth; slow poached egg with chicken stock, freeze dried chicken, carmelized chicken skin and egg yolk; and grilled monkfish basted with olive oil and bronze coloring and served with a wafer.
The third time, the menu features marinated prawns on lemongrass and mint with beetroot and crunchy krill; roast pigeon with mastic and potato; grilled hake jowls with teff seeds and fresh almonds served on bamboo leaf; grilled monkfish with pecan paste and “heiroglyphics” of pumpkin and sweet pea; white tuna with green melon and jackfruit sauce; and squid with walnut ginger paste, psyllium sauce, and black tomato.
Personally, I’m partial to the third menu, which I think shows how much Arzak has grown as a restaurant during the decades since Tony’s first visit.
Astelena
Bar Astelena (not to be confused with a restaurant of the same name) is one of the bars that Bourdain visits during his first trip to San Sebastián, when he goes on a meandering tour of spots offering pintxos, the Basque form of tapas. Here, he tries the house specialty of pastel de pescado (fish cake) as well as codfish with onion and peppers.
While this doesn’t sound like much, it’s part of Tony’s education in the Basque tradition of eating “a little bit, often” and only eating the best pintxos that each bar has to offer.
Bar Haizea
During his second visit to film No Reservations, Bourdain visits Bar Haizea (on Aldamar Kalea). This pintxos bar is a bit of the beaten path, even after Tony’s visit, which is a shame because the small plates he enjoys all sound awesome.
If you find yourself seeking out Bar Haizea, be sure to order the pickled banana peppers with anchovies, salmon tortillas, stuffed eggs, and bacalhau stuffed pastries, plus order txakoli sparkling wine to enjoy with it all.
Ganbara
However, another stop on Tony’s first pintxos tour is good enough that he makes a return visit during Parts Unknown. Bar Ganbara is another pintxos spot, but their house specialty of seared wild mushrooms with foie gras and raw egg yolk is what Bourdain has been dreaming of for the 15 years between visits.
He also tries various other pintxos during his two trips: anchovies, smoked salmon, octopus, white asparagus, iberico ham with mushrooms, and crab tartlets. (He’s really lost the thread of “a little bit, often” by this point!)
San Telmoko Goilarea
Bourdain visits one other pintxos bar during his 2001 visit, though they’re really more of a high-end tapas bar. At San Telmoko Goilarea (which I could find no website or contact info for), he eats black pudding ravioli and foie gras – both of which are not for everyone but are two faves for Tony.
Casa Urola
For another fine dining option (which basically sounds like almost everywhere that isn’t a pintxos bar in San Sebastián based on Tony’s visits), Bourdain heads to Casa Urola. Here he has an incredible multi-course meal of seared mushrooms with egg yolk and pine nuts, grilled tuna with Marmitako sauce, peas in a consumme of Iberico ham, and fish with white bean cream. It’s further evidence in the thesis he makes that San Sebastián might be the best food destination in the world.
Churreria Santa Lucía
During Tony’s visit to this spot during A Cook’s Tour, he and his show refer to it as “Cafe Santa Lucía,” and it’s where he sits down to nurse a hangover with delicious churros and hot chocolate. However, since filming, this must-visit spot for those with a sweet tooth (of which Tony was not known) has changed to be called Churreria Santa Lucía – yes, it’s literally a place that’s known specifically for and named for its churros.
Txoko (Private Gastronomic Societies)
No list of ways and places to eat in San Sebastián would be complete without mentioning the Txokos, or private gastronomic societies that characterize Basque culinary culture. There are a great many txokos, and Tony visits two of them: one during his first visit and a different during his second.
His first txoko in San Sebastián is Gaztelubide, which he visits with chef Luis Irizar. There, he enjoys bacalau (salt cod) with browned garlic olive oil immulsion and piperade (basque pepper sauce), kokotxas (cheeks of hake fish), langustin with serrano ham, and hard cider in the company of the other men who are members of the society.
(It’s worth noting that bacalau is the same food Tony tries often in Portugal, there called Bacalao/Bacalhau – this was a critical food staple of many seafaring European peoples and is experiencing a culinary revival!)
His second visit (during Parts Unknown) is to an unnamed, now-co-ed society, where he enjoys diced raw tuna, grilled prawns with green sauce, fried hake with chicoli(?), and steamed clams.
Asador Etxebarri (Axbe)
Anthony Bourdain visited many great restaurants; few earn the accolade of the place where you’d be fine having your last meal, which is how he introduced Asador Extebarri. Located an hour outside San Sebastián (about halfway to Bilbao), this is one of the best restaurants Tony visits in Spain – if not all of Europe. He makes the trip twice, during both No Reservations and Parts Unknown.
On his first visit, Bourdain enjoys a menu featuring grilled beluga caviar over fresh seaweed; grilled prawns with salt; gestore (uncured chorizo sausage); and freshly grilled eel with rice oil.
During the Parts Unknown episode, he’s joined by Virginia Irizar, daughter of Luis Irizar who helped show Tony around during his first visit. They enjoy a multi-course meal of grilled chorizo, grilled razor clams, grilled beluga caviar over almond paste, grilled Gambas, line-caught squid grilled and served in its own ink, and Galician beef chop, all while overlooking the Spanish countryside from the restaurant’s outdoor terrace.
ELKANO (Getaria)
One main difference between the A Cook’s Tour and Parts Unknown episodes about San Sebastián is that in the latter, Tony spends a lot more time learning about (and showing the audience) Basque history and culture. This includes venturing beyond the city to meet with others who can help tell the story of the Basque people.
For one part of this education, Bourdain heads to Getaria, another seaside community about 30 minutes west of San Sebastián. He meets with shipwright Xabier Agote who is working to revive the Basque tradition of shipbuilding; they enjoy a lunch at ELKANO. Known for its style of “paleolithic cooking,” they enjoy an incredible seafood meal including rock prawn (grilled head and body “semi ceviche”); squid grilled with onion green pepper sauce; pil-pil cocochas (jowls or chins of hake); and grilled turbot. I’m not the biggest seafood fan and even my mouth was watering for some of these dishes!
Mugaritz (Errenteria)
Bourdain visits another restaurant outside San Sebastián during his second trip. This time, he makes the journey to Mugaritz in Errenteria, about 20 minutes by car.
There, he enjoys an incredibly creative menu by influential chef Andoni Luis Aduriz. Dishes include potatoes baked in a clay shell to resemble stones (and the dish includes one real stone!); melting gnocchi; charcoal grilled and roasted foie gras with sea urchin; painted black beef over cinders and crispy radishes; and chocolate cake with cocoa bubbles and cold almond cream. It’s seriously a wild menu that also looked delicious.
Restaurant La Lerme Ostalapia (Ahetze, France)
Finally, Tony’s second visit includes a visit to an entirely different part of Basque Country: France! The Basque people are actually split across two modern-day countries, Spain and France, and separated by a mountain range – this creates a very interesting dynamic both culturally and and culinarily.
Meeting with a local expert in French-Basque food and culture, Bourdain visits La Lerme Ostalapia in the French town of Ahetze. There he enjoys the French version of Basque food, including tuna belly with tomato carpaccio, and roasted and flambeed pigeon with a tureen also of pigeon. It is a very different meal than the same dishes would have been on the Spanish side, and provides a nice contrast and context for Basque culture.
San Sebastián Food Tours to Try
While you can absolutely plan a trip to basically all of these restaurants visited by Anthony Bourdain in San Sebastián, you might instead want to take a food tour; this will allow you to sample a lot in a short amount of time. Here are a few great food tours in San Sebastián to consider:
No matter which tour you choose – or if you decide to go it alone, following Tony’s footsteps – you’re sure to have at least one incredible meal in San Sebastián. Have any questions about the places visited by Anthony Bourdain in San Sebastián? Let me know in the comments.
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