Food Tours · Tour

Six Bars, From the Old Guard to the New Basque Kitchen

Three hours in the Parte Vieja with ten people at most, meeting at a cooking school in the basement of the Hotel María Cristina. Six bars, and the selection is the argument. Some are the old traditional counters where the pintxos have not changed in fifty years and are laid out on the bar to be pointed at. Others are the new-Basque places where everything is made to order and arrives on a slate. San Sebastián is the city where nouvelle cuisine took root in Spain in the 1970s, and both halves of that history are still trading within four streets of each other. At each stop you get one or two pintxos and a glass matched to them, cider or a local wine. Cider and txakoli both get poured from a height here for the same reason: they are low in carbonation and the drop wakes them up. The guide is a culinary specialist rather than a general one, which shows in what gets ordered. All food and drink is included, and you leave with a list of recommendations for the rest of your stay, which after three hours of watching them choose is worth having. Ten guests maximum, in English. Service animals welcome. The tour can be adapted for vegetarians and food allergies, though not for vegans. You say goodbye to the guide at the final bar and can carry on from there.