A Fuego Negro

The worst meal/​experience I have had in Spain… And I used to live in Spain. This one star refers to both the service and the food.
The service: we arrived and an extremely rude waitress told us we could not sit at the tables that were set unless all of us had the menú de gustación. At first, we were understanding of that, other than the fact that she was very rude about it and that she later allowed a Spanish family to sit there and order whatever they wanted. She took (snatched)the menus from us, got us water and when we later politely asked for glasses (she had not brought any glasses with the water) said «I only have two arms.» She was rude and completely unprofessional. When we asked about their Michelin affiliation (they were mentioned in the guise of recommended places) she said we should do our research, that Michelin stars weren’t given to these types of restaurants and that they «
weren’t interested in that type of award or thing at all.» That was very clear!
The food– the risotto was the blandest I have ever tasted. It had absolutely no flavor at all. The fact that this restaurant is recommended in the Michelin Guide is a complete shock to me– they must have had a totally different experience than we did. The spinach salad was also bland and without taste.
This is my first negative Unilocal review, and I wouldn’t be this emphatic unless I felt it is 100% representative of our terrible experience. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone I know. There are many other wonderful pincho bars in San Sebastián with kind and helpful employees and delicious food. This is not one of them.
The positive: the Kobe mini burger was good

Widely recommended, A Fuego Negro is one of San Sebastian’s hippest pintxo bars, with dark lighting, cool décor and and experimental menu.
We tried the crab with avocado and liquorice ice cream as well as the famed Macode mini burger with banana chips which I can confirm is delicious (we ordered another one each). It’s basically a tiny rare steak and the quality of the meat is outstanding. One of my top five pintxos in San Sebastian.
Although the waitress insisted in speaking in English and seemed to do so well she missed two dishes of our second round of ordering, but luckily there were plenty of other places to go to eat!
If you fancied a night off from pintxo bar crawling, they do a tasting menu here which I think would definitely be worth a go.

Great food, super fun atmosphere. Risotto — outstanding
Fried txiken– fantastic BUT needed salt
Salad — outstanding

One of my favorite tapas bars in Old Town, next to La Cuchara de San Telmo… so far, anyway, as I know I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of tapas bars in San Sebastián.
The vibe is upbeat, laidback, convivial and inviting. The food… absolutely worth seeking out. It’s a take on modern cuisine, but unlike Bar Zeruko, what you see is what you get and then some. The presentation excites and entices and flavors match if not exceed your expectations.
Love the playful signage for their «menu options», which included spins on the Black Flag and KFC logos. And even more playful, a ceramic turntable as a platter for serving tapas.
Do yourself a favor and make it a point to get to A Fuego Negro. I’m sure you’ll dig it.

Came here in 2014 and due to the crowds waiting for pinxtos at the bar, we decided to hit the gourmet tasting menu in the back (50 Euro/​person). We made our way through 7 or 8 dishes of cold or room temperature food that consisted mostly of mayonnaise-​based dishes and pickled fish, or cold vegetables without flavor. Unfortunately my wife and I both don’t like mayo, so at least half of the dishes were wasted upon us. Everything else was just ok (like the martini olives or the pork soup in the bathtub). We didn’t get to try the ham «sandwich» or the mini kobe burger, which seem to be the best things on the menu.
Overall, it was one of the hardest meals for me to finish. I drank a whole bottle of wine to myself just to wash down half of the dishes.
Try lunch or pinxtos first before committing to the tasting menu, unless you’re a fan of northern Atlantic food (fish, mayo, cold dishes).
That said, we came back later to try the pinxtos at the bar for lunch. The kobe burger and ham sandwich were tasty, but not good enough to warrant waiting in line. Too many other great places in town!

Que sí, que vale… que todo es tope original y tal, que los vinos están muy bien escogidos, las tapas son muy creativas y el servicio eficiente. Hay ambientillo siempre, buen rollito, y la zona es de lo mejorcito de la ciudad, peeeeero… lo siento, me parece caro. Teniendo una competencia tan feroz, en una localidad donde se loa a la cantidad y calidad de los pintxos, me flipa que haya tanta gente dispuesta a dejarse el money aquí. Será el diseño (muy guapo), la moda… o que están todos forrados…
No estoy diciendo que no merezca la pena, tan solo creo que está bien una visita para ver lo que se cuece, y pasarse de vez en cuando. Eso de repetir semanalmente, pues no está a mi alcance…

Ate here the night before we ate at Arzak and the whole time we were eating at Arzak, we kept saying the food here was MUCH better. We even came back the next day. Two years later, we’re still craving it!

Was my favorite pinxtos spot in San Sebastian, the pigeon is incredible (came two nights, ordered 5 times), as well as the tuna/​watermelon tartar. Drinks are well priced and the staff is great (although cannot say any bad staff issues in this town, they really know how to treat customers).
Not much else to say, this place is a winner — do not miss!

Came here only to try the Kobe beef burger. It was good, fatty but nothing that amazing. It was one of the only burgers I saw on a pintxos menu but definitely not the best. I would save your appetite for other better tasting places.

Cool place with some modern food. Had fried squid ink and a burger. Burger www not cooked very well but squid ink was quite good. Would try again.

So maybe our experience was partly our fault. Not knowing the customs on our first day, we ordered several things off the menu at the suggestion of the bartender. It turned out to be a bucket of fried chicken, fried tempura veggies, and olives from a plastic carton. The olives were horrible and we couldn’t finish it. The rest was pretty good, but the amount of fried food was too much.

Nice place to stop when pintxo hopping. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend for dinner (which is a 10 course tasting).
Pintxos to get: kobe burgers, shaking salad (duck, red fruits, croutons), tomato purée and mussels.

Super busy and not a lot of patience from the staff… But when you cram this many people into a tiny pintxo bar it’s easy to see why. Come early before it gets too busy and you’ll be happy you did. The atmosphere is rad and food is beyond phenomenal. Try the little burger and little bird. Both are magic! This is a new age pintxo bar. Modern twists on old favorites. Mix in the hipster culture and great drink selection and bam! You have one of the busiest bars in the old town… But don’t let the crowds feature you! Trust me it’s worth it!

A Fuego Negro is one of the busiest pintxo bars in the old town popular with locals and tourists serving modern pintxos. There are tables towards the back reserved for those dining from the tasting menu. Otherwise just find a space standing around the packed bar. The signature pintxos is the mini Kobe burger. As I’m not generally a huge fan of burgers we decided to order the ‘little bird’ — a BBQ’d quail served with carrot purée & onions. This was a good choice, simple yet one of the best pintxos we tasted on our trip; a bargain at € 3.90 per ‘little bird’ so I do not understand why some reviewers consider the pintxos at this place to be on the pricey side?

Decent tapas (some of the experiments work, some don’t), but the wine by the glass selection alone is worth coming for. Great vibe as well and amazing bartenders who somehow keep everyone happy and keep, track of the bills.

Una de los sitios indispensables de Donosti de pintxos. Modernos y diferentes a cualquier otra cosa por la zona.

The staff wasn’t the friendliest at first, scoffing at our pretense to politely ask for a table. We lucked out and nabbed a standing table, though had to fight for space with staff and customers the whole time we were there. Things picked up, however, once my fiancée realized her wine was corked and the bar tender immediately and apologetically replaced it. We enjoyed the pajarito and crab but disappointed by the famed Kobe burger. Really cool décor and concept, worth it just for that.

Busy great service great food fantastic place and great music

Pinchos variados y exoticos, no son los típicos, además suelen variar cada cierto tiempo.
Unica queja que la camarera no tiene ni la más remota idea de cocina, no pierdas el tiempo preguntándole si las cosas están muy o poco hechas, o cocinadas o simplemente marinadas, que por supuesto no es lo mismo! y además es algo que necesitas saber en ciertos casos en que el médico te restringe ciertas comidas (como cuando estás embarazada), en resumen la comida muy bien y la camarera una ignorante.

Without question, the hippest pintxo bar in San Sebastian. Fuego Negro offers modern versions of traditional pintxos as well as totally edgy new creations that are quite avant-​garde. Definitely worth a visit if you are a foodie.
The interior décor is appropriately edgy. Expect to run into a diverse crowd of locals and trvellers.
The excellent «Mac Kobe» is a small Kobe beef burger with ketchup-​flavored buns served with a side of plantain chips. Some of the pintxos take a definite turn toward molecular cuisine. If that’s not your bag, don’t expect to enjoy those.
The owners have a great sense of humor, and some of the dishes feature funny names and designs — food parody.
They sell several cookbooks featuring their recipes and including mixtape style compact discs with great music with food themes.
These guys are definitely creative and pushing about boundaries of what a food establishment can offer.

De los bares que recorrí por Donosti, este fue uno de los que más me gustó. Guardo un buen recuerdo de este lugar, como un sitio donde comer comida elaborada y creativa a la vez. Hay que reconocer de que no es barato pero recomiendo que piséis este sitio obligatoriamente si estas por esa zona.
Nada más entrar ya sabía yo que este lugar iba dar que hablar y es que dentro no cabía ni un alfiler… eso puede ser muy incomodo ya que para pedir te puedes tirar 10 minutos cerca de la barra hasta que el camarero te haga caso… pero bueno, al final vale la pena la espera. Pídete una Kobe, que es una mini hamburguesa donde su pan y su carne es espectacular! Después tomate un Txacolin y venga para el siguiente bar de pinchos.

Cocina moderna y original, esta bueno y sorprende.
Fenomenal hamburguesa de kobe !!!

Maybe we ordered the wrong stuff, but I was pretty underwhelmed by this place.
I was initially impressed by the atmosphere, dark and cosmopolitan. The place was jammed with people, so it’s obviously popular. We clawed our way to the bar and got a menu. The descriptions of items, I guess you could call them coy. It was hard to determine what’d we actually be getting. That’s okay, I like mystery.
We ended up with rabbit and garlic sauce and «brains and thinking,» which (as I hoped) was indeed brain. With the first, I dug the garlic but the rabbit had much more of gamey flavor than when I’ve had it before. And brain really just tastes like a mass of fat. The potatoes it came with were far more interesting.
Overall, I felt this spot wasn’t worth the hassle. Maybe if I’d sat down and had the tasting menu I’d have a different opinion. Reading the other reviews, maybe you guys just know how to order better than me, but from my experience, I’d say skip this place.

Only place in Spain I have been disappointed by. Very tiny portions that are pricier than they should be. Flavors were ok at best.
I think this place is more flash than substance.

Cocina originalísima, incluyendo los nombres de los pintxos y raciones. Todo es sorprendente y riquísimo. Tiene unas pocas mesas para comer menú degustación, en el que te van sorprendiendo a medida que van sacando los platos.

Pinchos completamente distintos a los de los otros bares. Hay posibilidad de pedir mesa, hay pocas. Mi lincho preferido son las aceitunas rellenas de gelatina de martini

Como pintxos de autor puede estar bien para aquellos que quieren probar algo diferente pero para mi demasiado caro para el tamaño de la tapa así q ojito con lo que pedís. Curioso por su estética y su rollo diferente al típico bar de la zona pero para algunos puede ser el sitio de tomar una tapita y salir de allí volando.
Recomendable de visitar pero con cuidadin.

Gourmet pintxos. The kobe mini burger was still alive but it was still good. the risotto was interesting and very flavorful. loved all the spices. i wonder if all the pintxo places are heading this way. i do like the modern twists on the pintxo’s but i still love my chorizo from La Viña.