Haizea

This place was one of my favorites for pintxos; granted we only got 3 dishes here that they are most famous for, but they were all delicious and reasonably priced. No fighting to get a space at the bar or a place to eat, and no wait to order. We did get here on the earlier side on a Thursday night, but this place seemed more of a local spot a little more off the main drag, and seems rather unassuming from the outside and when you step in.
They have a few pre-​made pintxos out on the bar, but they seem to have 3 specialities that you order at the counter and are made freshly when you order. I’d recommend these three:
Brick of Bacalo — This is a piece of cod wrapped in a phyllo pastry dough, deep fried, and wrapped with a twine made of leek, served over a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Delicious, and the fish is flaky and melts in your mouth. Highly recommend this.
Foie gras with apple — Decadent, and the salty-​sweet is a great combination. I really liked this dish a lot, and it was served with a grilled apple, on top of some apple butter or jam.
Grilled langostino with crema de mariscos — This is a large grilled shrimp, butterflied open and grilled, with a delicious seafood cream sauce. The sauce is also great with the bread.
Overall, great experience here — I think we paid 12 or 13 euros for the 3 dishes. We really enjoyed this place and would come here again and eat all 3 of these dishes again. Worth a stop if you’re in San Sebastian!

This little restaurant is full of surprises, and really excellent surprises. We started here our pintxos tour for the night. Yes, apparently locals go and visit different pintxos restaurants in one night to treat themselves with different styles of cooking. Of course, you would have some beer or wine at each different place and let the night carry you away since you walk there everywhere.
Back to the food, the craftsmanship and presentation of the pintxos are incredible, they take so much pride in their food that you can definitely taste the difference with other restaurants around town. We tried the vegetable pintxo and some sort of cod croquet. It is very hard to describe the flavors coming out of those two pintxos. The vegetable skewers were just outstanding, cooked to perfection and crafted into something not only appealing to the eyes, but your tastebuds. The other pintxo made with cod, was like anything I have tried before. It was like having a cod croquet, very nicely done, wrapped with a very thin layer of dough and quickly deep fried and served over a bed of a drizzled balsamic vinegar reduction. Again, the detail oriented to the preparation of each of this pintxos was perfect.
The service was outstanding as well and very friendly. Once I mentioned it was my first time in Dan Sebastián, I was invited to return and let them provide me a sample of different pintxos I should try before leaving. That was actually very nice, and definitely will go back before leaving this beautiful city.

Small pintxos bar. Great staff and lots of locals. Food is good. The man behind the bar spoke English… So it’s a good place to start as some of the other bars can be rather overwhelming if you have no idea what a pintxo is or what your eating or how it works. Ask for a plate and choose a few… Grab a drink and explore the culinary masterpieces. Once you get the hang of it try out a few. Some are way better than others… And this is one I will definitely return to.

Every Pinxtos Bar in San Sebastian has their specialty items, here would be their Seared Foie Gras with apple chip & jelly, and their large grill langoustine served split in half with a nice sauce.
The Foie Pinxtos was probably the best I had comparing to all the other bars we went to (over a dozen), it was perfectly seared and seasoned, the apple jelly and chip gave it a perfect balance to the richness and the apple chip adds a great texture to the dish.
If you’re a foie gras fan like myself you would love it, I did so much that I had to make another stop the next day just for that dish! I normally don’t go back to places just for the same dish but this was a must as I was pretty much dreaming about it the night I had it. LOL
FYI, this 5 stars rating is based on just those 2 dishes I had.
In San Sebastian, you do what the locals do and pinxtos crawl, couple dish from each bar and move on =) no need to worry about just ordering 1 or 2 items! =)

Basically a local’s bar, this place is small and filled with your normal pinxtos. Stay away from the mayo-​based options and you’ll be all set. Fun place.
I do think the owners are not thrilled about the Bourdain effect, as they clearly whispered about non locals in their native tongue. For some places, exposure on no reservations is probably a great thing… But clearly for this place they would rather not have the attention or traffic… Because they don’t seem to appreciate the business… Fair enough, though.
Could be a fun stop, but not a necessary one.

I still dream of this place.
It was everything I wanted it to be, can’t give it the full start because I didn’t try enough here. A friendly guy greeting my American self ready to engorge on an absolute feast of the sense.
As usual, for pintxos, there is a decadent, inviting selection at the bar. The warm pintxos are listed on the wall and the racciones are of course a bigger portion of pintxos.
For the price and the claim to Anthony Bourdain fame the place was incredible. My favourites were the Bacalao Brick and the pintxo with eggplant, jamon and some kind of delicious cheese.
In San Sebastian, amazing food is Everything and everywhere. The Basque people know how to eat, even when it’s cold and pissing down, people can still enjoy a Rioja and delicious Pintxo. I’d love to live in the city for a year and try every place in Parte Vieja and fulfill my Arzak dream. And
I enjoyed this place the morning after La Tamborrada, the city’s festival day with people banging away (on drums) for a full 24 hours hours getting soaked in the Basque rain.
That evening, there wasn’t a seat to be had in Bar Haizea but the next morning my boyfriend and I had this lovely, lovely pintxo bar to ourselves.
I recommend San Sebastian on any serious foodies radar but honestly everything here was superb and the service was bar none.
Just remember what you ordered at Bar Haizea you pay for everything at the end of your meal!
Pictures to come, a definite must go!

Located just on the edge of Parte Vieja and on your way to the surfers’ beach, Bar Haizea serves up traditional pinchos, bocadillos, and plates. At € 1.70 per pincho and something like € 2ish per bocadillo, you can fill yourself up nicely for € 5 total.
The food is decent though by no means star quality. Many of the items are heavy on the fillers ie carbs and/​or mayo, but you can find a few items that aren’t so filler-​y. I had a nice cod and puff pastry sandwich and a spinach quiche/​mousse that was quite tasty. The latter looks almost like a flan and comes in spinach, red pepper, or crab varieties — I’d recommend giving it a try if you find yourself at Haizea!

This was the second time we stopped by in the last three days and miraculously it was open on a Mon night. We got the txorizos chorizos, and the stuffed prawn. They were both amazing so we augmented it with croque de Jamon and bunuelo de gambas y bacalao. The only thing that was a neg was the croque de Jamon, which was still cold inside but everything else was amazing. A gem. The chorizo is quality.

In the Parte Vieja, there are tons of Pintxos bars. So many of them that it’s advisable to do the Txikito and hit as many as possible. However when Juan Mari and Elena Arzak show their preference for one, you best listen. Not only are they culinary geniuses, they are food lovers and super down to earth people. So I had to make my way here. I wish I had found it earlier but it was the last stop of the night. Even though the normal display had been ravaged, in my broken Spanish I was assured the kitchen was open for whatever I wanted. Txorizo, anchovies, pimientos, crab, bocadillos, etc. Stuff yourself or find just a few bites. It’s up to you. The people were super nice and this is a totally low key almost off the beaten path kind of place. Just outside the busy part of old town to avoid the crush. Definitely worth checking if you’re on a pIntxos run. 4.3 stars