*Includes a Booking.com affiliate link
September is coming to an end when our bus from Pamplona arrives in the bus station of Bilbao.
It’s our last destination in the Basque region after San Sebastian and Pamplona.
We’re about to eat more pintxos!
If you prefer to read in Finnish, continue here:
Bilbaon maurilaispintxot maistuvat Guggiksen kävijälle
Bilbao food is similar to the other towns in the Basque area, but not yet the same.
Moorish meat skewers, one of Bilbao’s specialties, bring exotic flavors to the Basque region’s pintxo culture.
Lamb skewers seasoned in North African style, pintxos morunos, nourish the visitors of the Guggenheim museum.
Of course, there are plenty of other delicacies on offer.
The hostel doesn’t convince us
We walk towards our next destination – to a hostel almost next to the Zabalburu train station.
It’s cheap, looked cool in the pictures, had decent reviews, and is centrally located within walking distance of the old town.
You can *book your stay here, but before doing so, read a bit further.
One could add to the list that the hostel is also devilishly difficult to find.
We wander around the supposed location for half an hour before finally finding the entrance along a narrow alley, next to a shopping center.
The first impression is not promising. The place is just as clean as it had been praised, – except the bathroom floors flooding – and modern as well. But the man in the reception claims that we hadn’t paid for the reservation, even though we had.
After quite a bit of back-and-forth, the ram finally finds a print in a pile of papers, which – surprise, surprise – proves us right.
After waiting in vain for some kind of apology, we ask for paid towels and go to the dormitory to find our own beds.
We don’t lie down in our bunks since we’re hungry. We go out to dinner, Bilbao food is awaiting for us, or us for it.
After our stay the hostel has changed its name and propably also an owner. Maybe the ram isn’t ranting there anymore. If you are willing to try *book here.
After all, the hostel is otherwise good and location perfect.
…the chicken restaurant does
On the way to the hostel, we bumped into a nearby cluster of restaurants. Now we plunge into the almost full terrace of the promising-looking Rallye chicken restaurant.
Of course, you have to eat pintxos in Bilbao too, but you can’t live on pintxos alone…. wait a minute, of course you can!
However, now we want something completely different. A place that serves grilled chicken turns out to be a great choice.
A vague bar surprises
After a good meal, we return to the outskirts of our hostel. The area is a bit vague, as areas around railway stations often are, although not downright restless. There is a police station on the corner of the street and on the other corner a bar with a very harbor restaurant feel, where we stop by for dessert drinks.
A 50-60-year-old guy, tattooed up to the backs of his ears, sits across from the bartender who is eating at the next table, and he starts to leer at us a bit unnecessarily often. We wonder if he thinks we strangers are in the wrong bar.
After a while, he suddenly leans towards us and starts talking – about the weather.
At the end of the evening, the bartender shakes our hands and asks us to come again. We will, the very next evening.
The Guggenheim Museum is up to expectations
The next day we go to see Bilbao’s most famous attraction, the Guggenheim Art Museum.
The largest city in the Basque Country was a poor provincial center that had sunk into decline before 1997 when the first offshoot of the famous art museum lifted it to a new heyday with its appeal.
The museum is on the other side of the city center from our hostel, but still within walking distance. The days are still hot, so why not walk and admire the city’s architecture. At the same route we find out the departure stop of the airport bus.
Although we are both hugely interested in arts and history, we don’t much visit museums on our travels. We focus on wandering around, seeing everyday life, as well as exploring architecture. However, we toured around the Guggenheim only outside.
There is a lot to see there too. The building itself is designed in the Guggenheim style as a work of art and its surroundings are also full of art as well.
The location is great along the Bilbao estuary that cuts through the city. Bilbao is a port city, even if you don’t notice it here in front of the museum, 16 kilometers from the sea. During our short visit, we leave the seaside unexplored, although the harbor area is reportedly worth a visit.
One pintxo at Guggenheim’s
We are impressed with the museum, but since we missed breakfast, we are also hungry. We are thinking about dining options. After admiring the art, it’s already early evening. So an attractive option is to stay for an early dinner at the bistro of the museum’s Michelin-starred restaurant, i.e. on the more affordable side of it. It has been highly praised, including by some of our friends.
The menu would cost only thirty euros, which would be a really affordable price for Michelin-level food. However, we can’t find anything really appealing in the main dishes.
A little disappointed, we change the strategy. We will by no means leave the Guggenheim’s body nutrition without trying either. We enjoy a pintxo on the terrace of the museum’s bar and then go to dinner at the restaurant we have checked in advance.
We have done background work. Various lists present the best pintxo places in Bilbao, and we have chosen two to try.
Perfect food and a sad song
Founded in 1927, La Viña del Ensanche is run by the grandson of the founder. Although the restaurant is known specifically for its pintxos, its larger portions are also popular. And even though we missed the Guggenheim restaurant, we get the Michelin experience. La Viña del Ensanche has a Michelin recommendation.
When we munch a twelve-hour-cooked pork neck on the terrace, we understand why. The price-quality ratio of the place is more than appropriate.
On the street next to the terrace, an old man sings wistful songs, a hat in front of him for collecting money. I feel quite bad. What does that man think about the fact that on the terrace and in the restaurant, the residents of the same country and city eat comfortably over a glass of wine while he tries to scrape together even a little more food money to extend his meager pension by singing to them in front of the restaurant?
Next morning we can’t leave our hostel very early, as we’ve fulfilled our promise to visit the harbor restaurant-style neighborhood bar again. This despite the fact, that the hostel has apparently decided to redecorate and the renovation crews, recruited from among the residents, are running around our dorm.
Moorish pintxos in a traditional place
So we miss breakfast again and finally set off with pintxo pictures in our eyes. We don’t have to go far. On the edge of Plaza Zabálburu, a sign advertising Moorish meat skewers catches our eyes. Of course we have to try them!
Pintxos Morunos are a Bilbao specialty, but the origin is, as the name suggests, in North Africa.
Bar Mosela is really simple in its interior design and the most important item can be found at the back of the bar. That’s the charcoal grill where the lamb skewers are prepared.
The heat of the coals is maintained with an ordinary table fan.
The little bar won’t be found on the lists presenting Bilbao’s best pintxo places, but it should be. That’s how mouth-watering the skewers are. No other food is offered here. The price for small skewers is €2.50/piece.
Next, we apply to Cafe Iruña, i.e. the Cafe Pamplona (as you may remember from the previous post, Pamplona is Iruña in Basque language). This is another one of those bars that is mentioned in all lists of the best pintxo bars in Bilbao.
In the Basque way, the counter is flooded with people placing their orders and devouring pintxos, so the atmosphere is high. The noise is also quite high. We sit at the only free table in the place and take turns looking at the counter to see what our minds would like, what our stomachs would demand.
Moors influenced interior and food
The dazzling interior of the place, founded in 1906, with its colorful tiles, has been influenced by the Moors, who ruled southern Spain for centuries. And not just the interior: Cafe Iruña is also famous for its Moorish-style pintxos and lemon-flavored lamb skewers, which are prepared by orders.
We take this option and we don’t regret it.
However, since this is our main meal tonight, we’ll eat more. For example, a very good anchovy-egg bread floats on my plate. While munching on it, I almost wish I had a hangover, when this would be the perfect food for that mood.
By the way, Cafe Iruña’s breakfasts are highly praised, wonder why…?
On the way back to the hostel we have drinks on the terrace of Bar Mosela. It’s already late, but there are still people on the streets.
Northern Spain is not Madrid, where nightlife continues until the wee hours. Here, with the exception of nightclubs, places close even on weekends relatively early, generally around one o’clock, even earlier on weekdays.
We ate here:
- Rallye Bilbao
- Bistró Guggenheim‘s terrace
- La Viña del Ensanche
- Mosela (no webpage, the address is Plaza Zabálburu)
- Cafe Iruña
Goodbye Bilbao and the Basque Country
The next day October starts and it’s time for us to say a wistful goodbye to the Basque region and return to Finland for a while. We no longer have big plans for Bilbao.
We check-in our flight online in the lobby of the hostel drinking free coffee, with a Spanish TV-shopping channel playing in the background. We’ve decided not to eat lunch but to have dinner at the airport, where we hope to get pintxos.
On the way to the airport bus, we make an appointment at a barber-hairdresser, which we happen to pass by.
Not after a very long time, but 45 minutes. Tanja last visited a hairdresser in Sanur, Bali in spring, me a barber in Alba, Italy a month ago. 15 euros per head feels a bit overpriced, but the result is okay.
However, both Alba’s barber and his colleague in Sanur, who cut a woman’s hair for the first time, did a better result more cheaply, the latter using only a razor.
At the airport, our wish for pintxos comes true, someone else’s may not. There’s only one restaurant open, apart from fast food places, and we get the last of its pintxos. After all, there are other dishes left.
Fortunately, those who came after us don’t know what they missed, because the pintxos are excellent.
Bilbao is definitely a place to visit
We also have to resort to supplementary feeding, since our flight is an hour and a half late.
We eat the best thing that’s on the restaurant’s counter after running out of tapas, i.e. mini baguettes with jamon iberico filling.
There would also be veggie versions, filled with tuna and meat. Spain.
While moving around the world, in every village and town we think as a game of thought, whether we’d like to settle here, even for a while. For Bilbao, the answer is no.
Still, the friendliness of the locals – apart from the hostel reception – delicious food, and the atmosphere of the pintxo bars made us feel comfortable. We may not move to Bilbao, but we surely recommend visiting.