Bilbao Restaurants

This bar restaurant has little to either recommend it or condemn it. It offers a standard range of drinks and pintxos.

It has one positive - being quite large it is possible to get pushchairs easily inside - no always the case in some smaller bars.

Looks like a conference room that is filled with round tables but the food is wonderful. They offer a three course menu and all meals are the same price. Its usually frequented by the workers of the technological park next door but dont let that deter you from trying it.

Favorite Dish: Redbean soup.

These two bar-restaurants both offer menus and have tables outside for most of the year, being in a sheltered position. (along with Bar Atlanta located around the corner).

They are typical Bilbao bar-restaurantes offering decent food.

In the old town there are a lot of restaurant, traditional basque are the most obviously, but there are also pizzas and other international restaurants.
I suggest for sure to try the most basque restaurant you can, beacuse the food here is extraorinary!!! Fish or meat or cheese doesn't matter, everything you eat will satisfy you at all.
If you are vegetarian... I am sorry for you, but you are in the wrong place!!!

Favorite Dish: Fish recipes I tried:
Bacalao a la Pil-pil;
Bacalao a la Bizkaia (or something like that!);
Chipirones en su tinta.

Meat:
All kind of ham, salami, sausages and so on... up the pork!!!!!

Restaurante Toledo is a nice small restaurant in which you can taste great basque food on the left side of the Nervion.
Located in Abando has quite low prices respect to the quality of the food.

Favorite Dish: Chipirones en su tinta (squids cooked in their own "ink")... I know that it sounds horrible for most of you... but if you try them you couldn't stop eating!!!

Have a dinner at the Guggenheim Museum Restaurant will be for sure very expensive... but what an experience!!!
The traditional basque cusine is reviewed in a modern style but without loosing the flavours of this great land. Moreover the view that you have of Bilbao at night from the restaurant terrace is absolutely amazing.

This Cafe is one of the oldest in Bilbao. Founded in 1903 has old style woodden furnitures and great "azulejos" on the walls.
The food is great, over the average for quality (and the basque average is very high!!!).
The Cafe' Iruña is opened all the week all day long, for some fast tapas at lunch, for dinner at night or even for a drink after...
It won the best cafe of Spain award in 2000.

Favorite Dish: Try the more quality of tapas you can...all of them are great.
Great also is the choice of wine...I tried the Rioja and it was really good!!!

Garcia Rivera has a collection of bars offering a range of pintxos. Running from Or Konpon on Poza itself, to Marakay, on Rodriguez Arias, are a fine selection of bars.

There is a mini-seafood market where on Sundays you can buy everthing from cooked lobster to Winkles, as well as a bar specialising in Basque cheese pintxos.