Donostia San Sebastian is jam packed with crowded tapas bars. This makes it a perfect place for the ultimate San Sebastian Tapas Pub Crawl. Everywhere you turn in the old town you are greeted by delectable options. In other words, the only way to maximize the tapas and bar experience is with a tapa bar crawl. To save you the effort, we have prepared an epic tapas crawl experience for your savoury pleasure. San Sebastian will give you the true tapas experience, the tapas are on display around the counter and you must elbow your way in amongst the wall of people surrounding the bar to make your order. We often found that in San Sebastian knowing a little Spanish went a long way as English was not as commonly spoken.
Without Further Ado, The Ultimate San Sebastian Tapas Pub Crawl
Stop Number 1:
First, head over to Paco Bueno and sample the prawns or calamari with a glass of white wine. For a grand total of 5.50 euro we enjoyed two glasses of wine and two tapas. Despite the low price, the food was excellent. We actually both started and finished our own pub-crawl with this place because we were so impressed. The second time we visited that night we got to bear witness to the bartender’s frustration over the football game.
Paco Bueno prawns and calamari. Muy bien
Stop Number 2:
Nagusia Lau is located right next door to Paco Bueno and does excellent sangria. There are a variety of tapas spread out on the bar to choose from. You can’t go wrong as they all looked wonderful. The prices were all around 3 euros a tapa. The atmosphere of this place is less fast paced. Other tapas bars make you feel a rush of adrenalin trying to squeeze up to the bar to get your order. But, at Nagusia Lau, you can casually saunter up to the bar to make your selection and peacefully sit at a nearby table. Hence, this is great for first timers.
Do not be fooled by the lack of a crowd. The tapas were delectable.
Stop Number 3:
Located close to Paco Bueno, we next hit up Atari. Here, we did not end up going for tapas. Instead, we ordered a plate of palatable calamari and two gin tonics. This place is “famous” for its gin tonics. Not that we get how a place can be famous for gin tonics. You take gin, you take tonic and voila! You have a gin tonic. Sadly, we do not even like gin tonics but ordered them anyway just to try the “famous” version. The glass was massive and freely poured to half a glass full of Tanquery gin. And drumroll….. it tasted like every other gin tonic. We struggled to finish them. However, if you are into gin tonics then this place is for you!
Atari was a little bit more highly priced than some of the other tapas bars we explored. Fortunately, there is a lot more seating. Since we ordered a meal not a tapa we got bread which we promptly pocketed as the massive gin tonics went straight to our heads.
This is the most gin tonic I have ever drank in my life.
Stop Number 4:
Karrika Taberna looks like a hole in the wall, as do most of the San Sebastian tapas bars. But, once inside, they offer well-priced white wine at 1.30 euro and a relaxed ordering experience. Above the bar you can see ham or jamon hanging. It was by this point that I got more drunkenly confident in my Spanish and attempted to both ask and then order the bartenders favourite tapa. “Tu favorito?” I ended up with a sausage with an egg on top. I actually highly recommend this! If you see an item that looks like this, try it. It was mouthwatering.
This is what the bartender’s favourite was and it was an unexpected delight.
Stop Number 5:
Bar Restaurante Gandarias was another tapas bar stuffed to the brim of people where you really need to work your way through the crowd to order. Do it though! Their selection was hard to choose from as it was all so enticing.
Stop Number 6:
Bar-Goiz-Argi is known for its prawns. This place was again a little more expensive, we paid about 9.50 euro for our tapas. However, we really enjoyed the prawns and all of the other food that came out looked equally as scrumptious.
This post is making me crave tapas.
After our tapas crawl we staggered back to our hostel, Urban House, while our taste buds sighed with delight.
Final Words
These are the six places we visited when we went out on our pub-crawl. You cannot go wrong though. If you see a place that look tasty or interesting, pop in there. Most of the time the tapas and drinks are fairly cheap so it does not hurt to sample. We stopped at six because that is where we got too full.
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