Tapas in Alicante
Mar 25th 2012 | 9:20 pm
#31
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,426
From: Velez-Malaga
Re: Tapas in Alicante
A challenge is no problem when you're "retired".
I don't know how long you're staying in Bilbao, but below are some recommendations.
1 A must is the area known as "Siete Calles" (casco viejo) & in particular "Plaza Nueva". The plaza is surrounded by bars mostly. Any can be recommended, such as Zuga, Victor Montes.
2 For some of the best Spanish omelette, Cafeteria Concha in Calle General Concha. Don't be put off by the gaming machines at the back of it! Also there's a very small bar in calle Alameda Urquijo very near Plaza Indautxu which often wins "best tortilla" competitions. I think it may be called bar Alameda. Almost sure it begins with "A" at least!!
3 My sister-in-law says bars in calle Perro, again in the casco viejo area.
4 La viña de Henao in the street called Henao apparently is worth seeing for its pintxos, tho' I haven't yet been. It seems the 'Royals' popped in recently.
5 Café Iruña in calle Berastegui (opposite Corte Ingles) is worth seeing for its tiles & ceiling decoration.
Go to a Tourist information place to get a map. Also, they should have a copy of "the best gastronomy map" of Bilbao. There's one near the Guggenheim & a big one in Plaza Ensanche.
Hope you have a good time & leave with a good impression.
A couple of Basque words to try out:
eskarrik asko = thank you
mesedez = please
bai = yes
ez = no
I don't know how long you're staying in Bilbao, but below are some recommendations.
1 A must is the area known as "Siete Calles" (casco viejo) & in particular "Plaza Nueva". The plaza is surrounded by bars mostly. Any can be recommended, such as Zuga, Victor Montes.
2 For some of the best Spanish omelette, Cafeteria Concha in Calle General Concha. Don't be put off by the gaming machines at the back of it! Also there's a very small bar in calle Alameda Urquijo very near Plaza Indautxu which often wins "best tortilla" competitions. I think it may be called bar Alameda. Almost sure it begins with "A" at least!!
3 My sister-in-law says bars in calle Perro, again in the casco viejo area.
4 La viña de Henao in the street called Henao apparently is worth seeing for its pintxos, tho' I haven't yet been. It seems the 'Royals' popped in recently.
5 Café Iruña in calle Berastegui (opposite Corte Ingles) is worth seeing for its tiles & ceiling decoration.
Go to a Tourist information place to get a map. Also, they should have a copy of "the best gastronomy map" of Bilbao. There's one near the Guggenheim & a big one in Plaza Ensanche.
Hope you have a good time & leave with a good impression.
A couple of Basque words to try out:
eskarrik asko = thank you
mesedez = please
bai = yes
ez = no
Yes, being a vegetarian in Spain is very difficult - although at least in the major cities there is more choice available than there was a few years ago, if only because there tend to be more international restaurants than there used to be. We do look at the menus of Spanish restaurants but it's the exception rather than the rule that there will be anything suitable - starters aren't so much of a problem, but vegetarian main courses are very rare. We've also come across the attitude that ham or chicken is not regarded as meat (OH even ordered a baked potato with aioli from a street stand once, and the aioli had bits of ham in it!) and that vegetarians will eat fish - even a salad comes with tuna on it unless you specifically ask for it to be served without. Sometimes he fears that the offending item will just have been scraped off in the kitchen and the plate re-served!
I've searched Tripadvisor and found one vegetarian restaurant in Bilbao which looks reasonable (Garibolo), a few Italians and one Indian, so we won't starve. If the worst comes to the worst we are staying in an apartment so could eat in, but I don't go on holiday to do that!
Mar 25th 2012 | 11:16 pm
#32
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 1,101
From: Elorrio, Bizkaia
Re: Tapas in Alicante
Thank you very much for this, we will certainly seek some of them out. Thanks also for the Basque words, I do like to try to learn at least a few out of politeness although looking at most Basque words I think I would make a complete hash of the pronunciation! We will be in Bilbao for 4 nights and hope to visit San Sebastian on one day.
Yes, being a vegetarian in Spain is very difficult - although at least in the major cities there is more choice available than there was a few years ago, if only because there tend to be more international restaurants than there used to be. We do look at the menus of Spanish restaurants but it's the exception rather than the rule that there will be anything suitable - starters aren't so much of a problem, but vegetarian main courses are very rare. We've also come across the attitude that ham or chicken is not regarded as meat (OH even ordered a baked potato with aioli from a street stand once, and the aioli had bits of ham in it!) and that vegetarians will eat fish - even a salad comes with tuna on it unless you specifically ask for it to be served without. Sometimes he fears that the offending item will just have been scraped off in the kitchen and the plate re-served!
I've searched Tripadvisor and found one vegetarian restaurant in Bilbao which looks reasonable (Garibolo), a few Italians and one Indian, so we won't starve. If the worst comes to the worst we are staying in an apartment so could eat in, but I don't go on holiday to do that!
Yes, being a vegetarian in Spain is very difficult - although at least in the major cities there is more choice available than there was a few years ago, if only because there tend to be more international restaurants than there used to be. We do look at the menus of Spanish restaurants but it's the exception rather than the rule that there will be anything suitable - starters aren't so much of a problem, but vegetarian main courses are very rare. We've also come across the attitude that ham or chicken is not regarded as meat (OH even ordered a baked potato with aioli from a street stand once, and the aioli had bits of ham in it!) and that vegetarians will eat fish - even a salad comes with tuna on it unless you specifically ask for it to be served without. Sometimes he fears that the offending item will just have been scraped off in the kitchen and the plate re-served!
I've searched Tripadvisor and found one vegetarian restaurant in Bilbao which looks reasonable (Garibolo), a few Italians and one Indian, so we won't starve. If the worst comes to the worst we are staying in an apartment so could eat in, but I don't go on holiday to do that!
As for San Sebastian (Donosti in Basque) there are a couple of articles from the Daily Telegraph worth reading about pintxos, which I've posted below.
Go to the Telegraph & scroll right down to 'archive' & it should get you there!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...e-country.html (Telegraph 2nd Sept 2009 article by Michael Kerr)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/de...the-tapas.html (Michael Kerr 31st July 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddr...f-pintxos.html (Xanthe Clay article, 17/11/2011 Telegraph again!)
Apr 15th 2012 | 1:20 am
#33
Forum Regular
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 178
Re: Tapas in Alicante
A couple of Basque words to try out:
eskarrik asko = thank you
mesedez = please
bai = yes
ez = no[/QUOTE]
Hi just a small point. eskarrik means medium
Thank you is eskerrik asko
LMJ
eskarrik asko = thank you
mesedez = please
bai = yes
ez = no[/QUOTE]
Hi just a small point. eskarrik means medium
Thank you is eskerrik asko
LMJ
Apr 15th 2012 | 7:02 am
#34
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 1,101
From: Elorrio, Bizkaia
Re: Tapas in Alicante
Hi just a small point. eskarrik means medium
Thank you is eskerrik asko
LMJ[/QUOTE]
Sorry, my misspelling! Yes, you're right, it should be 'eskerrik'.
Couldn't find 'eskarrik' in our Basque dictionary though.
Jun 16th 2012 | 9:24 pm
#35
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 5,426
From: Velez-Malaga
Re: Tapas in Alicante
Thanks for all the useful information in this thread - we got back from our trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian late last night and had a great time.
We were very lucky with the weather and had 3 sunny days, just some light rain on Saturday afternoon immediately before we left. It was a pleasure to see the lovely green countryside - and cows in the fields, we don't see them in Andalucia!
Both Bilbao and San Sebastian seem very prosperous areas, lots of expensive shops (very nice for window shopping but I left it at that!) and the house prices and rents are eye-wateringly high. The food lived up to it's reputation and was very good, I'd say restaurant prices were around 50% higher than where I live but the quality is much better so we were glad to pay it. There was no problem finding vegetarian-friendly food, either, thank goodness.
The people struck us as very friendly - in fact one old man who sat down opposite us on the train back from San Sebastian to Bilbao never stopped talking for a full hour, although he was lovely we were quite relieved when he got off after an hour! We also met two very nice ladies lunching in a restaurant in San Sebastian who had taken their elderly mother out for the day - the mother was a mere 100 years old! If I live that long I hope I'm still going out for nice meals.
We were very lucky with the weather and had 3 sunny days, just some light rain on Saturday afternoon immediately before we left. It was a pleasure to see the lovely green countryside - and cows in the fields, we don't see them in Andalucia!
Both Bilbao and San Sebastian seem very prosperous areas, lots of expensive shops (very nice for window shopping but I left it at that!) and the house prices and rents are eye-wateringly high. The food lived up to it's reputation and was very good, I'd say restaurant prices were around 50% higher than where I live but the quality is much better so we were glad to pay it. There was no problem finding vegetarian-friendly food, either, thank goodness.
The people struck us as very friendly - in fact one old man who sat down opposite us on the train back from San Sebastian to Bilbao never stopped talking for a full hour, although he was lovely we were quite relieved when he got off after an hour! We also met two very nice ladies lunching in a restaurant in San Sebastian who had taken their elderly mother out for the day - the mother was a mere 100 years old! If I live that long I hope I'm still going out for nice meals.
Jun 17th 2012 | 3:24 am
#36
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 1,101
From: Elorrio, Bizkaia
Re: Tapas in Alicante
Thanks for all the useful information in this thread - we got back from our trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian late last night and had a great time.
We were very lucky with the weather and had 3 sunny days, just some light rain on Saturday afternoon immediately before we left. It was a pleasure to see the lovely green countryside - and cows in the fields, we don't see them in Andalucia!
Both Bilbao and San Sebastian seem very prosperous areas, lots of expensive shops (very nice for window shopping but I left it at that!) and the house prices and rents are eye-wateringly high. The food lived up to it's reputation and was very good, I'd say restaurant prices were around 50% higher than where I live but the quality is much better so we were glad to pay it. There was no problem finding vegetarian-friendly food, either, thank goodness.
The people struck us as very friendly - in fact one old man who sat down opposite us on the train back from San Sebastian to Bilbao never stopped talking for a full hour, although he was lovely we were quite relieved when he got off after an hour! We also met two very nice ladies lunching in a restaurant in San Sebastian who had taken their elderly mother out for the day - the mother was a mere 100 years old! If I live that long I hope I'm still going out for nice meals.
We were very lucky with the weather and had 3 sunny days, just some light rain on Saturday afternoon immediately before we left. It was a pleasure to see the lovely green countryside - and cows in the fields, we don't see them in Andalucia!
Both Bilbao and San Sebastian seem very prosperous areas, lots of expensive shops (very nice for window shopping but I left it at that!) and the house prices and rents are eye-wateringly high. The food lived up to it's reputation and was very good, I'd say restaurant prices were around 50% higher than where I live but the quality is much better so we were glad to pay it. There was no problem finding vegetarian-friendly food, either, thank goodness.
The people struck us as very friendly - in fact one old man who sat down opposite us on the train back from San Sebastian to Bilbao never stopped talking for a full hour, although he was lovely we were quite relieved when he got off after an hour! We also met two very nice ladies lunching in a restaurant in San Sebastian who had taken their elderly mother out for the day - the mother was a mere 100 years old! If I live that long I hope I'm still going out for nice meals.
So glad you enjoyed it.
Jun 17th 2012 | 11:49 pm
#37
Banned
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 121
From: Nueva AndalucÃa.
Re: Tapas in Alicante
The cava bars do the best tapas there's hundreds of different tapas in them and you get a diff one with each glass of cava you purchase or cerverza
