We arrived in Porto a few days ago and have neglected to post about our last two weeks in Spain, specifically Madrid and San Sebastián (aka Donostia in Basque). After a tough time with food in Montenegro and Croatia, Spain was gluttonous (dual meaning unintended!) David and I thought it would be interesting and maybe useful for some if we shared our “first timers” view of the Tapas and Pintxos cultures and include our experiences around gluten free / Celiac and plant-based / vegan as well. And of course we couldn’t leave out our Michelin Star experience in San Sebastián.
Let me start by saying that participating in the tapas and pintxos cultures as a Celiac was not easy. It wasn’t impossible, but took more effort than I think the social, bar and food culture should.
Madrid & Tapas
As we learned, tapas is the social-food culture of Madrid. It’s generally a small plate of food to be shared. Our first-timer observations:
Getting the timing right can be hard. One tour guide shared that tapas can be eaten before lunch or before dinner. Now, keep in mind dinner is later than Americans are used to, the earliest dinner starts is 8pm, but more mainstream is around 9 or 10pm. So tapas before dinner means around 7 or 8pm. Without saying “we got it all wrong”, we definitely missed the window a few times, usually we were too early, because…
Many places open from 11a- 3p then close until around 7pm. But others are open the whole day, though maybe only for drinks until their kitchens re-open at 7p or later. It’s confusing(!) and it really depends on the restaurant / tapas spot. Though it seemed there were some “rules”, what we learned is it really varies from place to place and google maps was no help here.
We also learned that tapas culture is to have maybe 2 items with a drink and then move to the next spot, rinse & repeat. What we noticed is that many spots take reservations, especially as they can be quite small. If you don’t have reservation you may be out of luck. The whole thing didn’t feel as fluid as I expected. We had a night or two where we just gave up and went home for our own tapas!
Sidebar: Do you know why the Spanish eat dinner so late? When Franco was in power he wanted to align with Hitler’s time zone and it’s never changed back. Geographically, Spain should be aligned with Portugal but alas as the sun doesn’t set until later, dinner is later.
More confusion - some places serve tapas and full portions and in some spots we noticed you can order a tapas entree portion or a tapas portion.
Now let’s talk gluten free. The 100% gluten free place we tried didn’t impress, maybe we ordered the wrong things. However, at least I knew I could eat anything on the menu safely and that was a big win.
For plant-based or vegan, there were quite a few places to choose from and as we’ve learned across our travels vegan friendly places generally have good awareness of other nutritional needs like gluten free, dairy free, nut free, etc.
Some favorite spots for tapas or lunch / dinner: we really enjoyed Vega Alamo. We went to the original Vega as well, also very good. Other spots that were on our list that we didn’t get to: B13 bar (first come first serve no reservations), Mad Mad Vegan (burgers), Distrito Vegano.
San Sebastián / Donostia & Pintxos
Let’s move onto San Sebastián / Donostia where pintxos reigns central to their social culture; the cousin you could say to tapas. Though there are some similarities, they are very different as well. Our first-timer observations:
Unlike tapas, pintxos is more of a standing, finger food eating thing. It’s meant to be eaten with one hand, no fork, while your drink is in the other hand.
This means a lot of pintxos are [food item] on a slice of bread. We even saw a burrito on bread; watch out gluten free peeps.
Similar to tapas it’s 1-2 pintxos with a drink at one spot, then you and your crew move to the next spot.
And the reason you move from spot to spot is that each place has their specialty, risotto (that was actually orzo, ugh!), anchovies, foie gras, sausage, croquette, basque cheesecake (not GF!)
Some newer places are moving to a table set-up (more tapas style) but the old school, been around forever places are packed with standing people. When you scoot your way in, you pick a spot and either find your way to the bar to order or the servers find you. That spot you pick could be a corner or against a wall.
Anchovies with cider was a unique pairing here. The cider here was not what we’re used to, not as dry or sweet, rather very mellow flavor which paired well with the saltier anchovies. Trust me, these anchovies were not like anything you’ve tasted at home. We had them served over pickled peppers and with an olive on a skewer - it was delicious.
If you are gluten free, definitely take a tour. It was priceless to have a guide help with what I could eat or not and in many cases ask for the item without the bread base it was served on (I would have never known to ask for it this way).
Vegan was tough as well. Very few places have vegetable or bean based pintxos - full stop.
Couple of spots we went to that we enjoyed on our tour: Muxumartin, Txepetxa, Atari, La Viňa (basque cheesecake!)
Sidebar: we found one place in the old town area that had vegan and gluten free breakfast (American style), bowls and pastries - we ate there three times in the three days we were in the area, Maiatza.
Lastly, Michelin Star restaurants, apparently there are more per capita than anywhere else in the world. Whether you believe it or not, there were a ton of choices, so of course we had to indulge.
Picking a place took some research - thank you David! Then we had to ensure they could accommodate gluten/celiac needs. We decided this was one of the meals where our plant based preferences needed to be relaxed. In the process of making the reservation, we asked if they could accommodate gluten free, pescatarian while avoiding anything with heavy milk or cream.
All this before even making a reservation!
The outcome: we ate dinner at Arzak and could not have been more pleased. The story behind this restaurant is what sold David. Second generation Chef Elena is currently at the helm of this three Michelin Star restaurant having taken the reins from her father who first opened it. As the Michelin guide says: This restaurant is a real institution in San Sebastián as it has been Michelin starred since 1974.
The service started with special attention to our nutritional needs. Walking through each item on the tasting menu we made informed decisions, and were offered options along the way to ensure everything could work for us. My meal was all gluten free but the bread alone made me so happy (they work with a bakery in France; we were told it took them awhile to find something worthy).
Elena made her rounds to guests while we were there, speaking at least four languages, at least as we could count: Basque, Spanish, English, German….
The art of the food served was beautiful - sight, sound, smell and taste. And three courses of dessert didn’t upset me either. Photos in low light can be hard to appreciate but here are a few.
Other places we ate that might be of interest for gluten free and/or plant based / vegan eaters:
Madrid
Zenith-we loved this place and they have locations in Porto, Lisbon, Barcelona and Madrid
Churreria Chocolateria - Gluten free churros!
Toledo
Madre Tierra - GF and veggie options
Street & Soul - all plant based
Aliva
Soul Kitchen - some good gluten free and vegan options
Bilbao
Erriberako Merkatua - food hall with all kinda of pintxos and one in particular had vegan and veggie options and amongst those, gluten free options as well
Hope you enjoyed this little food diversion!
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