Hondarribia is an extraordinary town with a gastronomic explosion…read more
Few tourists (contrast with Saint Jean de Luz).
Little urban blight (contrast with Donastia)
Picturesque everywhere. (The ugly stuff was foisted off on the neighboring town of Irun.)
And magnificent restaurants everywhere.
Ironically - Cafe Exteberria is NOT one of the famous restaurants.
If you want the places the New York Times or the food critics love -
go down to the waterfront.
The critics say - probably correctly - you will eat like a king.
Cafe Exteberria is a neighborhood joint.
It is in the old city within the ancient city walls.
An unusual (and highly desirable) feature of the old city is that there is VERY LITTLE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT anywhere in the old city.
There are not only few tourist stores.
There are no stores period stop the end.
In the Middle Ages, walled cities had the houses people lived in, a castle and nothing else.
If you did business, you did it in the streets.
Hondarribia has kept things exactly that way.
Not a single house has been knocked down or cleared out for modern business.
The houses have been upgraded for modern comforts.
(They now have flush toilets instead of people dumping their bedpans in the street.)
Everything else has been maintained.
So if you want to eat, there are only two choices.
There are some tavernas off of the central square.
In the southern part of the old city far from the central square, there is Cafe Exteberria.
It pretty much only takes care of the locals.
It is a wonderful establishment.
It carries a small but wonderful assortments of global microbrews.
(None from the U.S.. but intriguing examples of Mexican, Danish and Scotch artisanal beers.)
There is plenty of Spanish/Basque food and drink.
They keep a local red vermouth in a barrel and serve it with fruit and ice.
That is a fine fine beverage and I endorse it heartily.
They have a nice little menu of sandwiches and pinxtos.
We went with the omelet with tuna and the deep fried hot peppers.
Fine dishes both.
Two additional marks of class.
a) The television was set to the Mainland Chinese channel (with Spanish subtitles.)
While we ate we watched Chinese telenovelas.
The middle aged owner of a business was scheming against his brothers and being morally corrected by the rest of his family.
b) The owner has a first rate jazz collection - mostly in vinyl - which she plays as the background music.
Great vermouth, fine basque food, Chinese telenovelas, and late fifties jazz vocals.
What's not to like?
