Matt Flemming dines his way through San Sebastian, home to Spain’s most diverse and intriguing culinary scene.

San Sebastian has no shortage of charms. The crescent-shaped La Concha Bay and its beachfront Belle Epoque character are iconic, as are the cobblestoned streets of the historic Old Town, which are at the heart of the city’s cultural identity. But with a population of less than 200,000, and in a country with an abundance of exceptional local restaurant scenes, San Sebastian seems an unlikely place to be dubbed Spain’s culinary mecca and no less one of the greatest food cities in the world. It begs the question: How did San Sebastian earn its world renown?

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San Sebastian’s culinary reputation is often attributed to its remarkable Michelin stars per capita ratio – ten restaurants garnered a total of 18 stars in the 2024 edition of the guide. In fact, only 15 eateries in Spain were deemed worthy of three stars, and three of them – New Basque haven Arzak (below), Martin Berasategui’s eponymous eatery, and chef Pedro Subijana’s iconic Akelarre – are in San Sebastian.

The fine dining accolades are the result of a centuries-old food culture, a pair of influential historical events, the area’s excellent terroir, and a group of chefs who revolutionised Basque cooking. And the spectrum of food experiences in San Sebastian extends beyond fine dining, to the many pintxos bars, gastronomy clubs, cider houses and markets found throughout the city.

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In fact, some of the city’s most important institutions are its gastronomy clubs, exclusive societies that provide a space for members to cook with friends and family and dine in a restaurant setting. These clubs emerged from the ruins of the Siege of San Sebastian in 1813, during which much of the city was destroyed. “The people of San Sebastian held meetings to discuss how the city would be reconstructed and at these meetings, they cooked together — that’s how gastronomy clubs were invented,” says chef Subijana (below).

The clubs introduced cooking as a competitive sport. “They used to be only for men so there was competition among the society members to be the best but also among their wives, who wanted to give their husbands a reason to eat at home.”

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Decades later, San Sebastian became a high society retreat popular with Spanish royalty and later as something of a Spanish Monte Carlo – a grand casino (now San Sebastian’s ornate city hall) was built in 1897 and operated until the Franco regime prohibited gambling. Spain’s aristocrats hired local residents to work in their kitchens, leaving the city with a workforce of chefs skilled in cooking for the upper class.

Subijana and Juan Mari Arzak are two of the fathers of New Basque Cuisine, a movement they began with ten other local chefs in the 1970s. This modern take on traditional Basque cuisine not only brought the city to the forefront of Spanish cooking but was extremely influential on the nation’s fine dining scene. “We wanted to build something together,” says Subijana. “As chefs, we had no secrets. We opened the doors to our kitchens to show others what we were doing. We felt free to try new things, to adopt new ideas and to create new dishes that were based on traditional Basque cooking.”

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Subijana says that while a healthy sense of competition still exists, it is not unusual for San Sebastian’s star chefs to get into the kitchen and cook a meal together at a gastronomy club. He and the other founders of New Basque Cuisine also work to mentor talented young chefs in their kitchens, and also through the Basque Culinary Center, an education and research facility. Luis Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz, who spent time working at both Akelarre and Arzak, has gone on to become arguably Spain’s foremost culinary creative genius, spending four months each year researching new dishes and planning a new menu that provides a full sensory experience.

While most visitors may come to the city for the Michelin stars, a night spent exploring the pintxos bars of the Old Town is just as much of a quintessential San Sebastian experience. The Basque equivalent of tapas is served up on large platters on bar countertops, with guests helping themselves to these two or- three bite dishes as bartenders serve up glasses of txakoli, a local sparkling white wine. Local residents love to bounce from one eatery to the next, sampling and snacking while drinking and socialising in a friendly and convivial atmosphere.

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Classic pintxos dishes include anchovies, pickled peppers and olives mounted on toothpicks; Bayonne ham; deviled eggs; Russian salad; Bechamel croquettes, and Spanish omelettes. Of course, there is no shortage of bars serving more modern takes on the common pintxo, including Bar Antonio, award-winning Bar Bergara, and La Cuchara San Telmo, all of which apply the competitive creativity that has defined San Sebastian as a foodie mecca for generations.

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