Astelena

Absolutely excellent food and beautiful presentations! We had the cod w slow cooked onions and the revueltos con hongos (egg with mushrooms) and both were incredible! Perfectly balanced the natural flavored while adding that extra kick! Wow! We’ll be back tomorrow!

There are so many great pintxos bars in San Sebastián but this one was my favorite. Let me guide you:
1. Ceviche de atun
2. Taco de bonito
3. Carrelleras
4. Solomillo and the Ravioli with foie gras and duck breast.
You won’t be disappointed! Also enjoy the classic rock and roll music they play in the background!

2 for 2 in San Sebastian.
The food at Astelena is great but the service leaves a little bit to be desired, it could have been the language barrier though.
We started with a nice white wine and a complimentary gaspacho which was great. We followed w/​Mushroom Croquettes which were very very good.
Our entrees were the grilled scallops and the battered monkfish. My wife said the scallops were the best thing she’s had all trip (we’ve had a lot of great meals), the monkfish was served with potatoes and amazing roasted red peppers. Both were excellent.
For dessert I had the caramelized french toast w/​ice cream and my wife had the apple pastry. Both of the desserts were great, as was everything we tasted all evening.
We have come to find that great food is something that can be expected in San Sebastian. If it wasn’t for just «okay» service this place would have gotten an easy 5 stars, the food was excellent.

This classic bar is located in the plaza at San Sebastian’s historic center.
The rustic place features a varied selection of exotic pintxos including frog legs, pistachio croquettes, deep fried crêpe rolls.
The place could definitely use some updating, but I was told that since it’s in a rent controlled location, doing so would make operating costs prohibitive.
Although the exotic pintxos are definitely worth trying, I recommend you sample the beef cheeks (carrilleras) as well as the ox tail (rabo de buey). Both of these are traditional dishes, and this place makes some of the tastiest versions. The «solomillo a lo pobre» (small beef fillet) is also excellent and comes with a fried quail egg on top and french fries on the side. The chorizo brochette is also quite tasty — then again, a deep fried skewer of chorizo chunks with onions and peppers is difficult to mess up.
They offer a good wine list with quality vintages at fair prices.

This was a spot my wife had on her list of places to eat while in San Sebastián. It was closed when we first got here, but we were finally able to make it in. It has been my favorite pintxos bar here! We ordered 6 dishes and they were all delicious! Among my favorites was the foie and duck ravioli, solomillo a lo pobre and the rabo de buey! The ravioli was absolutely amazing! The sauce was so tasty that I used our toast to absorb every last bit of it after I ate the ravioli! The rabo de buey (oxtail) was tender and melted in your mouth! If you are in this beautiful little town and feel like having some extremely delicious food and good beer, all for a reasonable price, stop by this place.

Astelena was our favorite pintxos bar in San Sebastián. This was the only bar we went to more than once! We really liked the solomillo a lo pobre and the ravioli with foie gras.

Outstanding !!! It was are 1^st stop in San Sebastián and we had no idea about this place it was full of locals so we walked in had a look at what everyone was eating and ordered accordingly. Cod w/​caramelized onion, egg & mushroom hot dish, prosciutto and roasted peppers. The wine was very very good and cheap.
All this was 70s /​80 rock ‘n roll in the background,
It was an epic dining experience !!!

Bar Astelena was one of the standout places in a city of standout places. The pinxtos were creative and the servers were so helpful. The steak with quail egg was delicious as well the seafood crêpe, which had been fried to almost be like a spring roll. They also brought us a complimentary tapa as well, a different steak dish w/​vegetables. The only miss was a pistachio encrusted croquette, which was heavy and tasteless. All in all, this place should be on your pinxtos crawl list.

Bar Astelena was the first stop on our pintxos crawl and I would’ve been happy to spend the whole night here. The pintxos were delicious and aesthetically pleasing, and the portions were generous compared to some of the other traditional bars. The space was modern, colorful, and inviting.
The large platter of Jamon Iberico was pork perfection (16 €). We could see them slicing the meat from the large pork leg. The foie a la plancha had a nice presentation with coarse sea salt and fruit reductions, such a great value at 4 €. The house wines were 2 €. This was one of the culinary highlights of my European trip… I’d definitely go back on my next trip.