Why Vitoria-Gasteiz is better for Basque pintxos than San Sebastian
Sitting at the smart, horseshoe bar of El Toloño, veteran head chef Josu Armiño is letting me into a secret. 'We've got something that I think other places don't have, and that's the simplicity of the way we use ingredients,' he says, sporting pristine chef's whites and a slightly mischievous smile. 'For me, the most important thing is the quality of the produce we have here.'
In the Basque capital of Vitoria-Gasteiz, El Toloño is one of the most locally revered pintxos bars — and for good reason. 'It's not about creating things with foams and all that,' Josu goes on to explain. 'It's about simplicity and building on the traditions of our grandparents' cooking,' he says. 'We add a touch of glamour and a bit more warmth and personality, but it's always on a base of traditional cooking. And I think that's the secret of what we do here in Vitoria and in the Basque country.'
Sitting under a neoclassical, 19th-century colonnade on the edge of Vitoria's pedestrianised main square, Plaza de la Virgen Blanca, award-winning El Toloño is a key stop for locals out for a poteo — the pintxos equivalent of a pub crawl. It's a Basque tradition I'm here to try for myself. On El Toloño's bar counter, each delicate pintxo certainly looks like it'll live up to Josu's description.
I decide to start with the gilda. Arguably the most famous of all Basque pintxos, it's made up of a Cantabrian anchovy skewered onto a cocktail stick between a plump, green manzanilla olive and a pickled green guindilla pepper. The gilda was named after Rita Hayworth's character in the eponymous 1946 film noir, which, at the time of its release, was considered so risque that it was banned by Spain's Francoist regime. Conceived as a homage to her punchy character, the gilda's combination of slightly bitter, fruity olive, salty anchovy and spicy guindilla is anything but subtle.
It's the perfect opener to awaken my palate — especially when paired with a glass of txakoli, the Basque Country's signature dry yet refreshingly fruity white wine. Josu pours it from a great height with a theatrical flourish, as is tradition. By the time I've finished, the bar, with its elegant mix of slate-toned walls and black-and-white floor tiles, has filled up with middle-aged men in puffer jackets and smartly dressed businesswomen. Their lively chatter mingles with the clanking of beer glasses and coffee cups.
Despite its popularity, there's still nowhere near the amount of elbow jostling you'll find in many bars in nearby San Sebastián or even Bilbao, both an hour's drive north to the coast. While glamorous San Sebastián may have risen to stardom thanks to its pintxos and fine dining culture, not to mention its superb beachside location, those in the know will tell you that Vitoria is the secret jewel in the Basque Country's culinary crown. Its inland location means that it benefits from both easy access to seafood from the Bay of Biscay and exceptional beef, vegetables and fruit from the countryside. It's been the Basque capital since 1980, when many of Spain's regional boundaries were drawn up in the aftermath of the Franco dictatorship. Yet its tourism profile has suffered from the fact that it has neither a coastal location nor international airport.
In the spirit of the poteo, I take a short walk from El Toloño past the belle époque townhouses and tram tracks that flow down Vitoria's tree-lined avenues. My next stop is PerretxiCo, another bar that's won numerous awards in the Basque Country's pintxos competitions. These annual events see bars vie with one another in an effort to create the tastiest and most innovative pintxos. One previous winner I'm intrigued to try is PerretxiCo's La Vacuna, which translates as 'the vaccine'.
It's a beef meatball of sorts, encased in a shell of crisp batter and topped with flying-fish roe. The dish arrives at my table alongside a small plastic syringe filled with a beefy jus, which I'm instructed to inject into the meatball. I do as I'm told, and find the intense, almost Bovril-like gravy adds a deliciously comforting warmth to the mix of crispy outer coating and finely textured minced meat.
Taking a quick break from the kitchen in his black chef's apron, PerretxiCo's head chef Josean Merino tells me that La Vacuna was invented during the pandemic, 'to add a touch of humour'. It's also about balance. Josean says: 'I always say that a pintxo is one of the most complicated dishes to prepare, because you have to concentrate everything into one or two bites and get an almost surgical balance between the textures and flavours.'
As the sound of church bells marks the hour, I leave PerretxiCo to head into the steep, narrow, medieval streets of Vitoria's Old Quarter, high on a hilltop. Not far from the magnificent, 13th-century gothic cathedral and elegant, neoclassical palacios and plazas, I find El Portalón, one of the city's most famous restaurants. Set in a large, half-timbered house that was once a 15th-century staging post and inn, El Portalón also offers its own prize-winning pintxos. One of its signature dishes is the octopus carpaccio — tender slices of octopus lightly dusted with sweet paprika, served with dried red peppers on a small piece of rustic, home-baked farmhouse bread. I put in my order and pull up a chair in the cobbled entrance yard, originally used as the building's stables.
'Going out to eat is a big part of life here in Vitoria,' says El Portalón's manager and head chef Alberto Ortiz de Zárate, a youthful looking 50-year-old who comes to say hello. He first joined his father as a commis chef in El Portalón's kitchen some 18 years ago. 'People appreciate good food and don't mind paying a little extra for it, so restaurants can spend more on the best produce, resulting in a higher-quality range of dishes,' he says, trying to put his finger on what makes Vitoria's food scene — and that of the broader Basque Country — so special. 'It's a cultural act — spending time at the table with friends and family, and enjoying it. It's not just about the food. It's about being with the people you care about — spending less time on your mobile phone and more time appreciating life.'
Published in the June 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
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