Bar Santamaría — Restaurant in Bilbao

I've been all around the world and never, neverever have I been treated so poorly as a tourist at a restaurant. I visited Santamaria bar in the evening @1030pm after a full day of travel at the recommendation of our (local) hotel receptionist. Upon entering, I was shooed out by a employee and told that they were closed, even though others were actively being served and they closed @1100pm. We ate else where that night. Not letting one bad experience with a single employee stop us, we returned the next day for lunch and where treated with disrespect and hostility. The language barrier didn't help, but after pointing at the menu for what we wanted and not being served what we ordered, being told they were out of steak, while others around us were served steak, it was despicable. Afterwards, separately I ordered a fish pinxtos that I google translated and once again pointed out to a waitress on the menu and paid for it. After waiting 10-15 minutes, I got frustrated and asked where my one pinxtos fish order was, and I got laughed at by two employees and the cook. I left without getting my order absolutely furious! I wish they would put a sign at the entrance stating, "TOURISTS...

Im so sad that I had only one photo, but the beautiful truth is that I couldn’t waste more time taking photos than eating this. Pintxos in this bar was marvelous, and my friends and I were super lucky to have snatched a seat outside while other waited around and watched us dine and drink in pure joy. We stayed in Portugalete so we needed to eat everything we could before we went back into town. Turns out it was quite a great choice to have picked this bar. Everything, and I mean everything, was wonderful. You couldn’t possibly go wrong with anything you order. You could go inside and pick the pintxos with your eyes covered and you’d still end up with a happy tummy like all three of us did. Great wine as well. Ah how I love basque...

One of my favorite pintxo bars in old town. The pintxos are very classic, mostly just the meat grilled on toasted baguette, but it's made fresh to order, the prices are great, and the execution is deadly. My faves are the grill artichoke and iberico, the octopus, the cod and the foie gras (thats actually an incredible combination of flavores and textures if youre not sure what to get). A few tap beers (including 1 NA option) and a good variety of red and white wines round out this top notch pintxo bar. Fyi, Kitchen is usually closed for...