La Espiga — Restaurant in San Sebastián

Someone said this is the oldest bar in San Sebastian and if that's true, it makes sense why. The staff are lovely - super busy but happy to to answer curious people. Jesus was great to us as he knew a bit about our home area and spoke English well especially when it came to food. They were great about my food allergy too.

The tortilla is one of the best we've ever eaten, do not miss the ropa vieja de bonito (basically pulled tuna in a paprika and tomato sauce) which is rich, luxurious and complex, and an egg mayonnaise with anchovies pinxto which will make you wonder why egg mayonnaise doesn't include anchovies more often. The snout may not sound like everyone's cup of tea but it is super savoury in a glossy, thick sauce and is the right mix of fatty and meaty - again, perfect to have with a txakoli or a more acidic white. We tried this as it was a recommendation from the team and they were absolutely correct.

Treat yourself to a trip here if you're...

Really slow service and terrible customer care. I was surprised to find that this bar, recommended in many tourist guides, was not just understaffed for the service, that wasn't massively busy, but had a very poor selection of pintxos and the quality of the plates, was quite questionable.

I would never mind to pay extra for the terrace service, in this case there was a plus charge of 20%, but you normally sit down and get your service there. Our only waiter was too busy opening oysters, so we had to get to the bar, order our food, and wait for nearly 10 minutes to get itnto pur table and then wait for long periods until we grabbed someone's attention to get something else to eat or drink.

Overall, an overcharged pintxos bar. Not...

We visited twice during our stay. Once for afternoon coffee and once for Pintxos in the early evening. The modern decor is comfortable but the venue is one of the oldest. The coffee is smooth and the selection of Pintxos is good. The best pintxo was the barman's suggestion of stuffed pepper. The others including a strange bacalao mixture with sultanas are not as tasty, but the staff are friendly and helpful and the atmosphere is very welcoming. This is the only place we noticed that had wheelchair access and wheelchair users were made very welcome. A very inclusive place and overall very good and recommend you ask for their suggestions to...