Juantxo Taberna — Restaurant in San Sebastián

Anti-tourist place - Don’t come if you don’t know Euskara

We was here last Sunday for a small break in our day trip visit to San Sebastian. This place was recommended by a random friendly lady on the street and we decided to give it a try.

To be honest, I rarely put reviews for restaurants but after ordering and seeing how the 2 waitresses there treated us during the time there, I feel I need to give proper feedback to this bar (taberna) because we did not feel respected and heard when we voiced our feedback directly to the waitresses. There were 3 things that made us disappointed about the service:

First, 2 of us went to order in Spanish (they are not from the Basque country nor from Spain but they are Spanish native speakers) but the waitress replied in Euskara - the local language of the region. We found this very unwelcoming because they put us in an uncomfortable situation where obviously we don’t speak the language since we are only tourists there.

Secondly, my boyfriend ordered a Calamares which goes with bread. On the menu, it has both Spanish and Euskara version (just to add, there is no English version), so in the local language it says Kalamarrak. It also says that it comes with either Aioli or Mayonnaise but when it was brought out, there was just the calamares with bread. He went to ask about this with polite manner if there should be sauce in this and one of the waitresses replied that he should and if he wants sauce, he should have ordered Kalamarrak instead. I don’t understand this attitude because this gave me a signal that you only get benefit - the extra sauce if you order in Euskara which is very discriminating service towards people who don’t speak the local language or even Spanish at all.

Thirdly, the food came out very slowly and not all at once. One dish came out first and then 5 mins another one and 10 more mins another one so that broke the whole enjoyment of having food together.

What really made me and all of us furious and extremely disappointed was the attitude of the 2 waitresses when we approached them to give feedback on these 3 things above. I understand that it is natural for people to defend themselves when being given constructive feedback but I only saw them trying to justify their actions and behaviors but not trying to listen or see it from our perspectives. They did not apologize for anything that they said or did.

One example that I can share: since I don’t speak Spanish fluently, I tried to give them feedback in English, I asked if she can speak English and she said a little bit. I started with the first thing about when they replied back to us in Euskara, I find that not respectful to customers since they seem to expect us to understand/speak in their language and made it difficult for us to order. She said that she does not think so. I tried to explain some more and she said she does not understand what I was saying. So I made the effort to ask them in the limited Spanish that I have that if no tourists should be here? And she replied No (so it means they don't want tourists then?). Just to mention that at the time, not only I tried to speak to them but also 2 others tried to give them feedback in Spanish. Things just spiraled up and when I saw that they just did not want to listen to us and did not have a respectful manner, I said that I would give the feedback on Google and one waitress said OK. That shows that they give zero care about improving the quality of their service nor customer experience.

We felt stressed and anxious going out of that place and because of this experience, it made my first-time trip to San Sebastian a negative one about the language and the people here unfortunately despite the magnificent architecture that the city has.

Therefore, I never see us coming back here nor recommend this bar to anyone (maybe could be good for locals but definitely not when you are tourists/foreigners). If you don’t want to receive tourists, please put a sign outside your bar that you don’t accept tourists so...

Jauntxo Taberna is a local institution in Donostia’s historic old town where you can enjoy good sandwiches and good drinks for good prices. We came here on a Wednesday night in late August with a Basque friend and liked the food and atmosphere—a laid-back restaurant filled with locals. We ordered a tortilla de patata sandwich, or egg omelette, cooked up as we waited and served in a fresh roll of bread. We also tried the pork, cheese and grilled green pepper sandwich. The sandwiches were each cut in three pieces, which we washed down with a bottle of Basque sagardoa, or hard cider. The price for the food and drink was about 15 Euros. Juantxo has been around for nearly a century and most of the people we saw were locals, some of them speaking in Euskera, the Basque language, as they ordered food or sat at the bar blowing off steam. The scene was a nice break from so many other pintxo bars we had visited in the old town, which were packed with tourists. I’ll definitely be returning to this place on my next trip...

Super interesting restaurant in Donostia. They serve a type of "pinchos" here called Juantxos that are large cooked sandwiches. We had hamburger, calamari, egg & potato, crab & egg & potato and a mushroom dish. A couple of beers and one beer & sprite (not my favorite but others liked it.) The calamari was the largest I've ever eaten, cooked perfectly and very tender. The mushrooms were delicious. The hamburger was fried with a panko-type coating and served with sauted onions and peppers. It was good but... it was hamburger - not a delicacy. The service seems chaotic but in a good way. They are super busy and you have elbow your way to the front bar to order. We designated out best Spanish speaker and it all worked out ok. Orders were placed and food brought to the table. Tons of atmosphere here and seemed like a lot of locals come here. If you're looking for something better than pinchos then head to this...