Txakoli Ballano — Restaurant in Sondika

We stumbled upon the restaurant after a ride on the funicular railway. We had the 1kg T bone Txuleton between us with the hot stone to fine tune the meat to your taste. It was fabulous and an enjoyable dining experience. For desert we shared a local puff pastry, cream and chocolate dessert Pantxineta; probably the best dessert I have ever had! Not over sweet and felt like eating a cloud. We dithered before trying to order another as it was so nice, but they had sold out. The staff were really nice and with the aid of google translate to assist our basic Spanish we were easily able to order. I would highly recommend the venue, it felt very ‘local’ & authentic, and we both felt that it was a memorable lunch. If you are ever in the centre of Bilbao, I would highly...

Unfortunately, a disappointing experience. We arrived looking cheats to eating here based on reviews. When we arrived we were told that food was now complete and had finished which is fair enough. . However, we were then told we couldn't sit at the table we were at. After this people arrived who I can only assume we're locals and were given menus and got plates of food. It's a shame as the food that was served to people looked very good. It was the most unwelcome I've been made to feel since...

Very simple outside area on communal tables in the shade. Spectacular food, wonderful ingredients, superbly cooked (we has scallops, local cod and monkfish). The desserts were gorgeous too, I recommend the cream, puff pastry and chocolate which is light as a cloud and delicious.

I can understand that tourists have felt they are less catered for, this is obviously a local favourite and only Spanish is spoken. But we pulled out Google translate and all staff were charming once they understood...