BordaBerri, San Sebastian.

BordaBerri is a very unassuming little pintxos bar on a side street in San Sebastian. It's not as flashy as some other pintxos bars in town, but I had a tip that the food was top rate. Sometimes people say to me, 'oh you must try such and such a tapas bar' somewhere in England. But when you've eaten somewhere like BordaBerri, you just can't help thinking that you'll be disappointed.

We walked into the little bar, it looked like any other very basic functional tapas bar. There is barely any decoration, and there are no pretty displays on the counter as there are at other Basque pintxos bars. We got some stools at the bar.
I ordered from my bit of paper I'd prepared earlier (of course!)
To begin with, I actually ordered one dish by accident, I thought I'd ordered the ternera, but I actually asked for a Terrina Casera de Foie con Ciruela (€3). Wow! What a happy mistake, a rich and delicate foie gras dish that wouldn't be out of place in a high end restaurant.

Then we got the plate that I actually wanted; Morro de Ternera en Salsa Bizkaina.
Just €3 again! I slid a fork into the veal cheek. My good god! The taste was just so rich in flavour, I nearly fell off my chair. Incredible! The soft gooey meat was absolutely divine. It reminded me of the first time we had Rabo de Toro (bulls tail stew) in Spain several years ago. It takes an age to get the meat like this. Believe me, this five star dish is worth the flight alone!

Our last tapas was a wonderfully textured and flavoursome Mushroom Risotto. Again, we were blown away, the punch of the flavour was just incredible, and for just €3!

The cooking in the Basque country is just on a whole new level, trust me! We've eaten in some very highly rated restaurants in the UK (Like Aumbry in Manchester for instance), and at times the strength of flavour is often just not there in comparison to dishes like these. Here we were, spending just a few euros on each tapas, and each one was just incredible. We wandered out into the street a bit stunned, but off to the next Pintxos bar on our map.
But I'll be dreaming about that veal cheek dish until next time we go to San Sebastian.
I really hope it's sooner rather than later.

Fermin Calbeton 12, 
20003 San Sebastian Donostia.


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