I tend to rate cities by the number of days you can spend in them and not get bored. Seville is a 3 day city (I spent 4), Rome is an easy 7 and London, like dogs, is for life, not just Xmas.
Bilbao can be measured in hours, and that’s only because you feel you have to see the Guggenheim, which was specifically placed here to make people stop as the got off the ferry and trick them into thinking Bilbao was an interesting place.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing places near Bilbao, like San Juan de Gaztelugatxe which is the filming location for Dragonstone in Game of Thrones, and the emblem of Republican suffering in the Civil War, Guernica, but Bilbao itself is really not worth a stop, even for the Guggenheim, which looks exactly like the pictures on the outside and which has an absence of decent pictures on the inside.
But, if you are trapped in Bilbao for a night or two, there is one very good thing, which is an excellent food scene, and probably the only thing keeping anyone actually living in Bilbao.
An honourable mention goes to El Informal which we chose on our first night partly because it had quite good reviews, but mainly because it was pouring with rain and it was close to the hotel! Definitely a good find.
But, Mrs Nigel had as ever done a lot of research and had identified Los Fueros in the old town as a must visit: It seemed a little pricy at 64 Euros each for the set menu, but we felt we were worth it.
Everything went right (which may make this a very short review). We were seated on a mezzanine overlooking the main restaurant, probably because we had identified ourselves as foreigners by booking at the insanely early hour of 8.30pm. But we basically had a cosy, romantic nook to ourselves.
A bottle of wine is included in the menu, and was plonked on the table without much discussion, apart from colour (white for starters). But it was absolutely delicious. When I asked for a glass of red later, another superb bottle arrived, and I was basically told to fill my boots, for free (I drew the line at just one boot). The sparkling water (which again was supposed to be extra) was also thrown in, so what had looked on the surface as being a possibly pricy meal turned out to be a very reasonable 128 Euros.
But it gets better, because the food was outstanding, and we could easily have fed one or two other people with what came.
A couple of standout items were the white asparagus soup, the artichokes and the anchovies, but to be honest, it was all amazing, even the Russian Salad, which I only remember being made with tinned diced veg and salad cream, so it was beyond revelatory.
We were decidedly fat, slightly drunk and very happy by the end of the meal: there was a horrible moment when we thought yet more food was coming, but we were relieved to see it was time for strawberries (always good in Spain). There was a real chance I was going to have to be stretched home otherwise.
Tipping is not a thing in Spain (I read up on it), so you don’t get “optional” service added to the bill, nor the opportunity to add it to the credit card, so keep a ready supply of notes, or say “propina”, and they’ll happily add what you ask to the bill. This place really deserved it.
Final shoutout to the Michelin Bib Gourmand people who yet again did the legwork and found us an excellent restaurant that was amazing value.
Conclusion
Overall Rating: 5/5
- Food: 5/5
- Ambiance: 5/5
- Service: 5/5
- Value: 5/5
- Drinks: 5/5
- Would we go back: 0/5 (unless the car breaks down on the ferry)
Los Fueros: https://losfueros.com/
