Restaurants in Pamplona

A touchstone of contemporary Navarrese cuisine, Alhambra has been one of Pamplona’s top restaurants since it opened in 1985. Chef Javier Diaz Zalduendo knows all the classic dishes, but he is no slave to tradition. Try his boneless trotters with boletus (mushroom) sauce, given a…

A few steps from the party streets, Anttonenea provides a welcome oasis of calm serving local favorites in a semi-formal setting. Popular with couples, but welcoming to all, you can choose the tasting menu (recommended) with or without wine or delve into the short a la carte. If you…

There are two kinds of great eating in Pamplona. The innovative Basque chefs of Alhambra and Europa prepare gorgeous avant-garde food at reasonable prices, making this city one of the better dining cities in Spain. But there’s an equally appealing, far more casual style of Navarrese…

Chef Pilar Idoate likes to play with her food. She’ll take the humble porrusalda, a Basque potato-leek soup, and substitute green garlic shoots for the leek and accompany the bowl with a mix of shellfish and lightly steamed green asparagus. In a similar fashion, she will substitute…

A short stroll from the square introduces you to this cozy little place, run by a happy, hands-on, professional couple. The dining room is compact, with few decorative distractions, yet the welcome is warm, the music unobtrusive, and you’ve come here to eat. Select from the menu,…

Slap-bang in the lively cauldron that is Calle San Nicolás—Pamplona’s party street—this local favorite merits a stop on everyone’s night out. Fifty huge Huelva hams hang from the beamed ceiling, giving a clue as to what might feature heavily in the bar counter’s delicacies—you’ll…

The dining-room stretches a long way back from the sidewalk, perhaps just as well as this place is nearly always packed. The menu is short, allowing classically trained chef Fermín de Prados and his team to craft top-quality produce into top-quality dishes. The fish soup is rich and…

Located in a section of town known for its tapas and drinking bars, Letyana is the current king of glorious pintxos in Pamplona. One spectacular plate is the medallion of monkfish mounted on a crab shell stuffed with crabmeat on top of scampi cooked in butter and a little squid ink.…

Chef Iñaki Rodaballo spends most of his time at his restaurant in Vitoria-Gasteiz, but his spirit is certainly evident in the inventive pintxos served at the bar here. The small plates are miniature meals, and several of them have won various tapas contests. One of the most sublime…

This lovely, largely midday restaurant is an anomaly in Spain in general and in meat-loving Navarra especially. Except during the San Fermín festival, when they revert to carnivore ways to satisfy the hordes, Sarasate is strictly vegetarian and has been since 1979. The menus are…