Best Tasting Menus in Bilbao

Aitor Rauleaga

A Michelin Plate-recognised address in Bilbao's Abando district, Aitor Rauleaga anchors itself in the Basque stew tradition with a daily changing "La Cuchara de Aitor" alongside a seasonal à la carte and tasting menu. At €€€ and It occupies the serious mid-tier of Bilbao dining where produce and tradition do the work.

Al Margen

A Michelin Bib Gourmand holder for 2024 and 2025, Al Margen sits alongside Bilbao's estuary near the San Antón bridge, serving updated traditional Basque cuisine at mid-range prices. The à la carte and tasting menu formats keep things concise and seasonal, with a relaxed dining room marked by stone columns and hydraulic floor tiles. One of the city's stronger arguments for serious cooking without the premium price tier.

Amaren

Amaren, in Bilbao's Abando district, centres its menu on dry-aged beef from old cows and oxen sourced across the Iberian Peninsula, grilled over an open fire by Chef Aitor Del Olmo. Stone, wood, and iron interiors root the room in Basque material culture. The wine list draws from Basque and Spanish appellations alongside Old World references, making it a coherent address for anyone tracing the txuleton tradition seriously.

Atelier Etxanobe

Atelier Etxanobe reads Bilbao through a more formal lens than the city’s pintxo bars: creative Spanish cooking, two tasting-menu formats, and a room inside a former glass factory in Abando. Its 2 Soles from Guía Repsol 2026, Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025, and Opinionated About Dining placements put it in the city’s serious modern-dining bracket rather than the casual grazing circuit.

Beltz

Deep wine list

Beltz sits in Abando, close to Bilbao’s museum-and-river axis, where the city’s dining conversation often turns on Basque produce rather than spectacle. With few public signals around format, price, or awards, it reads as a restaurant to assess through setting, ingredient intent, and how it fits beside Bilbao’s broader mix of asadores, traditional houses, and contemporary rooms.

Eneko Basque

On the seventh-floor terrace of the Radisson Collection Hotel in Abando, Eneko Basque holds a Michelin Plate (2025) and carries the name of celebrated chef Eneko Atxa. The kitchen works a concise à la carte alongside three tasting menus, rooting modern Basque cooking in the region's ingredient traditions without abandoning the structural logic of classic Bilbao cuisine. The price point sits at €€, making this one of the more accessible addresses in the city for food at this level.

Islares

1 Michelin star

Opposite Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum, Islares runs two named tasting menus, the 9-course A-8 and the 13-course N-634, built entirely around seasonal ingredients from small-scale Northern Spanish producers. The menus change completely each season, earning a Michelin Plate and an Opinionated About Dining European ranking in 2025. At €€€€ pricing, it sits in the same tier as Mina and Ola Martín Berasategui.

Kimtxu

A Michelin Bib Gourmand holder for two consecutive years, Kimtxu brings an Asian taberna sensibility to Bilbao's Abando district, with owner-chef Iván Abril applying London and Hong Kong techniques to Basque seasonal produce. The à la carte rotates with the market, and a seven-course tasting menu sits alongside it at a price point that undercuts the city's starred tier considerably.

KUMA

KUMA occupies a precise position in Bilbao's dining scene: a Japanese kitchen operating inside Basque Country, holding back-to-back Michelin Plates (2024, 2025). Chef Daniel Lomana's repeated training trips to Japan underpin a menu that moves between hamachi sashimi, sea bass nigiri, and à la carte fusion dishes, with a tasting menu available for those who want the full progression.

La Despensa del Etxanobe

La Despensa del Etxanobe sits beside its Michelin-starred sibling Etxanobe Atelier on Calle Juan Ajuriaguerra, sharing kitchen facilities but operating at a more accessible register. Traditional Basque cooking anchors the menu across three tasting formats and an à la carte, with a Michelin Plate and a 2024 Opinionated About Dining ranking of #134 in casual European dining confirming its position in Bilbao's serious-but-relaxed dining tier.

Las Lías Bilbao

A Michelin Plate-recognised gastro-bar on Calle Juan Ajuriaguerra in Bilbao's Abando district, Las Lías delivers traditional Basque cooking through tapas, raciones, and a concise menu. Crab-filled scallops and aged Frisona Gallega entrecôte anchor the kitchen's output, backed by a local wine list served by a staff that knows it well. For mid-range Basque eating without the formality of a full tasting menu, this is a reliable address.

Lasai

On a narrow street in Bilbao's Abando district, Lasai takes its name from the Basque word for calm, and the room earns it. A 2025 Michelin Plate holder, it runs three formats: the weekday 'Hiria' set menu, and two tasting menus rooted in regional Basque tradition. Demand consistently outpaces availability, so advance booking is the practical starting point for any visit.

Los Fueros

Operating since 1878 under its original name Bar Colón, Los Fueros in Bilbao's Casco Viejo is one of the few old-quarter restaurants to hold consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition (2024 and 2025) while retaining its bistro character. The menu runs from classic Basque à la carte through media ración portions to two tasting menus, with grilled prawns cited as the kitchen's calling card.

Mina

1 Michelin star

Mina holds a Michelin star on Ercilla Kalea in Bilbao's Indautxu neighbourhood, where Álvaro Garrido runs two tasting menus built around Cantabrian fish, seasonal game, and produce from a tight circle of local suppliers. The open kitchen anchors the room, the wine list has earned recognition from Star Wine List two years running, and the format places it firmly at the serious end of Bilbao's creative Spanish dining tier.

Nerua Guggenheim Bilbao

1 Michelin star

Nerua holds a Michelin star inside the Guggenheim Bilbao, ranked #153 in Opinionated About Dining's 2025 European list and a former World's 50 Best entry at #32. Chef Josean Alija's progressive Basque menu offers both à la carte and the Muina tasting format, with service running two tight sittings daily. Booking ahead is essential; the restaurant operates within one of Europe's most visited cultural institutions.

Odoloste

A Michelin Plate-recognised address on Alameda de Recalde, Odoloste brings Galician pork cookery into Bilbao's contemporary dining conversation. The menu rotates seasonally around a single protein, with three named set menus and an à la carte built entirely on pig, from snout to trotter. An optional Euskal-Herria cheese tasting rounds out a proposition that is as focused as any single-ingredient restaurant in the Basque Country.

Ola Martín Berasategui

1 Michelin star · Deep wine list

Inside Bilbao's Tayko hotel, Ola Martín Berasategui holds a Michelin star and occupies a dining room of exposed brick and concrete beams in the city's historic quarter. Two tasting menus channel the cooking of Martín Berasategui through head chef Raúl Cabrera, with Basque seafood preparations at the centre. Open for lunch Thursday through Sunday and dinner Thursday through Saturday, it sits at the formal end of Bilbao's restaurant spectrum.

Porrue

Porrue sits in Bilbao’s Abando district with a Basque kitchen shaped by sourcing rather than spectacle. Its 1 Sol recognition in the Guía Repsol Soles 2026 places it in the city’s serious dining tier, useful for travellers who want ingredient-led cooking without turning dinner into a formal tasting-menu exercise.

San Mamés Jatetxea

San Mamés Jatetxea sits inside Athletic Club's stadium in Bilbao's Basurto district, offering traditional Basque cuisine under Fernando Canales alongside views directly over the pitch. Holding a Michelin Plate for consecutive years, it serves three set menus alongside sharing dishes, with access extended to VIP guests on match days. The combination of stadium location and serious regional cooking makes it a natural endpoint for the Tour San Mamés.

Waman

A Michelin Plate-recognised Peruvian restaurant in Bilbao's university district of Deusto, Waman sits at a productive crossroads between Andean tradition and Basque coastal produce. Chef Gabriel Huaman, who trained under Eneko Atxa, structures the menu around two tasting formats, Inti and Pachamama, that move from highland to shoreline across a series of technically precise, personality-driven plates. Priced at €€, it offers one of the city's most considered alternatives to the Basque-centric canon.

Zarate

1 Michelin star · Deep wine list

Zarate occupies a precise position in Bilbao's seafood scene: a one-Michelin-star restaurant in the Abando district where daily fish sourcing from the ports of Lekeitio and Ondarroa drives every decision on the menu. Two tasting menus, 15 and 20 courses, sit alongside an à la carte, making it one of the city's most considered addresses for Cantabrian fish cookery.