Santander

Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries in Santander from the En Primeur Club guide.

CountrySpain Locations50 Restaurants48 Hotels2 Bars0 Wineries0

Accolades in Santander

Santander's dining scene concentrates serious cooking and wine-led rooms in a few clear neighbourhoods. In our guide, the city has 48 restaurants, 2 Michelin-starred restaurants and 3 exceptional wine programmes, with Centro and Puertochico carrying much of the action. Seafood is the city's most common register, but the stronger tables also include tasting menus, cellar-driven rooms and modern Cantabrian kitchens. Centro gathers traditional Cantabrian restaurants and one of the city's strongest wine rooms. Puertochico concentrates seafood houses and Plate-recognised restaurants. Sardinero adds a starred dining room with an exceptional wine programme, Barrio de Monte brings a tasting-menu restaurant in a 19th-century mansion, and Santander center includes a modern Cantabrian gastropub with natural wine and craft cocktails. Downtown Santander adds a historic cellar room with an extensive wine list and a museum inside the restaurant.

Michelin-starred dining

Santander has 2 Michelin-starred restaurants in our guide, both centred on modern Cantabrian cooking and tasting-menu formats.

La Casona del Judío
Barrio de Monte holds this Michelin-starred restaurant in a 19th-century mansion. Chef Sergio Bastard runs two tasting menus built around Cantabrian coastal ingredients, algae and sea-derived ferments. The experience begins with snacks prepared and explained by the chef before guests are seated.
El Serbal
Sardinero is home to this one-star dining room above the beach, with tasting menu and à la carte formats. The kitchen works with daily auction fish and Cantabrian ingredients such as Tudanca beef. The wine programme is exceptional, and the room also has an extensive wine list.
La Hermosa de Alba
Tetuán holds this Michelin Plate-recognised restaurant with small plates and à la carte service. Chef Diego Bilbao works with fresh local ingredients, and the room keeps a shareable format with an extensive wine list.

Strong wine programmes and cellar rooms

Centro, Downtown Santander and Santander center each show a different wine-led format, with Bodega Cigalena combining a wine museum and an exceptional programme in one room.

Bodega Cigalena
Bodega Cigalena in Centro is a wine museum with over 1300 bottles on the walls and ceiling. The wine programme is exceptional, and the kitchen works in a traditional Cantabrian Spanish register.
Bodega del Riojano
Downtown Santander gives this historic cellar room a distinct setting, with painted barrel ends signed by contemporary Spanish artists and the Museo Redondo inside the restaurant. The list is extensive. The menu leans to traditional Cantabrian and Rioja cuisine, with a bar for aperitifs before the dining room.
Umma
Umma in Santander center is a modern Cantabrian gastropub with small plates and à la carte service. The restaurant serves natural wine and craft cocktails. Umma holds a Michelin Plate for 2026 and a Bib Gourmand for 2024 and 2025.

Planning FAQ

Which neighbourhoods hold the strongest dining scene in Santander?

Centro, Puertochico and Sardinero hold much of Santander's dining scene in our guide. Centro gathers established restaurants and cellar-led rooms, Puertochico concentrates seafood and Plate-recognised dining, and Sardinero adds a starred room with a serious wine programme and tasting-menu service.

How many Michelin-starred restaurants are in Santander in your guide?

Santander has 2 Michelin-starred restaurants in our guide. La Casona del Judío is in Barrio de Monte and El Serbal is in Sardinero, and both work with tasting-menu formats and modern Cantabrian cooking.

Where should I go for the strongest wine programmes?

Centro is the clearest place to start for strong wine programmes. Bodega Cigalena in Centro has an exceptional programme, Bodega del Riojano in Downtown Santander has an extensive wine list, and Umma in Santander center adds natural wine to a modern dining room.

Which Santander restaurants are best for tasting menus?

Barrio de Monte and Sardinero are the clearest neighbourhoods for tasting menus in our guide. La Casona del Judío works with two tasting menus, and El Serbal offers tasting menu and à la carte formats alongside an exceptional wine programme.

By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards

Santander

Where to eat in Santander

Selected entries from the current guide for Santander.

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Santander, Spain

La Casona del Judío

Casona del Judío holds a Michelin star (2024) and occupies a 19th-century colonial-style property on the edge of Santander, where chef Sergio Bastard runs two tasting menus built around Cantabrian coastal ingredients, algae, and sea-derived ferments. At €€€€ pricing, it sits at the upper end of the city's fine dining tier, above one-star peer El Serbal, and draws guests specifically for its format: snacks prepared and explained by the chef before guests are seated.

Santander, Spain

El Serbal

Among Santander's Michelin-starred modern restaurants, El Serbal occupies a specific position: a first-floor dining room above Sardinero beach with a direct line to daily auction fish and a commitment to Cantabrian ingredients, including Tudanca beef. Ranked 560th in Opinionated About Dining's 2025 European list, it operates across three menus and an à la carte, with a separate bistro, Querida Mar, on the ground floor.

Santander, Spain

La Bombi

Open since 1935 and anchored in Santander's Puertochico district, La Bombi is a long-standing address for northern Spanish seafood and farm-sourced produce. The Michelin Plate holder and Opinionated About Dining-ranked address serves fish and shellfish priced by weight from live display tanks alongside quality meats, across a compact dining room that favours ingredient clarity over culinary theatre.

Santander, Spain

Cañadío

Cañadío Santander reigns as Cantabria's most celebrated culinary institution, where three decades of tradition culminate in award-winning dishes like the nationally acclaimed "Santander style" tortilla and sublime seafood preparations that define authentic regional gastronomy.

Santander, Spain

Agua Salada

A Michelin Bib Gourmand holder for 2024 and 2025, Agua Salada sits on a street corner in central Santander and delivers contemporary cuisine that crosses Cantabrian tradition with Asian and Latin American technique. Chef Walkyria Fagundes works at a mid-range price point, making this one of the city's more accessible arguments for bold, cross-cultural cooking in an unhurried bistro setting.

Santander, Spain

Cadelo

A Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient on Calle Santa Lucía, Cadelo delivers a shareable, fusion-leaning menu built on Spanish ingredients and techniques drawn from Mexico, Korea, and Peru. At the €€ price point, it sits in a category where the ambition consistently exceeds the bill. Chef Franck Baranger's concise, rotating format, anchored by table-side specials, makes it one of Santander's more considered mid-range options.

Santander, Spain

Umma

Umma is a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant in central Santander serving modern cuisine in a two-level space that combines high ceilings, brick walls, and cave painting reproductions with a New York-style informality. Chef Miguel Ángel Rodríguez works in a sharing-plate format, pairing contemporary technique with northern Spanish tradition at mid-range prices that make it one of the more accessible serious kitchens in the city.

Santander, Spain

Bodega del Riojano

Operating from its address on Calle Río de la Pila since the 1930s, Bodega del Riojano is one of Santander's most established traditional restaurants, holding a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025. The menu runs to Rioja-style braised snails, hake with velouté, and a bar designed for aperitifs before the dining room. The attached Museo Redondo adds an art-lined dimension rarely found at the €€ price point.

Santander, Spain

La Hermosa de Alba

A Michelin Plate-recognised address on Calle Tetuán, La Hermosa de Alba operates within Santander's emerging contemporary dining tier, pairing a modern, shareable format with fusion cooking that has earned it. The room projects energy over formality, drawing a crowd that responds to technically considered food in an approachable, convivial setting.

Santander, Spain

Asador Lechazo Aranda

A Michelin Plate-recognised asador on Calle Tetuán, Asador Lechazo Aranda brings the roasting tradition of Castile to Cantabria's coast. Wood-fired ovens anchored in centuries of Spanish lechazo craft sit at the centre of a menu built around suckling lamb, quality meats, and occasional Cantabrian seafood. At the €€ price point, it occupies a distinct lane in Santander's dining scene.

Santander, Spain

La Mulata

A Michelin Plate address in Santander's Puertochico district, La Mulata takes its name from the black crab species found in the rocks along the nearby docks. The bar draws a steady crowd for tapas and raciones while the dining room offers an à la carte menu centred on seafood, savoury rice dishes, and the fresh catch of the day, making it a reliable reference point for Cantabrian coastal cooking.

Santander, Spain

Bar del Puerto

Bar del Puerto sits on Calle Hernán Cortés in central Santander, operating as a casual seafood address. Under chef Miguel Ángel Moreno, it holds a 2025 Opinionated About Dining Casual recognition, a signal that places it among Europe's more credible everyday seafood counters, not merely a neighbourhood staple.

Santander, Spain

Bodega Cigalena

Ranked #34 in Opinionated About Dining's Casual Europe list in 2024 and holding steady in the top 70 in 2025, Bodega Cigalena is one of Santander's most consistently recognised casual dining addresses. Under chef Andrés Conde, the kitchen works a Spanish register that earns its place in a city better known for seafood counters and Michelin-chasing modern cuisine.

Santander, Spain

Casa Cirana restaurante

On Calle Bonifaz in central Santander, Casa Cirana sits within a city that takes its relationship with the Cantabrian coast seriously. The restaurant draws on a region where fishing traditions and mountain agriculture converge, placing it in a dining scene that prizes ingredient provenance as much as technique. For visitors reading Santander's restaurant map, this address offers a grounded, locally anchored point of entry.

Santander, Spain

Daría

A Michelin Plate recipient in consecutive years (2024 and 2025), Daría operates in Santander's mid-range modern cuisine tier on Calle Bonifaz, holding. It sits a clear price band below the city's starred restaurants while sharing their commitment to contemporary technique, making it a practical entry point into Santander's serious dining circuit.

Santander, Spain

Santander

Where to stay in Santander

Selected entries from the current guide for Santander.

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Santander, Spain

Helguera Palacio Boutique & Antique

A 17th-century Cantabrian palace converted into an 11-room adults-only retreat, Helguera Palacio Boutique & Antique sits in the Pasiego Valley on 14 acres of parkland. Interior designer Malales Martínez Canut has layered antique furnishings against contemporary comfort throughout, and the property earned a Michelin 1 Key in 2024. Rates from US$544 per night place it in northern Spain's uppermost small-hotel tier.

Santander, Spain

Vincci Puertochico

Carrying a 2025 MICHELIN Selected designation, Vincci Puertochico occupies a measured position in Santander's harbour-adjacent accommodation tier. The property sits on Calle de Castelar, placing guests within reach of the city's waterfront and the Cantabrian dining scene. For travellers treating northern Spain as a serious destination rather than a detour, it provides a credible urban base.

Santander, Spain

Santander