Bodega Cigaleña

What a gem! The inside is beautiful, the service was great and the staff so knowledgeable about the extensive wine list (which was great by the way! So many hard to find, amazing options!) And the food was amazing, unpretentious, classic and really well cooked! Not to mention that they were great at adapting to my food (coeliac), making sure everything was gluten free and with no cross contamination! Can't recommend this place enough!

Especially recommended to wine lovers, one can go mad with their wide and exquisite offer. Traditional entries combined with first class sea food and meat. The best definition of northern Spanish cuisine. You cannot go wrong with this one ;)

Just to be able to have a conversation with Andres, makes this one of the best wine places in the world. Knowledge and generosity like few others.

The main waiter, probably the owner, is a bit of a character! At the beginning seems a bit rude but in the end he just makes the place unique. Food and wine just amazing and the service super good!! The atmosphere is so unique. Highly recommended

Busy restaurant serving great seafood. Staff are friendly and helpful. The restaurant is decorated with old bottles of expensive wine and a sign that says it is the "Cemetery" for good wine. But they also have an extensive wine list and one of the best sommeliers in Spain !

Service not good. Small team trying to address all tables. We ordered selection of cheese, which was good but not very good. We ordered calamari which was good. The wines were OK. Relatively expensive.

Ragazzi che posto! If you wish to taste excellent raw fish (try the tuna tartare) and super tasty appetizer (little balls of ham and cheese) and anchovies this is the place Super!

It was one of the best meals I have eaten in Santander. The service is great too! Highly recommended

They have a selection of inexpensive, high quality wine and a selection of expensive high quality wine. The place is small, bit as it is not as popular anymore, there was no issue finding room. It is not a place I would suggest for finding sates, but it is a nice place for wine and snacks.

Lucky for anyone who loves a good glass of wine and pintxos (and who doesn't?!), Santander has a very lively pintxos bar scene. Around 8pm, people start to trickle into the bars to have a glass of wine before dinner. Bodega Cigaleña is one of the most memorable of the pintxos bar - first and foremost, the sign at the door declares it is a "museo del vino". As soon as you enter, you very much feel that you are walking through someone's wine collection. Vintages of Rioja that go back as far as the 1920s decorate the shelves and the slate gives the feeling that you are in a cellar. The decor and the way that the bar zig-zags (it is not one long bar) gives the impression of coziness, privacy as you snag your own little nook, and a non-pretentious atmosphere to enjoy wine. Old people and young people alike choose to hang out here. As for the selection of wine, there is tons of it! Each denominación de origen (Spain's terminology for wine appellations) that surrounds Cantabria was well-represented and whether you wanted a red, white, or rose, there were plenty of choices priced under 3 euro. Silly me, I set a goal of wanting to taste every wine on the list; in reality, I tasted three on my two visits here. The bartender seems to have the power to read minds and always knew when me or one of the other clients was ready to try something new. And then there are the pintxos, which are of just of good a quality as the wine served. The tortilla was perfect and made the "Galician way" - just a little bit raw and softer in the middle. After a glass of wine on an empty stomach, the tortilla was all the more satisfying (and prevented me from becoming very drunk). The anchovy pintxo is just three anchovies served over a slice of bread; not overly impressive, but I think that the lack of flavor and texture of the bread was probably to blame. Bodega Cigaleña was definitely one of the most memorable "food and wine" portions of the trip to Santander. The wine, the food, the service - everything is of very high quality.