Pollitena jatetxea

Extremely good value menu - 26 euro for 3 course lunch or dinner with wine! The main course fish was lovely. Recommend if you are tired of the battle for pinxtos in the old town. Waitress very nice.

Something was seriously wrong with the dinner service on Monday night. Food was absolutely terrible. Hake was tasteless. Beef was so raw and uneatable. Desserts were like some leftover pastries. Wine tasted like some grapefruit juice. Stay away!

We just wandered up the stairs to this restaurant with no expectations, and it is like walking into someone’s living room, but the food was delicious and plentiful and the service excellent. There were very few eating while we were there but at €26 for three courses (our starters - tuna salad, soup, and very good pasta with mushrooms including bonus gambas, then hake, a steak and delicious beef stew, followed by a grand choice of homely desserts, together with wine and bread thrown in), it deserves to be busier. Go try it, it’s old fashioned and quirky because of that.

What can be said of this restaurant? For some, Donostia will be all about the Michelin Stars and the Instagram pics - Pollitena gives you another Donostia, one totally charming, reasonably priced, and unflashily delicious. You enter from downstairs, having walked past the door and handwritten menu because it’s easy to miss, and then realise the restaurant is upstairs. It’s quaint. Everyone else there was Spanish/Basque and the staff speak very little English - although they’re only too happy to try to help you as you bungle your way to ordering. The Señora doesn’t so much take your order as command you to eat the best things: paella, fish - all amazing. But there is steak and chips too (an unprepossessingly slim bit of meat but tender and pink, perfect for lunch) and even battered fish. You can have a starter, main, and a dessert with - not a glass - a BOTTLE of good local white wine (between two) for €26. Other tables had a more elaborate and also delicious set menu which we admired. This restaurant was distinctly friendly and scandalously cheap compared with the rest of the city. Brush up on a little Spanish and get there soon!

Great basque cuisine. Excellent service and ambiance.

A local experience. The place was humid though , and overpriced in my opinion but that’s because I didn’t know you could drink the entire bottle of wine as part of their menu :)

Small restaurant, almost with a living room feel, on the first floor. Great simple local food! We had the three course menu of the day with fish for starters and main, and a dessert, plus a bottle of wine for under 15 EUR.

Bright, cheerful and homey Traditional Basque restaurant in the old town..Great value and wide selection of non-tapas style food. The gambas a la plancha were amazing and the duck confit outstanding. Service is brusque but friendly and efficient. Definitely seek this hidden gem out.