bokado san telmo: san sebastián, spain

This week, as part of San Sebastián Restaurant Week, I joined some of my hardworking friends for a lunch at one of the newest pintxo bar/restaurants in town, Bokado San Telmo. It's located in the corner of the Old Town, right at the entrance of the newly reopened San Telmo Museum. 

The lovely, sunny dining room is perfect for the lovely, fresh plates they serve up.

This was a sardine salad roll with mango vinaigrette.  The alternative, as part of the 25-euro prix-fixe menus offered during #ssrestweek, was an awesome salad of corn in various forms, local anchovies, and avocado.

Then, something that Bokado really does right, the tortilla made-to-order. While other bars across town feature this on their menu, Bokado's is actually seasoned and thick as a tortilla española should be.

Then, you could do what Sir Anthony did and order the risotto de carabineros and the chicken and pineapple stew with shrimp. 

But I was happy with my more typical tortilla follow-up, the braised veal. It was served over some really great porcini mushrooms, with a deep, shiny glace and, for some reason, a piece of pineapple.

One of the nice things about this #ssrestweek meal was the pacing. The plates weren't too big, and so by the time dessert came we still had ganas. And good thing, since they were really good. A jiggly passion fruit cube and a "cocao" ice cream that would have been much more hip called by what it was: "colacao" (or even, to my american palate, "chocolate jell-o") ice cream.

And the stalwart, a dessert pintxo that for me is one of the best in town, the strawberries with balsamic and sheep's milk ice cream. A really, really good ending.