La Bretxa

I don’t know what we would have done without La Bretxa being nearby our apartment during our stay. The market downstairs was a sheer joy to wander around. We made our own Basque recipes for dinner a few times and it was great to pop over and pick up whatever we needed… bacalao and lagostinas, Idiazabal cheese, choricero peppers etc… all for very good prices.
The Lidl supermarket downstairs was perfect for everything else.

La Bretxa lies at the point where the besieging English and Spanish forces entered the City during the Peninsular War. The name means «the breach». The main attraction is the Market includes both the underground and outside areas. You’ll also find a modern mall inside, which kind of spoiled my «La Boqueria» expectations.
Gayle and I were also here on Monday and the Market was a little slow. We also stopped by early the next day, but somehow I still wasn’t feeling the culinary love. But since the star chefs of the Basque Country apparently shop here for the freshest of the fresh, what the hell do I know?
What Gayle and I really did enjoy was hanging out at La Bretxa Plaza and enjoying a beer at Bar Korneer at one end. There was also a well stocked newsstand, fun people watching, and it was a great way to spend part of a sunny and warm October afternoon.

If San Sebastian/​Donostia weren’t full of enough good food via the restaurants and bars, there’s La Bretxa to fill the rest of your needs. It’s an underground open market full of excellent seafood, meat, produce and anything else one could want from a cooking and eating perspective. There’s even an underground supermarket for the more mundane things. A solid place for fine foods.