Nice food and amazing architecture in Bilbao
If you like food, architecture, art and nice people you should check your agenda and see if you have time for a weekend break in Bilbao. This city in Northen Spain will captivate you with its countless bars that offer the best tapas and wines in the world and one of the most beautiful museums of the world: Guggenheim Bilbao, designed by the North American architect Frank O. Gehry. It is a unique Museum built on a 32,500 square meter site in the center of Bilbao.
The building itself is an extraordinary combination of interconnecting shapes. Orthogonal blocks in limestone contrast with curved and bent forms covered in titanium. Glass curtain walls provide the building with the light and transparency it needs. Owing to their mathematical complexity, the sinuous stone, glass, and titanium curves were designed with the aid of computers. The glass walls were made and installed to protect the works of art from heat and radiation. The half-millimeter thick “fish-scale” titanium panels covering most of the building are guaranteed to last one hundred years. As a whole, Gehry’s design creates a spectacular, eminently visible structure that has the presence of a huge sculpture set against the backdrop of the city.
You don’t even need to leave the museum to enjoy a wonderful lunch. The Guggenheim’s restaurant is equally well regarded and is staffed by some of the best Basque chefs. Basque cuisine is known to be the most inventive in Spain but it usually comes at a price. At the Guggenheim restaurant, though full meals start at about 60€, they have a ‘menu del dia’ at 15€-20€ (depending on the day you come) which allows you to sample exciting, modern cuisine at a fraction of the usual cost.
And if you feel you want to be part of the most selected society in Bilbao you should book a table at the Sociedad Bilbaina, one of the most select clubs in the Vizcayan capital created in 1839, but the general public are allowed into its restaurant and English bar. The building with its emblematic facade and large bay windows, was built by Emiliano Amnan and has been declared of cultural interest.
In order to finish your Spanish food and art tour, you can check out the Meson Cinco Jotas. This establishment specialises in one of the most typical ingredients of Spanish gastronomy: Iberian ham, or, more specifically, that of Jabugo. It is probably one of the foods most asked for by foreigners and one that is surprising in being so uncomplicated yet delicious. Because it’s a popular food, though, does not mean it should be eaten any old how in any old place. The Mesón Cinco Jotas offers a select and elegant atmosphere in which to sample its other specialities, such as the “chacina”, which is a sort of meat salad. The restaurant’s products are all home-made, like the acorn-fed pork loin, “morcón”, a morcilla made with a very specific piece of the animal’s intestine (similar to a black pudding), country style morcilla, and other “gastronomic delicacies from the mountains of Andalusia”.
Useful info
Guggenheim Bilbao
Avenida Abandoibarra, 2
48001 Bilbao
Phone: +34 944 35 90 80
Sociedad Bilbaina
Navarra 1
48001 Bilbao
Phone: +34 94 423 14 07
E-mail: info@sociedadbilbaina.com
Mesón Cinco Jotas Bilbao
Ercilla, 14
48009 Bilbao
Phone: + 34 94 423 3914
