3 Best Restaurants in Bilbao and the Basque Country, Spain

Four generations ago, Pablo Cámara turned this 19th-century fishing wharf on the Pasaia narrows into a first-class seafood restaurant with lovely views over the shipping lane. A steaming sopa de pescado (fish soup) is just the ticket on a wet Atlantic day, or try cangrejo del mar (spider crab with vegetable sauce) or the superb hake with salsa verde. A central "live" tank rises and falls with the tide and has lobsters and crayfish that can be hauled up for your inspection.

Ever since Anthony Bourdain waxed poetic about award-winning Elkano's grilled turbot on Parts Unknown, the dish has become something of a holy grail among in-the-know foodies. Order the famous flatfish (at its fatty prime in May and June), and you'll receive what Bourdain called an "anatomy lesson" as the maître d' extols the virtues of each separate cut, culminating with the gelatinous fins---which you're encouraged to suck between your fingers, caveman style.

Presided over by a legendary Basque fishermen's guild, this central restaurant serves the freshest fish money can buy at fair prices. At simple wooden tables and a handsome mahogany bar, locals dig into local comfort food—think sopa de pescado, steamed mussels, and clams a la marinera (in a thick, garlicky sauce).