A highly-rated traditional Basque restaurant in Bilbao, praised for its excellent food made from regional products, especially its grilled beef and seafood.
Restaurante Markina is a cozy restaurant located in the heart of Bilbao, next to the Guggenheim Museum, specializing in traditional Basque cuisine. It is known for its high-quality regional products, particularly grilled beef and fresh seafood.
Customer Perception
Customers generally praise the delicious and well-prepared food, highlighting the high quality of regional products, especially the meat dishes like beef tenderloin and t-bone steak. Many find the daily special to be very reasonable. However, a recurring theme in reviews is inconsistent and slow service, with some experiencing incorrect orders, long wait times, or lukewarm dishes. Despite service issues, the culinary experience is often highly rated.
Additional Details
Restaurante Markina offers a daily menu with a wide selection of dishes, providing good value for money. Its prime location near the Guggenheim Museum makes it a convenient dining option for tourists.
No specific vegan options mentionedNo specific gluten-free options mentioned
Best Times to Visit
The restaurant serves lunch from 13:00 to 15:30 and dinner from 19:00 to 21:45. Based on customer feedback, service can be slow during peak dinner hours, so visiting during off-peak times or for lunch might offer a smoother experience.
Markina delivered one of our best meals in Bilbao. The restaurant has a simple, traditional Basque feel where the focus is clearly on the food rather than trendy décor.
We shared the Cantabrian anchovies, grilled scallop, heirloom tomato salad, grilled gambas, baby squid in its own ink, whole grilled fish with potatoes, and the Basque chuleton. Every savory dish was excellent. The tomato salad showcased the quality of the produce, the scallop was tender and flavorful, the squid was rich and satisfying, and both the grilled fish and chuleton were cooked perfectly. We finished with the Basque cheesecake and torrija, which were both excellent.
The only disappointment was the service. It lacked attentiveness throughout the meal, and one of the drinks we ordered never arrived. We had to follow it up ourselves, and no one seemed to notice the mistake. It wasn’t unfriendly, but it certainly wasn’t as polished as the kitchen.
The food is easily the reason to come here. If the service were brought up to the same standard, Markina would be one of Bilbao’s standout dining experiences.
We really enjoyed our food at Markina. The service was excellent as well. We got our food in a timely fashion. We got the daily special that was only €17.5 which was very reasonable. We liked it so much while we were in Bilbao that we ate there twice in just five days.
4
The food here is absolutely delicious and well-prepared; every dish we tried was full of flavour and of high quality. For the culinary experience alone, this restaurant deserves high praise.
However, my rating is tempered by consistent service issues that impacted the overall dining experience. Our server took our order incorrectly, resulting in an incorrect dish being served. After the necessary adjustments, our correct order arrived with significant delay. Additionally, the overall service pace was slow throughout the meal. The fish I ordered arrived only lukewarm, which affected its texture and intended enjoyment.
It is a shame that such enjoyable food is let down by inefficient order handling and slow, inconsistent service. I hope the team can improve their order accuracy and timing to match the standard of their cooking.
5
One of the most delicious meat dishes I’ve ever had in my life. The service was impeccable: they recommended what to order (and the advice was spot on), and our food and drinks arrived very quickly.
3
We visited Restaurante Markina on our last night in Bilbao, and unfortunately we're a bit disappointed with the experience. We'd walked past it earlier in the day and was recommended it by a local so decided to try it in the evening.
We didn't have a booking but we were able to get a table for 4 quite quickly in the downstairs dining room. There were 2 tables of customers already, so it wasn't too busy luckily. Our waitress was lovely and friendly, and gave us a menu in English and she spoke English too (which is always an appreciated bonus). The overall service was quite slow, as there was only one server for all the tables downstairs, and soon the dining room filled up with more customers. It seemed like the people who were there before us had already been waiting a long time to order / get their food and drinks. She eventually took our order and then I think we waited over an hour for food to come out.
The food itself was good enough, we ordered a couple of starters and mains. The t-bone steak we ordered to share was cooked well although over seasoned with salt. One dish we ordered also didn't arrive, even after we'd asked the waitress for it. The other starters and mains I was told were a bit bland and/or a bit undercooked.
I think we would have had a better experience if we'd spent only 1-2 hours there, instead of 4. I appreciate there was only one server for around 6 tables (and she was running around frantically sometimes) but then they should have more support in the dining room during peak dinner service. It was also overall quite an expensive meal.
