Where to eat in Gernika-Lumo good, nice and cheap.

We break down the keys to know where to eat in Gernika-Lumo, one of the municipalities with more history of Bizkaia.

Don’t know where to eat in Gernika-Lumo? Do not worry, in this article we are going to show you the different gastronomic possibilities offered by this town in Bizkaia. Located in the region of Busturialdea, next to Urdaibai, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Gernika-Lumo is one of those municipalities where eating is never a problem, and the wide range of restaurants found in the vicinity covers all tastes and budgets. Our recommendation is none other than to enjoy its people, museums and streets, to finish enjoying some of the most typical dishes of our gastronomy. A plan that never fails, get hungry and get your boots on, are you up for it?

After many trips to this region, after visiting txakoli wineries, museums and unique corners in Euskal Herria, we found this restaurant that leaves no one indifferent, a place that offers a unique culinary experience in Gernika-Lumo. Boliña El Viejo is a restaurant with tradition, with history, a place where games of mus continue to liven up after-dinner meals and home cooking continues to be the star of the menu. Its location, in the center of the town, allows us to visit all the charms of the municipality and enjoy the gastronomy of the Basque Country without wasting time in displacements, a great option to eat in Gernika-Lumo.

Boliña El Viejo maintains intact the decoration and design of the first day, a fact, in which some see an advantage and others a disadvantage, it all depends on the prism through which you look at it. For us, the design and atmosphere of this Basque restaurant takes us back in time to the days when technology was reduced to a calculator and little else, a time when the dishes were always loaded to the top and the raw materials came from the farms of the region.

Boliña El Viejo, is a different restaurant, a restaurant in which the dishes are sung in a loud voice, you pay in cash and the portions are of the old ones, the generous ones. Araceli Mandaluniz, co-owner and responsible for the restaurant, mixes her Basque (a nice and slow Biscayan) with Spanish, giving an Euskaldun touch to the restaurant, a real artist. Those of you who don’t understand our language, don’t worry, although the first word may be in Basque, she changes to Spanish as soon as she sees that you don’t know the language.

Local: The Restaurant is located in the center of Gernika, 5 minutes walk from all the points of interest of the town: Museum of peace, Euskal Herria Museoa, Casa de juntas, tourist office and a long etcetera. Boliña el Viejo has two clearly differentiated spaces, the bar and the dining room, in the bar, it is usual to find the typical game of mus, while in the dining room, of high ceilings and humble tables, it is dispatched as in the old days. Its appearance can be misleading, since the place maintains the same aesthetics as when it was inaugurated, one of those places that probably many would not enter if it were not for the recommendations. Gernika is small and can be visited on foot without the need for any transportation. However, if we decide to reach the town by private transport we must remember that the parking is managed by OTA (Traffic and Parking Ordinance), making us have to pay for parking our vehicles in such areas. We recommend parking in one of the 3 free parking lots that are distributed throughout the town. The first one is located at the entrance of Gernika, next to the Astra building, across the train tracks, next to the bus station. The second is next to the Ertzaintza police station and the third is on the road to Lumo, just behind the Casa de Juntas park.

Attention: For a moment it seemed that our amama (grandmother in Basque) was taking note of us, because, both in the kitchen and in the dining room, the singing voice is carried by two elderly ladies. Very experienced people, who made us feel at home with their warm and kind treatment, we repeat, literally at home. In Boliña El Viejo they have very clear values, the main thing is always the well-being of the client. The uniformed aesthetics of the waitresses and the restaurant’s logo silkscreened on the crockery are surprising, two typical details of the restaurants of yesteryear, two characteristics that show us again the potential that this restaurant had in the past.

Price: Menu of the day 10,50€ VAT included. A very adjusted price and somewhat lower than the rest of the restaurants in the area with which they guarantee a value for money to highlight. Although it is a place with tradition, many of the tables around us were occupied by young people who do not hesitate to go to this gastronomic txoko to enjoy authentic Basque dishes. And it is that, the price fused with the flavor and quantity supplied in each plate of the Boliña El Viejo helps, and much, to attract all type of clientele.

Dishes: Traditional, homemade, no frills but with substance. Those are, in short, the type of dishes that we find in this Basque restaurant, all of them created following recipes of all the life in which the flavor of the Basque cuisine is the maximum exponent. The casseroles of this restaurant start to work from early in the morning, cooking without haste but without pause, and the dishes of Boliña El Viejo restaurant are totally contrary to the concept of fast food, thus contributing to the recent and famous Slow food movement.

Experience: Nowadays it is easy to find high-flying restaurants that fuse traditional cuisine with innovation, it is easy to find tasting menus full of minimalist dishes, it is easy to find good meat and fish grills, but it is very difficult to find a traditional restaurant, without remodeling its interior and staff in which the same dishes that were served more than 30 years ago are maintained. An experience that many travelers are looking for in the Basque Country and that they can find in Boliña El Viejo, one of the most traditional restaurants in Gernika-Lumo.

Menu: Usually, the menu is usually made up of 5 starters and 5 main courses to choose from, accompanied by bread, drink and homemade desserts. Of all the proposals presented to us, we opted for paella first, roast pork crackling second and cheesecake for dessert, a homemade menu, with large quantities and good taste with which we enjoyed like children. The paella, presented in a metal dish, besides tasting good, could perfectly feed 2 people. The chicharro, presented as the canons dictate, with garlic and oil, without further consideration, was in our opinion the best dish of the day, good taste, good texture, tender, and good presentation, from head to tail. Although among the specialties of Boliña El Viejo are the Gernika beans and hake, we were not lucky enough to taste them because they were not on the list of the day, a pity.

Get ready to discover one of the most authentic restaurants of our land, the mecca of Basque food in Gernika, the restaurant Boliña el viejo. One of the best options to taste traditional Basque food in Gernika-Lumo, a classic.