Where to Eat, Drink, Shop, and Stay in Galicia
Hey! I’ve put together a brand-new guide to Galicia’s best restaurants, wine bars, wine shops, and hotels. I’ve excerpted the introduction for you here—get a preview of what’s inside! The full guide is available to buy for just $10 here.
It's pretty much impossible to have a bad meal in Galicia.
Once, I stopped in a one-street village in the absolute middle of nowhere because the restaurant I originally wanted to go to was closed, and I wasn’t about to miss lunchtime. I stepped into “Café-Bar Santi” with a healthy dose of skepticism and left two hours later in awe, having polished off a bathtub’s worth of soup, a heaping salad, braised rabbit with a mountain of french fries, tarta de la abuela and coffee for dessert—all for €9. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s not an uncommon occurrence.
In Galicia, you eat exceptionally well at great prices. A bar in the middle of nowhere will serve you a tortilla de Betanzos with a perfectly jammy center, and at an asador by the side of the highway you’ll find meat sizzling on the grill that rivals the best chop houses in Madrid. There’s no secret—just top-quality ingredients treated with reverence, prepared simply, and given a whole lot of love. Whether you're sitting down at one of the region’s 17 Michelin-starred restaurants or eating pulpo á feira at a picnic table, if you have an appetite, an open mind, and a sense of adventure, you’ll come away satisfied.
Galicia’s culinary identity is shaped by its relationship to both the land and the sea, but it’s most famous for its seafood. Each day, long before the sun begins to rise, fishing boats chug into port to unload the day’s catch, which will be sold at auction and loaded into trucks bound for the best fish markets in the country. Percebeiros risk the crashing waves of the Costa da Morte, or “Coast of Death” to pry goose barnacles from the rocks, and thousands of female mariscadoras wade into the cold waters of the Atlantic to collect clams and cockles.
Other women make their living in conserveras, the tinned fish factories that sustain hundreds of families along the coast. They clean, cook, and pack sardines, mussels, razor clams, and squid that will be sent to restaurants and gourmet shops around the world. In Galicia’s markets, fishmongers fillet lubina, rodoballo, and merluza under the watchful eye of discerning customers while langoustines, octopus, and crabs pile high on ice. Elsewhere, restaurants will serve up steaming plates overflowing with whatever the sea has provided.
And although Galicia’s seafood is the most famous, rolling green valleys and native forests in the region’s interior give rise to a culinary tradition that balances the abundance of seafood with rich and rustic cooking. Farms provide the raw materials for some of Galicia’s most iconic foods. Pastures dotted with contentedly grazing cows are the source of Tetilla and San Simón da Costa, the soft cow’s milk cheeses recognizable by their anatomically suggestive shape, as well as thick steaks from the Rubia Gallega, a native Galician cattle breed whose meat commands up to five figures in wholesale prices.
As for pigs, Galicians eat just about everything. Chorizo sausages, lacón con grelos (cured pork shoulder with bitter turnip greens) and the iconic cocido, a wintertime stew that uses every part of the animal imaginable, are all staples of the Galician culinary canon. Pork fat is the secret to caldo gallego, a slow-cooked stew of potatoes, white beans, turnips, and a bit of meat. Rounding out the traditional feast, you have fluffy potatoes, tangy sourdough bread, filloas—crêpe-like pancakes served with honey, or Tarta de Santiago, an almond cake dusted with powdered sugar and marked by the cross of Saint James.
All this food is a reflection of history, seasonality, and an unshakable bond with the natural world. Whether you enjoy it at the Mercado de Abastos in Santiago, a Michelin-starred restaurant with sea views, or “Café-Bar Santi,” Galicia delivers at every turn.
And although I maintain that it’s almost impossible to have a bad meal in Galicia, with so much great food on hand, it can be difficult to know where to start.
That’s where I come in. Whether you're looking for a fine dining experience or a hole in the wall, I’ve selected must-visit restaurants across Galicia, focusing on places that locals rely on for quality food and wine. I’ve chosen wine shops where locals and friends of mine share their immense wine knowledge and stock a curated selection of wines that tell stories from Galicia, Spain, and beyond. And, after a day of exploring wine country, having the right place to rest and relax is key. There are a ton of fantastic hotels in Galicia, and I've picked out a handful in each wine region to give you a place to start. This is your guide to where to eat, drink, stay, and shop in Galicia. Happy drinking, and saúde!