History

The pintxos format arrived from the Basque country to Barcelona in the 1990s with Sagardi and Euskal Etxea. The Basque ritual: bar staff bring out plates of pintxos in waves, customers grab what they want and stack the toothpicks on their plate. At the end the bartender counts the toothpicks and tells you the bill. Each pintxo is typically 2 to 3 euros, and the trick is to keep pace with the new plates as they arrive. Barcelona's two best Basque rooms are Sagardi on Carrer de l'Argenteria and Euskal Etxea on the Plaçeta de Montcada, both running the canonical toothpick counter from 19:00 every weeknight.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Fish

Make it at home

Yield 4Hands-on 30 minTotal 30 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 1 baguette, sliced into 12 rounds
  • 100g Iberico ham, thinly sliced
  • 4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
  • 100g anchovy fillets
  • 1 jar piquillo peppers, roasted
  • 50g Manchego cheese, thinly sliced
  • 12 toothpicks
  • Olive oil, salt

Method

  1. Toast or grill the baguette rounds lightly.
  2. Build pintxo 1: piquillo pepper, anchovy, on toast, pin with toothpick.
  3. Build pintxo 2: slice of egg, two anchovy fillets crossed, pin.
  4. Build pintxo 3: Manchego with a thin slice of Iberico folded on top, pin.
  5. Repeat with combinations of egg, ham, peppers, Manchego.
  6. Lay out on a plate. Drizzle with olive oil. Serve at room temperature.

Tip from the editors. Pintxos are about contrast: salty fish on sweet pepper, soft egg with crunchy bread. Build them on the work surface, then serve all at once.

Where to eat pintxos at the counter

Pintxos at the counter in Barcelona

Sagardi ★ 4.0

€€ Basque PintxosBorn

Sagardi in Barcelona's Born is the Basque pintxos chain with a charcoal-fired txuleta room in the back: order pintxos by toothpick, count at the end.

OrderSix pintxos at the bar, then a shared txuleta in the back.

TipNo reservations for pintxos. The grill room books out Fri-Sat.

Directions

Euskal Etxea ★ 4.2

€€ Basque PintxosBorn

Euskal Etxea in Barcelona's Born is the cultural-centre pintxos bar where the Basque counter runs from 19:00 with cider, txakoli and tortilla toothpicks.

OrderFour pintxos and a glass of txakoli poured from height.

TipBar opens 19:00. Closed Sunday-Monday. Pay at the end by toothpick count.

Directions

Maitea ★ 4.0

€€ Basque PintxosGracia

Maitea in Barcelona's Gracia is the long-running Basque pintxos counter with a back-room txuleta-fire grill, popular for the after-work tapeo turn.

OrderSix pintxos and a Rioja Crianza by the glass.

TipBar pintxos walk-up; book the grill room ahead. Closed Sunday and bank holidays.

Directions

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