La Gabarra - Bilbao

DO NOT GO THERE AT LEAST NOT FOR A T BONE STEAK ! You can visit this restaurant, but be aware of the money you will leave there! All was actually very fine service, atmosphere, F&B qualitiy NOT: QUANTITIY! , UNTIL THE BILL CAME TO THE TABLE. I ordered a T Bone steak, knowing it will be expensive € 49, equals 55 dollars . When it came, the FILET PART WAS MISSING. They had simply cut it off !!! The best part of a T Bone Steak the smaller part on one side of the bone is the filet, the other, bigger part is the roastbeef was missing!!! The waiter told me, this was the way the cut is made there in the region and showed me the big whole pieces in the showcase. I thought, ok, still enough meat, will taste good, so let me just enjoy the Not a T Bone Steak anymore but a roastbeef steak bone in . And then came the bill: € 49 Euros. FOR HALF A STEAK ! I was very very upset, because even if it HAD been a whole steak, it would have been expensive, but THIS IS A TOTAL RIP OFF ! Told the waiter that this will not work for them in the long run, that I was a happy man until the bill came, but very upset when leaving. And that God is watching them and will probably not exactly reward them for that... So sad, because otherwise it was a nice experience, had there not been this sad ending to my visit of this restaurant...

Very expensive! 25 Euros for a lump of meat thrown on a barbeque. No veg included. Then they charge 3 Euros for some bread you didn't order.

This is a great pleace to eat steak. We called on a Friday night and it was empty at 9pm. However is was the start of the holiday period in Bilbao. However we ate a huge rib of beef between two for 60 Euro and it was cooked over a wooden fire and was truly stunning!! Served on a hot stone and sliced for you, its sumptious. All beef is on full view in chillers and is beautifully mature. Lovely authentic interior with checked fabric and wine barrels. Fresh fish is available and is authentic Basque Fare. Best of all our waiter!! What a lovely man he was and a huge plus for the Basque people. He told us lots of interesting stuff about the town, guided us on food, and made us feel so welcome. Usually a very busy place outside local holiday periods and its food is awesome. Huge thanks!!

On a short trip to Bilbao local bar owner recommended visiting La Gabarra as we wanted a nice steak.......well,we weren't disappointed,steak was superb,served simply with salad red peppers........would strongly recommend to anybody wanting a steak in Bilbao.

My sister in law and I went on a mini break to Bilbao, and after eating tapas on the first night, decided that we wanted something more substancial on the second. We chose La Gabarra because it promised Just across the Deusto bridge from the Guggenheim, this typical Basque asador y sidrería (roast and cider house) specializes in wood grilled steaks and fish and I fancied some fish, whereas my friend wanted a good steak. So, first of all, the location. This place is not at all just across from the Guggenheim, it 's quite a bit further on a darkened street with nothing else there, so no atmosphere to speak of. This continued inside as we walked in to a room that although beautiful could have doubled as a mausoleum: no music and one waiter who would have made a better undertaker than host. To be fair to him though he did come round a little in the end and bagged up our wine for us, which was kind. We were directed to a very pleasant table with a little bench seat and brought a basket of complimentary bread, which was delicious... Great! , we thought, this is going to be amazing! Not. The waiter brought us a menu and it becamee immediately apparent that the website description of specialising in steak and fish was somewhat an overstatement: there were 2 types of steak available (one being the amazing chuleta that did look pretty incredible) and about 4 types of fish. And that was it. Not a single vegetarian dish, no tapas or big salads. Then came the bombshell: of the 4 types of fish on the menu, none were available, thus narrowing down the options to the following: steak, chuleta or squid. Seriously, that 's it. Well I don 't eat meat, only fish, so that was my meal pretty much down the pan. By this stage we 'd already ordered a bottle of cider (delicious) and we didn 't want to be rude and just walk out, so we ordered as best we could and got on with it. My starter (12 Euros, what a joke) consisted of 6 esparragus. Nothing else: a plate with these 6 esparragus on it. The big thick white ones you get in tins in Mercadona or Dia for about 1 or 2 Euros. My friend ordered anchovies and that 's what she got: a dish with about an inch of olive oil tipped into it, with 4 anchovies sunk into the bottom of the oil, wallowing away lonesomely. How much for that extravagance? 8 Euros of course! For 4 anchovies!!!! We were pretty depressed by this, and luckily the wine was delicious (a Crianza, well worth the cost at 14 Euros a bottle). Then the main courses came. Because of utter lack of choice, I 'd just ordered the squid. It wouldn 't have ever been my first choice as I prefer squid as part of a paella or served in a fish stew or chowder, but hey, what can you do when that is the only thing available?! So here it came: a plate, with 5 little whole squids on it. Their tentacles had been tucked back into the bodies, which was quite nice and pretty fun, and they had been just grilled on the fire. Nothing else on the plate: just 5 little squid bodies. Not even some olive oil or anything, and certainly no garnish, let alone maybe a few fries, or a sauce or some salad: nothing. My friend fared better, she had ordered the steak and it was perfect, really juicy and delicious, although again it came on it 's own on the plate with not even some garnish, just a blob of peppers on the side. We wouldn 't have minded if you 'd been able to actually order things separately, but they just didn 't have them! Maybe this is totally normal for an asador , but a) I lived in barcelona for 7 years and never came across a place that didn 't even have the options of soemthing to have WITH your hunk of meat or fish, and b) we actually have a restaurant ourselves and there 's only one word to describe what we would be if we served food like that, and that 's 'shut '. We had ordered one of the started salads to have with our mains as the waiter had said that they came with nothing else, but the salad never turned up, so we just told him to forget about it which he had already anyway so we might as well have saved our breath. Anyway, the whole thing was so depressing that we only drank a glass of wine each from our bottle and decided to get out of there to somewhere less morgue esque. The waiter kindly brought over the cork for our wine and gave us a bag. That was pretty much the best part of the experience. The bill came to over 80 Euros a totally utter joke. This is the first bad review I have ever left, I usually wouldn 't but I just wanted people to be warned, as the website for the restaurant is very misleading and it 's an expensive mistake to make. Incidentally all the other tables in there were foreigners who 'd obviously been lured in by the website too. Not a local in sight did they know something we didn 't?