A group of us gathered at Ernesto’s for a big birthday celebration. The restaurant is about a seven-minute walk from the East Broadway stop on the F train on the Lower East Side, serving the kind of Basque bar snack food that you’d find in San Sebastián – both small pintxos and slightly larger tapas.

We started with interesting cocktails; many sampled their rosemary-garnished special Spanish gin and tonic ($23). I had their Pintxotins ($22) martini, garnished with my favorite Gilda: skewed olives, Cantabrian anchovies, and special whole pickled guindilla peppers.

We followed our drinks with a selection of menu items. Some dishes included Gildas for all ($42 for 6 skewers), tomato bread (pan con tomate $18), warm and pudding-like potato and egg tortilla ($20), housemade blood sausages with pimento (morcilla con pimientos, $20) and a stack of housemade potato chips covered by sliced Iberico (cinco jotas iberico con patatas chips, $34).

For seafood, we shared their fried Rhode Island squid in ink sauce (calamares fritos, $24), salt cod fitters (bacalao rebozado, $36 for 6),  San-Sebastián-style crab (txangurro a la donostiarram, $72 for 6)and Galician octopus in a sherry vinaigrette with pimentón (Salpicon de pulpo $28).

We couldn’t skip dessert, as we needed something to hold a candle!
We celebrated with a Basque cheesecake and their crème caramel, Ernesto’s flan.

I recommend Ernesto’s for authentic Basque food.

Ernesto’s
Lower East Side
259 E Broadway ((Montgomery Street)
New York, NY 10002
(646) 692-8300
ernestosnyc.com/