Best Restaurants
in Bayonne

Bayonne is the unofficial capital of the French Basque Country and one of the most underrated dining cities in southwest France. The town sits at the confluence of the Adour and Nive rivers, ten minutes from Biarritz on one side and the Spanish border on the other, and the cooking reflects exactly that — Basque to its core, French in its discipline, with an unmistakable Spanish openness in the way it shares.

The historic centre divides into Grand Bayonne and Petit Bayonne, separated by the Nive. Grand Bayonne, on the cathedral side, holds the most refined dining; Petit Bayonne, across the river, holds the more Basque-leaning bistros, the cider houses, and the bars where the rugby crowd eats. The covered market — Les Halles — sits on the Petit Bayonne quay and is one of the great food markets of southwest France.

Bayonne is where jambon de Bayonne, the cured ham, is produced; where Basque chocolate-making was first introduced to France in the seventeenth century; where the tablier de sapeur and the tripotxa appear on menus that elsewhere have abandoned them. The wine of choice is Irouléguy, the small Basque AOC, alongside txakoli from across the border. Reservations are easier than in Biarritz or San Sebastián, and the value remains exceptional.