Mercado de San Agustín
Tucked behind the old city walls, Mercado de San Agustín is where Coruñeses have bought their percebes, nécoras and razor clams every morning for generations. The building's modernist iron-and-glass structure is beautiful in its own right, but it's the theatre of the fish stalls — vendors in white coats, ice-packed counters, the briny smell of the Atlantic — that makes a visit genuinely memorable.
Navigating the Stalls
The ground floor is almost entirely devoted to fish and shellfish, with the catch arriving directly from the nearby Rías Altas fishing ports of Cedeira and Ferrol. Look for the bright-orange percebes (goose barnacles) clinging to polystyrene trays — they're a Galician delicacy that tastes of pure seawater and are almost impossible to find this fresh outside the region.
The upper floor shifts to fruit, vegetables, cheese and charcutería, including local tetilla cheese — a soft, cone-shaped cow's-milk variety with a buttery finish. A handful of small bar counters on this level serve coffee and tostadas to market workers from around 7 am.
Eating In and Around the Market
Several pulperías (octopus restaurants) cluster in the streets immediately surrounding the market, sourcing their pulpo á feira directly from the stalls each morning. Pulpería Melide on nearby Rúa da Franxa is a local institution — arrive before 1:30 pm to avoid a queue.
If you'd rather graze on the spot, ask any fishmonger to recommend the day's best value — they'll usually point you toward whatever came off the boats that morning. A cone of steamed percebes costs around €8–12 and needs nothing but a squeeze of lemon.
Mercado de San Agustín on video
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