Hostal Burguete Restaurant
Ernest Hemingway stayed at the Hostal Burguete repeatedly in the 1920s while fishing the Río Irati, and the wood-panelled dining room he described in The Sun Also Rises still serves the same regional staples — most famously fresh trout pulled from the river that morning. It is one of the most genuinely atmospheric literary dining rooms in Spain.
What to Order
The signature dish is trucha a la navarra — river trout wrapped in cured Ibérico ham and pan-fried in olive oil, served with roasted red peppers. It is a Navarrese classic and here it tastes exactly as it should: the ham crisps around the fish, adding salt and smoke to the delicate flesh.
Follow it with chistorra (a thin, fast-cured chorizo-style sausage unique to Navarre and the Basque Country) as a starter, and finish with cuajada — a set sheep's-milk junket drizzled with honey and walnuts that has been made in these mountains for centuries.
The Hemingway Connection
Room 8 is where Hemingway slept, and the hostal preserves the original iron bedsteads and heavy timber furniture of the era. Framed photographs and a small display of first-edition covers line the staircase.
The menú del día at lunch typically runs to three courses with wine for around €16 — extraordinary value given the quality and the story attached to every table in the room.
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